House immigration bill coming by June

By JAKE SHERMAN and SEUNG MIN KIM | 5/16/13 2:59 PM EDT

The House’s bipartisan immigration group plans to release its bill by the first week of June, Rep. John Carter said Thursday.

The Texas Republican said the group is working to reach agreement on how the legislation would handle health care for immigrants on the pathway to citizenship. If members can’t agree on that element, they would separate them out of the comprehensive bill and vote on it separately.

Carter said the group has agreed to present separate proposals — Democratic and Republican — on a guest-worker program for future lesser-skilled immigrants. But the health care component will be the main topic at a private meeting of the negotiators Thursday evening.

The lawmaker insisted that the legislation would be “95 percent” bipartisan.

“I’m encouraged that we may have a meeting of the minds tonight,” Carter said. “But one way or the other, I’m not going to be sitting in a room, going through the motions and not solving any problems anymore.”

It’s a hopeful sign for the group, one day after Republicans were threatening to halt negotiations and only hours after House Speaker John Boehner expressed concern the group is imploding.

Carter also said that he vehemently opposes the Senate bill, and declared it dead on arrival in the House.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) declined to confirm Carter’s specifics, saying simply “I think so” when asked if progress had been made in the last day.

“Nothing has shaken that confidence in the last 24 hours,” Gutierrez told reporters before walking away, saying he needed to get food for the meeting with the other immigration negotiators. “If anything, I am strengthened in my conviction that we can do this.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...ill-91499.html