Republicans have unveiled a bill to fund the government through mid-December. The bill includes provisions for extending the charter for the Export-Import bank and new funding for Ebola medicine. A study by AAF found that Ex-Im plays an important role by leveling the playing field for American exporters. The bank also “provided disproportionate support for small and mid-sized firms during the aftermath of the financial crisis.”

The president’s former economic advisor is calling for the U.S. to lift the ban on crude oil exports. The administration barely cracked open the door earlier this year by allowing for condensate to be exported, but the rules for the majority of oil exports have remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s.

Eakinomics: The Future of Immigration Reform

The president has announced that he will defer executive action on immigration reform until after the November election. There are two explanations for this decision. The most obvious is that this is purely political — a cold calculus designed to improve the chances of Democratic senatorial candidates in conservative leaning states like Louisiana, North Carolina and elsewhere. This conclusion, reached quickly by immigration proponents like House Speaker John Boehner and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, is buttress by the president’s track record of playing politics with the issue from 2009 to 2013.

Let us hope he can change.

If so, there is an opportunity in the second explanation for the decision to defer. White House aides are pushing the notion that the reason the president chose to not move forward was that executive action would make legislated immigration reform harder. That is absolutely correct. But for legislation to become a reality, the White House will have to lay some significant groundwork.

To begin, it will have to get serious about how it handles the border security crisis its policies engendered. The House passed a supplemental bill to fund border security needs that did not raise the deficit and left the bulk of the issue to be handled in the regular appropriation process. This should be the basic framework that the president asks Senate Democrats to pursue immediately. It would also be consistent with the reality in the House; reform will consist of separate bills for different aspects of the needed improvements to the U.S. immigration system.

The president can continue to treat immigration as a convenient political football. He can continue a my-way-or-the-highway legislative strategy. Or he can recognize that the House was a hair’s breadth away from making immigration reform a reality before his first executive actions undercut the effort and choose a more productive path going forward.