DREAM Act Portal Forum - More Republicans Ready to Push but Not Force Immigration Votes

DREAM Act Portal Forum (http://dreamact.info/forum/index.php)

- The News Room (http://dreamact.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23)

- - More Republicans Ready to Push but Not Force Immigration Votes (http://dreamact.info/forum/showthread.php?t=81661)

More Republicans Ready to Push but Not Force Immigration Votes

Quote:

Four dozen mostly moderate Republicans have joined Democrats in their push for a “queen of the hill” rule that would set up a series of immigration votes. But the GOP congressman leading the charge is reluctant to commit to a discharge petition that could actually force his leadership to bring it to the floor.

“You shouldn’t need a discharge petition,” California Rep. Jeff Denham said. He acknowledged that backers of the rule might discuss such a petition — which if signed by a majority of the House would force leadership to call a vote. But he refused to commit to filing one if his plan to put pressure on Speaker Paul D. Ryan fails.

Denham has at least 237 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors on his rule and said “more and more are signing up every single day.”

The queen of the hill rule allows votes on multiple measures with the one receiving the most votes above the required simple majority vote threshold emerging as the House-passed bill.

Denham’s goal is to have the House debate and vote on various immigration measures that offer replacements for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shelters from deportation young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, also known as “Dreamers.”

Denham said he has at least 50 Republican co-sponsors for his resolution outlining the rule, though Congress.gov only has 48 listed as of Wednesday afternoon. On the other side, California Rep. Pete Aguilar offered to help gather Democratic support for Denham’s rule and said he added 190 of the 193-member Democratic Caucus to the bill Wednesday morning.

Denham and Aguilar held a press conference Wednesday to announce the growing bipartisan support for the queen of the hill rule, a strategy Democrats had been pushing since February.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and GOP Reps. Will Hurd of Texas, David Valadao of California and Mike Coffman of Colorado also attended the press conference.

“There’s a lot of things you can ignore here, but the will of the House becomes very difficult,” Denham said, expressing hope that Ryan will allow a vote on his rule.

Source

The more Republicans jump on it the better.