The Senate and House had not even settled the final details of ending the government shutdown before President Obama was on to his next priority. “We still need to pass a law to fix our broken immigration system,” Obama said Wednesday evening as Capitol Hill scrambled to end the standoff. In case anyone missed it, the next morning he declared: “We should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system.”

There’s no doubt the president wants an immigration deal; he’s talked about it for years, and now can’t put it off until another term. But could the Republican-controlled House of Representatives — exhausted, dazed, and confused after the self-inflicted battering of the last few weeks — actually get itself together to pass a reform bill to go along with the Gang of Eight bill the Senate already passed?