TIME
By Jay Newton-Small
March 26, 2014
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi concedes the so-called discharge petition is unlikely to foce a vote on the contentious issue
House
Democrats on Wednesday introduced a petition to force a vote on the
bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate
last year but stalled
in the GOP-controlled House.
The
so-called discharge petition, if successful, would force the chamber to
vote on legislation Republican leaders have said they have no intention
of bringing up, preferring
a piecemeal approach to the contentious issue. A majority of the House,
or 218 members, would have to support the petition in order to force a
vote, which is unlikely even by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s own
estimation.
But President Barack Obama welcomed the move.
“Last
year, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together to pass a
commonsense bill to fix our broken immigration system—a bill that would
grow our economy, shrink
our deficits, and reward businesses and workers that play by the
rules,” Obama said in a statement. “But so far, Republicans in the House
have refused to allow meaningful immigration reform legislation to even
come up for a vote. That’s why, today, I applaud
the efforts of Democrats in the House to give immigration reform the
yes-or-no vote it deserves.”
The
Senate-passed bill would secure the nation’s borders and provide an
earned pathway to citizenship—a move opposed by conservative Republicans
who decry it as amnesty.
Democrats on Wednesday also touted a new finding by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office score that it would cut the deficit by $900
billion over 20 years.
“We’ll
never get to 218 on the discharge petition,” Pelosi, a California
Democrat, told Sirius XM Radio at an event earlier this month. ”Because
the Republicans generally
won’t sign, but the fact that it is there and the outside mobilization
is saying all we want is a vote.”
House
Speaker John Boehner’s only response on Wednesday was a wry statement
from his spokesman. “We agree with Rep. Pelosi,” spokesman Michael Steel
said, referring to
Pelosi’s admission that the discharge petition won’t succeed.
If
the bill were to ever come to the floor it would likely pass with
mostly-Democratic support and the backing of some 40 Republicans who
have voted for similar measures
in the past. But no Republicans are willing to embarrass their
leadership on an issue the majority of the conference clearly doesn’t
support. The three GOP cosponsors of the Democratic immigration bill in
the House have said they would not sign the discharge
petition.
All
that means Wednesday’s move will amount to little more than political
posturing, a show of support for Latino and immigrant groups by
Democrats meaning to shame Republicans
on the issue ahead of the midterm elections.
“More
than anything, this discharge petition is a nod to growing pressure
from the grassroots,” said Pramila Jayapal, chair of the pro-reform
group We Belong Together.
“We know that the majority of Congress agrees with us. We believe that
the votes are there on both sides of the aisle to pass truly bipartisan,
comprehensive immigration reform, and we strongly support this effort
to bring a bill to a vote.”
This
is the Democrats’ third discharge petition so far during this Congress.
The other two, on bills to raise the minimum wage and extend
unemployment insurance, also
failed to garner GOP support. The last successful discharge petition in
the House was for a campaign finance reform bill in 2001.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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