#PJNET #TCOT Obama immigration action ‘slap in the face,’ top GOP

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 The top House Republicans who oversee immigration policy called President Obama’s expected action this week to grant temporary amnesty to illegal immigrants a “slap in the face to the American people and the Constitution” in a letter sent Wednesday. Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent the president the letter to register their objections and pleading with him to work with them instead on legislation.

Obama expands government benefits for gay couples

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A year after the Supreme Court struck down a law barring federal recognition of gay marriages, the Obama administration granted an array of new benefits Friday to same-sex couples, including those who live in states where gay marriage is against the law.

The new measures range from Social Security and veterans benefits to work leave for caring for sick spouses. They are part of President Barack Obama's efforts to expand whatever protections he can offer to gays and lesbians even though more than half of the states don't recognize gay marriage. That effort has been confounded by laws that say some benefits should be conferred only to couples whose marriages are recognized by the states where they live, rather than the states where they were married.

Aiming to circumvent that issue, the Veterans Affairs Department will start letting gay people who tell the government they are married to a veteran to be buried alongside them in a national cemetery, drawing on the VA's authority to waive the usual marriage requirement.

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