Pelosi Considers Introducing Immigration Bill

Wall Street Journal

By Kristina Peterson

September 23, 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/23/pelosi-considers-introducing-immigration-bill/?mod=wsj_streaming_stream

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) is considering introducing a broad immigration bill in the House that would strip out a controversial border-security measure as part of a renewed push designed to highlight Democratic support for an immigration overhaul.

Facing ebbing momentum for a sweeping rewrite of immigration laws in the House, Ms. Pelosi is contemplating introducing legislation that incorporates the bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in May, according to a House Democratic aide familiar with the strategy.

Ms. Pelosi would likely drop the “border surge” amendment credited with securing enough Republican support to carry the bill across the Senate’s finish line in late June. The amendment later came under criticism from both parties for its $46 billion price tag and plan to flood the Southern border with more than 19,000 new border agents.

In its place, Ms. Pelosi may include a bill approved along bipartisan lines by the House Homeland Security Committee months ago that spends no money upfront and requires the government to first develop a plan for gaining control of the Southern border within five years. No final decisions have been made about the bill’s contours or when it would be introduced, the aide cautioned.

House Republican leaders have said they planned to tackle the issue on a piecemeal basis, but have yet to schedule votes for any of the individual immigration bills passed by House committees. Late last week, two of the remaining three Republicans pulled out of a bipartisan group in the House, scuttling a years-long effort to forge a compromise House immigration bill.

With advocates of a broad immigration overhaul worried that the issue was starting to fade from view, Ms. Pelosi’s push gives Democrats something to rally around, a House Democratic aide said.

Turning to the Senate bill would return the focus to a bipartisan plan drafted by a group of eight Senate lawmakers that formed the basis of that chamber’s legislation.

“Leader Pelosi is proposing something closer to her ideal bill, and her intention is to keep the House moving forward which is a good thing,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), one of the eight senators, said in a written statement Monday.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com