In bill signing, a message on immigration

President Obama on Wednesday signed a bipartisan bill requiring federally subsidized child care providers to conduct criminal background checks and undergo annual inspections and first aid training from state healthcare workers.

{mosads}But Obama also announced he was halting work by the Department of Health and Human Services on similar child safety regulations he ordered unilaterally last year, in a move intended as a signal to legislators ahead of his announcement of new executive action on immigration.

“Because the legislation is now passed, we are actually ending the rulemaking process because we’ve now got a law, and we’re going to be able to focus on implementing the law,” Obama said at the bill-signing ceremony.

The comment was subtle encouragement to lawmakers not to abandon work on immigration reform despite the president’s plans to move unilaterally. Obama is expected to announce an executive order that could shield millions of immigrants from deportations and offer work permits as soon as this week.

“There is a trump card that Republicans hold right now, and that is the president has indicated that if the House of Representatives does pass the Senate bill that already passed in bipartisan fashion more than a year ago that the president would not actually follow through with his intent to use his executive authority to fix our broken immigration system,” press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

“The president has indicated that he would happily throw away any executive actions that he did enact in favor of bipartisan legislation,” Earnest added.

At the White House, Obama hailed the bill — which passed the Senate 88-1 on Monday, two months after lawmakers in the House approved the bill — as a “good step forward.”

“I love signing bills. I’d like doing it more often. What do you say, guys?” he asked lawmakers.

The program, which will cost $5.3 billion annually, provides grants to states to help improve their monitoring of day care centers. It also will fund vouchers for low-income parents to help them afford day care costs for children under 13 years old.

–This report was updated at 12:59 p.m.