Thread: Boehner: House won’t negotiate with Senate on immigration bill

Boehner: House won’t negotiate with Senate on immigration bill
By David Sherfinski
-
The Washington Times
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday that House Republicans will not enter into negotiations with the Senate on that chamber’s massive immigration bill, effectively killing chances this year for a broad bill that would legalize illegal immigrants and rewrite the legal immigration system.

Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the House will operate on its own timetable and won’t be rushed by President Obama’s suggested year-end deadline or the looming 2014 elections — though he said he does still want to take some action on immigration.

“We’ve made it clear that we’re going to move on a common sense, step-by-step approach in terms of how we deal with immigration,” Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, told reporters Wednesday. “The idea that we’re going to take up a 1,300-page bill that no one had ever read, which is what the Senate did, is not going to happen in the House. And frankly, I’ll make clear we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill.”

Mr. Boehner said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is working with other members on developing a set of principles to guide them going forward.

“But let’s understand something — I want to deal with this issue,” Mr. Boehner said. “But I want to deal with it in a common sense, step-by-step way.”

Mr. Boehner declined to offer a specific timetable, saying only that “as we develop the principles, we’ll figure out how we’re going to move ahead.”

But he dismissed the notion that the House wants to focus on the botched roll-out of President Obama’s health care overhaul, rather than a divisive immigration debate.

“This is about trying to do this in a way that the American people and our members can absorb,” he said. “There are hundreds of issues involved in dealing with immigration reform. We’ve got to deal with these in a common sense way where our members understand what we’re doing and their constituents understand.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...e-immigration/

by Matthew Boyle 13 Nov 2013, 8:27 AM PDT
breitbart.com



House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that the House of Representatives will not go to a conference committee with the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration bill. “We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner said on Wednesday.

The remarks from the Speaker come several months after the Senate bill passed 68-32, with most Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voting against it. Fourteen Republicans, including the four GOP members of the Senate’s Gang of Eight, voted for it.

Boehner’s promise against conference comes on the heels of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the leading GOP sponsor of the Senate bill, publicly opposing conference in a Breitbart News exclusive and after scores of conservatives publicly demanded there not be a conference committee. Rubio’s opposition to conference, an effective un-endorsement of his own bill, was significant and followed calls opposing conference from Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY), as well as several influential House Republicans.

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), a one-time member of the House’s version of the “Gang of Eight,” came out in opposition to a conference committee in response to a question from Breitbart News at a press conference. Labrador said he thought it would be “crazy” for House GOP leadership to negotiate with the Senate bill because Democrats were trying to use immigration reform as a tool to “destroy” the Republican Party.

Other influential House members like House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Pete Olson (R-TX), Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Steve Stockman (R-TX) and Matt Salmon (R-AZ), among others, have publicly opposed conference as well.

Boehner’s decision to publicly and oppose a conference committee on the Gang of Eight bill is at odds with members like House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)--who has publicly said that there should be a conference committee--and House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who have both publicly left open the door to a conference committee while working on immigration bills.

This move also bucks Senate and House Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Gang of Eight members like Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ). House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-VA) also has publicly called for a conference committee.

While the battle against amnesty is not over yet--informal negotiations, as the National Review’s Andrew Stiles has written, still remain a distant possibility--this is a major victory for conservatives in that the Speaker of the House is now on the record as saying he and the House of Representatives will not, under any circumstances, enter into formal negotiations with the Democratic Senate on amnesty.

But as Sens. Sessions and Lee laid out in their op-ed for Breitbart News recently, there is still concern about immigration negotiations happening in secret outside of conference committee. “Another danger is that, after the House passes several smaller bills, congressional leaders could handpick negotiators to meet in secret and develop a ‘compromise’ plan to ‘fix’ the Senate bill and bring the new--even larger--comprehensive proposal to a vote in both chambers,” they wrote in September for Breitbart News.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...migration-bill

This sounds like good news, but notice that Boehner still wants to work to get an 'immigration reform' amnesty to Obama's desk!

W

John Boehner just put immigration reform on life support

• BY GREG SARGENT
• November 13 at 12:26 pm

John Boehner, at a presser just now, just said something that pushed immigration reform closer to death than anything he has said thus far:

House Speaker John Boehner says he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate’s sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon.
“We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday.

At the presser, Boehner also refused to say whether any of the piecemeal proposals reportedly being developed by House Republicans will get a vote this year, which means they almost certainly won’t. He did say that GOP Rep Bob Goodlatte, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, “is working with our members and across the aisle on developing a set of principles for us to deal with this issue.”

But if Boehner really means that Republicans will not “ever” go to conference on the Senate bill, it’s very hard to see a path to comprehensive reform. Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, emails me this:

“If Boehner kills off immigration reform, he’s going to go down as the Speaker who helped kill off the GOP. If he doesn’t promise to go to conference, he won’t be able to get Democrats to vote for any immigration measures, and he won’t be able to pass them with just Republican votes. He’s painting himself into a corner with procedural concessions to the far right, where failure is the only possible outcome. If he keeps to this, he’s dooming reform. Let’s hope he wants a legacy that includes growing the economy and saving his party.”

