Wall Street Journal
By Laura Meckler and Kristina Peterson
August 8, 2013
Last week, the “New Democrat” coalition of centrist lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner demanding that he bring an immigration bill to the House floor by the end of September. If he doesn’t, they said, they will introduce their own bill.
That bill, or different variation on the sweeping immigration bill passed by the Senate, could become the basis for an in-your-face tactic known as a “discharge petition,” which aims to bring a piece of legislation to the floor over the wishes of the people who run the House.
“Once there is a House bill, if there is reluctance to bring it forward and allow members to vote on it, then absolutely we’ll consider a discharge petition,” said Rep. Jared Polis (D., Colo.), a co-chairman of the coalition’s immigration task force.
He said starting a petition could be an effective way to put more pressure on Republican leaders, even if Democrats can’t gather the necessary 218 signatures. The AFL-CIO is also considering support for this step, calling it a “a very viable tool to force a vote” if necessary.
But Democrats and immigration advocates are divided over whether to employ the move in hopes of pressuring House Republicans on immigration, or to continue pushing what they would like to be a bipartisan march to the finish line.
The split reflects uncertainty among Democrats and their external allies over their next step in pushing for an immigration overhaul and worries that that momentum for the sweeping immigration legislation passed by the Senate in June could fizzle this fall in the GOP-controlled House.
House Republicans have said they plan to consider separate immigration bills, but have yet to propose any legislation that would do what advocates most want: give 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. the chance for citizenship. Senior GOP leaders have said they plan to introduce a bill aiding at least a sliver of that population, but haven’t mapped a timetable.
That has prompted some Democrats and their allies to suggest launching a “discharge petition.” The technique is frequently attempted but rarely successful, largely because success requires members of the majority party to defy their leaders.
If nearly all the Democrats signed such a petition, pressure would be intense on the 30 or 40 Republicans who agree with them, said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an advocacy group. “They (might) feel pressured to go to Boehner and leadership and say, `You’re killing us here. We’ve got to find a way to have a vote.’”
Other advocates are wary of trying, especially when a bipartisan group of seven House members is still working to come up with a broad bill. “A discharge petition just opens up an accusation that the Democrats are playing politics, and that isn’t helpful in terms of sharpening and keeping the pressure on Republicans,” said Angela Kelley, an immigration expert at the Democratic-leaning Center for American Politics.
A discharge petition could also highlight House Democrats’ internal divisions, such as over the border security provisions in the Senate bill.
Ahead of the August break, House Democratic leaders decided not to introduce the Senate immigration bill in the House – a necessary precursor to filing at discharge petition, a senior House Democratic aide said. Democratic leaders want to give the bipartisan group time to finish their work, which they see as the best shot for the House to pass a broad bill.
The last time lawmakers successfully used a discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor was in January 2002 on a campaign-finance overhaul. Between 1931, when the modern form of the rule emerged, and 2002, lawmakers filed 563 discharge petitions. Just 26 were adopted by the House, though some others reached the floor through other procedures, according to the Congressional Research Service.
A spokesman for Mr. Boehner said the House would move forward on immigration and dismissed the idea of a discharge petition.
“Our conference is committed to addressing this issue in a common sense, step-by-step manner, so I’d expect their effort – like most discharge petitions – to fail,” said Brendan Buck.
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