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    Top Republican Says House Will Act On Immigration Reform Before 2014 Election

    Posted: 11/15/2013 10:19 am EST | Updated: 11/15/2013 12:44 pm EST
    Sabrina Siddiqui
    Huffington Post

    WASHINGTON -- Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the lawmaker tasked with electing Republicans to the House, said Friday his chamber will act on immigration reform before the 2014 midterm elections.

    Keeping in line with GOP leadership, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said the House will pursue a piecemeal approach, but it will not go to conference on the Senate's comprehensive bill or take up similar legislation introduced by House Democrats.

    "Between now and the election I think the House will take up immigration in a piece-by-piece approach," Walden told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

    House Republicans have dragged their feet on immigration since the Senate passed its sweeping legislation in June with a strong majority. Democrats have repeatedly called on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring the Senate bill up for a vote, arguing it would pass if brought to the floor.

    House Democrats have pushed their own comprehensive immigration bill, which has the backing of just three Republicans. But GOP leaders have shown no appetite for the Democratic bill either, insisting a piecemeal strategy is the only way to get something done.

    House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the chamber would not have time to vote on an immigration measure this year, pointing out there were too few legislative days left on the 2013 calendar to address such a complex issue. Other Republicans have acknowledged it would become tougher to move on immigration reform as the midterm elections draw near, but said they are committed to getting something done.

    Boehner has pushed back on the charge that his members were moving too slowly on the issue because they were focused on dismantling President Barack Obama's health care law instead.

    "This is about trying to do this in a way that the American people and our members can absorb," Boehner said Wednesday. "There are hundreds of issues involved in dealing with immigration reform. And we've got to deal with these in a common-sense way, where our members understand what we're doing and their constituents understand."

    But Walden signaled Obamacare would remain a central issue for the GOP, likening the health care law's botched rollout to a natural disaster.

    "Now that it has become a category 5 political hurricane, it is not just causing havoc in certain regions of the country," Walden said. "It is ripping apart every region of the country."

    He added that the issues plaguing the federal website set up for Americans to purchase health plans, HealthCare.gov, and the cancellation notices sent for insurance policies that didn't meet the coverage standards of Obamacare, would pose a real threat to Democrats who voted for the bill, especially those facing reelection in red states.

    "You can’t get away from your votes, you can’t get away from their statements," Walden said. "I think they’re in real trouble."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4281788.html
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    Immigration Reform Will Happen ‘Later Next Year,’ Walden Says

    By Emma Dumain and Emily Cahn Posted at 11:15 a.m. Nov. 15
    Roll Call


    Walden told reporters Friday that the House could take up an immigration overhaul next year. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

    An immigration overhaul in the House isn’t dead, but it won’t happen this year, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee said Friday.

    Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said the House would likely pass legislation to fix the nation’s broken immigration system by the end of next year. He made the comments at a Friday breakfast briefing with reporters that was sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

    “The speaker has said on more than one occasion that this is a federal problem. I’ve said this is a federal problem. It needs to be dealt with by the federal government, so I think you’ll see it come,” the first-term NRCC chairman said. “It’s a matter of timing, in part because of everything else that hasn’t been done yet with the whole government funding issue and all of that has eaten up a lot of time. So my guess it it will happen later next year.”

    Conventional wisdom had been that if the House was going to address immigration, it would have to be before the end of 2013 to avoid narrowing in the 2014 elections. But some House Republicans have been worried that moving anything as controversial as immigration legislation might imperil members facing right-wing primary challenges.

    Walden was specifically asked if it would be easier for the House to wait until after the primary season to pass any immigration-related legislation. He dismissed that premise, saying that most members know how they’re going to vote anyway.

    “People know their districts pretty well and what they can and cannot support going into it, so I don’t think [timing is] that big of an issue,” Walden said. “And you’re going to have primaries all the way to August.”
    Walden reiterated other points on immigration that kept with the party line, namely that any overhaul would be accomplished piecemeal rather than comprehensively.

    “The American people are skeptical of big, huge comprehensive bills,” Walden said. “And we are looking at real reform that’s done a piece at a time, step by step, so that you can have it be transparent so that people can have a chance to actually understand each step of the way and how it’s sequenced.”

    Earlier this week, Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters that he would never move to conference any House-passed immigration bill with the measure passed by the Senate earlier this year. The Senate measure would create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, among other things.

    “Frankly,” Boehner told reporters, GOP leaders “have no intention of ever going to conference” with the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration overhaul bill, even if Republicans pass a bill of their own.

    “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 said.

    http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/walden...ter-next-year/
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