Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday tamped down a Republican insurrection on immigration — at least temporarily — with vows to “put pen to…
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday tamped down a Republican insurrection on immigration — at least temporarily — with vows to “put pen to paper” on a compromise bill to protect immigrants known as « Dreamers. »
During a two-hour, closed-door meeting in the basement of the Capitol, Ryan and other GOP leaders urged their troops not to endorse a procedural move to force votes on solutions for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — known as a discharge petition — and instead give leaders more time to forge a compromise that can win 218 Republicans.
The promise seems to have bought them some time in their search for an elusive DACA deal that can win the support of centrist immigration reformers and conservative hard-liners.
The new unofficial deadline appears to be June 12, leaving leadership just five days to craft legislation they believe can garner 218 GOP votes. Supporters of the petition are three signatures away from the number of members needed to bypass leadership and bring the “Queen of the Hill” rule to the floor.
“We are looking forward to seeing an agreement put on paper,” Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), one of the leading forces behind the discharge petition, told reporters following the meeting. “We finished a very productive meeting. We’ve had a lot of productive meetings, but ultimately this is about writing a bill that makes sense for the country.”
Ryan and other GOP leaders, who have been scrambling to forge a DACA compromise that would make the discharge petition unnecessary, had hoped to have such an agreement finalized to present to the conference at Thursday’s gathering. Indeed, that was the expectation of some of the Republicans going in.
“I thought that myself,” said Rep. Walter Jones (R-N. C.).
But the talks between leaders, centrists and conservatives seeking such an agreement have failed to bear fruit.
There was “a lot of good discussion,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N. C.), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, “and yet at the same time, there is no consensus.”
In a sense, the Republicans — despite almost six years hammering the DACA program and nine months vowing to move legislation to salvage it — are back at square one.
“I still don’t think they have a pathway to get there, and now they’re going to put pen to paper and we’ll see what it looks like, ” said Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas). “I think it’s the beginning of the process.”
