House GOP Resisting Pressure to Rush an Immigration Bill

PJ Media - WASHINGTON – House Republicans are facing increased pressure from the White House and members of the Senate to act on immigration reform but it appears leadership doesn’t intend to address the issue any time soon.

Lawmakers who attended a meeting of the GOP caucus last week said leadership is still formulating its answer to the nation’s immigration problem and probably won’t have any defined plan until after the August recess. It’s possible, however, that immigration-related measures that already have passed the House Judiciary Committee dealing with enforcement and border security could be placed on the agenda sooner rather than later.

“My job is to do everything I can to facilitate a process for solving this problem,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “And that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

Boehner already has made clear that he doesn’t intend to stage a vote on the “flawed legislation rushed through the Senate” and won’t hold a vote on any bill that doesn’t carry the support of the chamber’s GOP lawmakers.

In a statement, Boehner, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, and several pre-eminent officials in the Republican caucus expressed their intention to take a “step-by-step, common-sense approach to fixing what has long been a broken system.” The group added that the public doesn’t trust the Democrats or support “a single, massive, Obamacare-like bill.”   More