The point here is this. The House GOP leadership will never hold a vote on any comprehensive reform package that includes legalization or citizenship. So the only way forward is if House Republicans pass piecemeal provisions — border security measures, plus some sort of legalization proposal for the 11 million, or barring that, the Kids Act (which gives citizenship only to the DREAMers). That would be a route to comprehensive reform if it provided a way to get to conference.

Boehner doesn’t want anything the House passes to be seen as a vehicle for going to conference, because conservatives will revolt. But here is the rub: House Republicans, on their own, probably can’t pass anything that addresses the 11 million — and may not even be able to pass the KIDS Act — if it is seen as a vehicle for going to conference, since conservatives would resist at all costs. So Democrats would be needed to pass any such proposals. But Democrats will only vote for such proposals with an assurance that we would then go to conference. And so, by ruling out conference, Boehner may have just closed off the last remaining route to getting reform done.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the GOP establishment is going to wage war on the hard-liners inside the GOP that are forcing unelectable candidates and deeply unpopular positions on the party.

Immigration reform, however, is a clear cut case where this vow isn’t mattering in the slightest.

Many of the same constituencies within the GOP who are warning against letting the hard liners’ demand for a Total War against Obamacare drag the party into situations like the recent shutdown debacle – the business community, the professional consultant establishment, etc. — are the same ones who are urging the party to adopt immigration reform, for the long term good of the GOP. But it isn’t happening. We are not getting immigration reform if House GOP leaders are not willing to get the anti-amnesty-at-all-costs crowd a bit riled up at some point in the process. Boehner’s quotes today suggest they just aren’t willing to do that, whatever the long term costs to the party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-life-support/

Jeff Sessions
Senator Sessions made the following comments today after Speaker Boehner said he would not conference with the Senate immigration bill. Sessions praised the announcement while also sounding a note of caution:

“Today’s announcement is an important and positive development for our nation, our people, and the Republican party. House Republicans are resisting an influence campaign and standing for the interests of the American people.

But a word of caution: the groups pushing for Gang of Eight-style legislation are well-financed and very powerful. The Gang of Eight bill’s fatal flaw was always that it answered to the special interests at the expense of the national interest. Arguably the single most destructive feature of the Senate’s immigration bill was the massive permanent surge in low-skill immigration that would reduce wages and increase unemployment. The White House and Senate Democrats shamelessly coordinated with a small cadre of CEOs to pressure House Republicans to yield.

It’s time for Republicans to tell these special interests to get lost and to be the one party that will defend the interests of the millions of low-wage Americans looking for better jobs and better wages. This is the moment for a vision to emerge centered on growth and prosperity for working Americans—not just the powerful and well-connected.”
https://www.facebook.com/jeffsession...ocation=stream

Breaking: Speaker Boehner Kills Senate Amnesty Bill

Kyle Becker
On November 13, 2013
http://kylenbecker.com

Speaker John Boehner has halted further talks on the Senate’s immigration package, and has stated that he has “no intention” of going to conference with the Gang of Eight to debate it further. That means amnesty’s not going anywhere in this Congress.
NBC News recently reported:

House Speaker John Boehner says he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate’s sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon.
“We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday.

Boehner did say that while some action will be taken to reform illegal immigration policies, the GOP will not be rushed by the president’s timetable. “We’ve made it clear that we’re going to move on a common sense, step-by-step approach in terms of how we deal with immigration,” the Ohio Republican told a reporter at the Washington Times on Wednesday.
“The idea that we’re going to take up a 1,300-page bill that no one had ever read, which is what the Senate did, is not going to happen in the House,” the Speaker added. “And frankly, I’ll make clear we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill.”
While some, like Congressman Paul Ryan, believe there should be a conference on the immigration package put forth by the Gang of Eight, several Congressmen, including Senator Marco Rubio, have recently backed away from conference negotiations.
Although amnesty is not off the table in terms of further talks, both formal and informal, House Speaker John Boehner is now on record saying he has no desire to discuss the matter with the Senate. Which means that as far as this Congress is concerned, an amnesty deal is all but dead this year.
Looks like the Republicans might be serious about winning the 2014 elections after all. And the Obama lame duck just got a little lamer.

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/11/9425...-amnesty-bill/

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/breaking-sp...y-bill-291986/

We're close to winning, keep the pressure on them.

Originally Posted by Jean

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), a one-time member of the House’s version of the “Gang of Eight,” came out in opposition to a conference committee in response to a question from Breitbart News at a press conference. Labrador said he thought it would be “crazy” for House GOP leadership to negotiate with the Senate bill because Democrats were trying to use immigration reform as a tool to “destroy” the Republican Party.

Gosh, I thought that Republicans were already doing that.

On the other hand, maybe Labrador and others could be induced to consider a small bill implementing Universal E-Verify. That would definitely free up a lot of Border Patrol time, to focus on terrorists.

Now that polls show that a majority of Americans don't want amnesty, maybe Repubs will work up the courage to go against the desire of their large donors. After all, there's not much that congresspeople can do, if they lose an election to someone running on a pro-American platform.
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/florida-rep...-alive-292008/