GOP chairmen: Immigration legislation not in trade bill

Susan Davis, USA TODAY6:15 p.m. EDT April 30, 2015


(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

WASHINGTON — Top House Republicans offered public assurances Thursday that an upcoming "fast track" trade authority bill will not be a vehicle for immigration legislation — a fear stoked mainly in online conservative forums in recent weeks.

"Absolutely not. It's the latest urban legend," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday at a forum hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

"It is absolutely false. There is no way we would sign off on putting immigration legislation or immigration reform in (trade promotion authority) or the trade agreement. We are unified in that as Republicans."

Congress is working on renewing "fast track" trade negotiating authority that would give the president enhanced authority to finalize negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending 12-nation pact with Asia-Pacific countries.



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A number of conservative commentators have contended that the Obama administration can use fast track authority — which only allows Congress an up-or-down vote on a negotiated trade pact — to include immigration-related provisions that will make it easier for foreign workers to come to the U.S.

The concerns prompted House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to circulate a letter Thursday to House colleagues batting down the idea.

"No one has been more vocal than me in their criticism of the Obama Administration's attempt to unconstitutionally rewrite our immigration laws through the grant of administrative legalization to millions of unlawful aliens," he wrote. "There is nothing in the current draft of the TPP that will in any way advance or facilitate this or any other unconstitutional action by the administration."

The Senate is expected to take up the fast track bill in May.

The House will follow shortly after. Ryan said he was "reasonably optimistic" that Congress could approve the bill with Democratic support.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...ryan/26656885/