New York Times
By Kristina Peterson
April 18, 2018
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers worked Wednesday to exert pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to bring immigration legislation up for a vote.
Rep. Jeff Denham (R., Calif.) said Wednesday that he had secured the support of 240 lawmakers, including 50 Republicans, for a bipartisan proposal to vote on a series of immigration bills on the House floor.
“The biggest issue we’re facing today is actually having the debate in front of the American public,” Mr. Denham said. The broad, bipartisan support for his plan “allows us to show the president and the speaker the will of the people, the will of the people’s House,” he said.
Mr. Denham is hoping to deploy a rarely used procedure known as “Queen of the Hill,” under which the House would vote on a variety of immigration measures and the one with the most votes would pass. The House used this process in 2015 to resolve an internal GOP dispute over a budget resolution.
The latest push on immigration follows a failed effort in the Senate to find a bipartisan compromise on an issue lawmakers have struggled for years to resolve. President Donald Trump last September ended an Obama-era program that shielded from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. at a young age.
Mr. Trump gave Congress until March to pass a replacement to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. But lawmakers have been unable to reach a consensus about what kind of protections to offer the DACA recipients, and what other immigration measures should be paired with it.
Although the Senate voted on several immigration bills in February, none of them advanced, including legislation reflecting Mr. Trump’s proposal. Meanwhile, a federal court has ordered the administration to continue the program for now, easing some of the urgency for lawmakers to agree to a fix.
In the House, GOP leaders have for years resisted bringing immigration legislation to the floor, since no bill has attracted enough Republican support to pass. That has frustrated some House lawmakers, particularly members in both parties facing tough re-election campaigns, who want the opportunity to vote on the issue.
“We are tired of waiting—we’re tired of broken promises from leaders in this country who insist that they want to find a solution for young people only to let month after month go by without action,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.)
Some Republicans said they were frustrated by their leaders’ unwillingness to bring immigration legislation to the floor. After the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration overhaul in 2013, then-Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) didn’t bring up major immigration legislation in the House. Conservatives have said that Mr. Ryan promised them when he was running for speaker that he would bring up only legislation that had the support of a majority of Republicans.
“If there’s been a champion of bringing anything to the floor on the Republican side, I’m unaware of that person’s name in leadership,” said Rep. Mark Amodei (R., Nev.) “I think the world of John Boehner and I think the world of Paul Ryan, but certainly you cannot count on [House GOP leaders] … having the stones to bring some immigration legislation” to the floor, he said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) has been asking Mr. Ryan to bring immigration legislation to the floor for months.
The immigration push comes at a complicated moment for House GOP leaders. Mr. Ryan said last week that he won’t run for re-election, but he plans to remain in his post until January.
Mr. Ryan endorsed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) to succeed him, but if Mr. McCarthy can’t secure enough support, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) is also considered a contender for the role. Both deputies would need the support of conservatives, who have objected to most of the proposed immigration bills.
“It potentially gets us policy that’s very bad for America,” Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) said of Mr. Denham’s approach. Mr. Perry said he was concerned that it could result in Democrats, with the help of a band of Republicans, passing a bill that provides a path to citizenship for DACA recipients without enough border security and other immigration enforcement measures. “There’s a good chance it would” pass, he said, referring to the bill known as the Dream Act.
Mr. Denham’s initial step wouldn’t force a vote on the floor. But he and others working with him didn’t rule out the idea of taking more forceful action in the future.
“We’re going to reserve the right to use all the tools in our toolkit,” said Rep. Will Hurd (R., Texas.) “We’ll address all of our options” if GOP leaders don’t move to consider any immigration bills, he said.
Lawmakers could attempt to trigger a vote by filing a discharge petition on their proposal. If they could get the support of at least 218 lawmakers, they could force a vote on the floor even without GOP leaders’ assent. But it isn’t clear if they would be able to win the support of 218 lawmakers—a majority of the House when there are no vacancies—for a controversial procedure that is generally considered a snub to House leaders.
Their initial proposal takes a softer approach, just showing broad support for a vote on four bills, including one from House conservatives, a Democratic bill to allow for DACA recipients a pathway to become citizens, a bipartisan compromise from Messrs. Denham, Hurd and Aguilar, as well as a placeholder that Mr. Ryan could choose how to fill.
Mr. Ryan said last week that he doesn’t support this approach, saying he doesn’t want to consider legislation that Mr. Trump wouldn’t sign into law.
“I don’t want to spend our time bringing something through that I know is going to get vetoed,” Mr. Ryan said. “I would rather bring something through that’s a solution that’s going to actually make it into law.”
Mr. Denham countered that Mr. Ryan could bring up a bill reflecting Mr. Trump’s immigration framework.
“The speaker gets his own bill—he can introduce the president’s own proposal,” Mr. Denham said. “I am sure the president’s bill would not get vetoed.”
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