CNN
By Lisa Desjardins
March 24, 2014
Washington
(CNN) – Hoping to galvanize attention on a hot issue in an election
year, House Democrats will launch a formal petition on Wednesday aimed
at forcing a vote
on comprehensive immigration reform, according to multiple senior
Democratic aides.
The
legislative maneuver is called a "discharge petition" and has become
the recent weapon of choice for Democrats in the congressional chamber
where Republicans call
the shots.
A
discharge petition can force a vote on a piece of legislation if a
majority of House members, or 218 of the 435 members, sign it.
No one expects Democrats to reach that mark, but Wednesday, they are clearly hoping to get some attention.
Lawmakers
from the party will gather on the east steps of the U.S. Capitol to
announce the petition and then walk en masse into the House chamber to
file it, the aides
told CNN.
The
bill in this discharge petition is H.R. 15, which is similar to the
measure passed by the Democratic controlled Senate last year in giving
most undocumented immigrants
a legal status and the possibility of citizenship. The Senate bill
passed last June, but was quickly derided by House Republican leaders.
House
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and others in his leadership have
stressed that they oppose a sweeping immigration bill in principle.
Instead Boehner has said the
issue should be tackled in smaller, separate bills, starting with a
focus on border security and enforcement. Practically speaking,
Republicans House leaders have yet to move any significant immigration
bills forward this session.
Democrats
are trying to breathe some life into the issue with the discharge
petition. The bill Democrats will push Wednesday has a whopping 200
co-sponsors, but that seems
to be the maximum support it can gather for the moment. And while three
of those co-sponsors are Republicans, at least two of them will not
sign the discharge petition. The offices of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
R-Florida, and Rep. David Valadao, R-California,
told CNN the two Republicans cosponsors see the petition as a political
move.
"He's
very supportive of bringing the bill to the floor," said Valadao's
communications director, Anna Raquel Vetter, "But a discharge petition
is legislatively not productive…
if they had 218 votes for the bill, this wouldn't be an issue."
This
will be the third big-ticket item to garner a discharge effort from
Democrats, following similar petitions on an increase in the minimum
wage and an unemployment
benefits extension. Those petitions each have just over 190 signatures.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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