Wall Street Journal
By Kristina Peterson
May 09, 2018
A group of House Republicans took an unusual procedural step Wednesday aimed at forcing a vote on a series of immigration bills, a move made over the objections of House GOP leaders.
The cluster of centrist Republicans said they had filed a discharge petition in an effort to circumvent House leaders and bring immigration legislation to the floor, which would return the issue to the political spotlight ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
“We believe that immigration has paralyzed this institution for far too long,” said Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R., Fla.)
To force a vote, the Republicans will need to secure the support of 218 lawmakers. The group said Wednesday afternoon that 15 Republicans had signed onto the petition. Nearly all Democrats are expected to sign the petition, though many may wait to first make Republicans procure sufficient support.
House Republicans likely need to find about 10 additional GOP votes, assuming that all 193 Democrats eventually join their push. The signature of Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.), who is resigning on May 12, will still count after he leaves unless a special election is called and a new lawmaker is sworn in to replace him, a GOP aide said.
The discharge petition is seeking to use a rarely employed procedure known as “Queen of the Hill,” under which the House would vote on four immigration measures, and the one with the most votes would pass. The House used the process in 2015 to resolve an internal GOP dispute over a budget resolution.
The latest push on immigration follows a failed effort Senate effort to find a bipartisan compromise on an issue lawmakers have struggled for years to resolve. President Donald Trump ended an Obama-era program last September 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.
The petition filed Wednesday would set up debate and vote on four bills, including one from House conservatives; a Democratic bill to establish a pathway for DACA recipients to become citizens; a bipartisan compromise from Reps. Jeff Denham (R., Calif.), Will Hurd (R., Texas) and Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.); as well as a placeholder that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) could choose how to fill.
House GOP leaders have said they oppose the discharge-petition approach, which seeks to circumvent their control over what legislation can come to the House floor.
“I talked to some members about the importance of keeping control of the legislative vehicle and solving the problem on our terms, where we focus on solutions, not politics,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) told reporters Wednesday.
Some Republicans who hadn’t signed onto the petition were sympathetic to its aims.
“Obviously this is going to turn up the pressure,“ said Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), who helped write the conservative bill that would come up for a vote. ”I hope that it actually, in a positive way, puts some leverage to get my border security bill to the floor.”
While discharge petitions are rarely successful, they have worked when overwhelming bipartisan support exists for an issue that is politically challenging for House leaders to endorse. In October 2015, House lawmakers used the same process to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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