House GOP leadership is having “discussions” on whether to bring a limited immigration reform bill to the House floor to the vote.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Tuesday there has been talk about scheduling a separate floor vote on the ENLIST Act after Republican leadership blocked the bill from coming to the floor as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act — an omnibus defense spending bill.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), would allow undocumented immigrants who entered the country before they were 15 years old to join the military. After their service, these immigrants would be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship if they were honorably discharged.
“We have supported it in the past, but trying to do this on the the National Defense Authorization Act bill seems to us to be an inappropriate place to do it,” Boehner said.
When asked if Republicans planned to allow a standalone vote on the ENLIST Act on the House floor, Boehner said, “There have been discussions about that.”
House Republicans have been skeptical of moving forward on immigration reform, with Boehner repeatedly saying the conference does not trust President Barack Obama to enforce the legislation. There is also strong conservative opposition to comprehensive immigration reform in the House.
It's funny, a pretty "liberal" republican is running against Cantor. The race isn't close, but I think it would be great for Cantor to eat his "Conservative Congressman" label.
