Two more Republicans signed a petition on Thursday to force a House vote on a series of immigration bills, leaving petitioners just a few votes shy of a majority needed to trigger a debate and vote.
Supporters of the petition now number 212, after Reps. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., signed it Thursday. Several Democrats also signed it Thursday, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Steny Hoyer, D-M.D.
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Supporters are shooting for 218 votes, a bare majority if all 435 members vote, although there are currently seven vacancies in the House.
There’s no threat that a majority forces a vote in the coming days. House lawmakers left town Thursday for the Memorial Day recess and won’t be back until the week of June 5.
But if they reach a majority then, it could trigger debate and vote on four bills, an outcome Republican leaders are looking to avoid. A GOP meeting is planned for June 7 to try to come up with a bill that can be debated and voted on during the third week of June, and that also might get moderate Republicans to drop their demand for a vote on several options.
Smaller GOP groups have been meeting with Republican leaders to try to hammer out a compromise immigration reform bill that will satisfy moderates and conservatives.
The GOP wants to pass a measure that will end the flow of illegal immigration into the country while at the same time finding a legal remedy for so-called “Dreamers” who came to the United States as children, and who few in either party want to see deported.
The petition to “discharge” four bills and give them a vote was filed by a group of moderate Republicans who want to force a debate and vote on immigration reform. The group is adding signatures from the GOP at a deliberately slow rate in an effort to prod the GOP leadership into a serious effort to help broker a bill that can pass the House and Senate.
Republican leaders want to avoid holding a vote forced by a discharge petition because most of the signatures will come from Democrats and it will include consideration of two bills that do little to address the flow of illegal immigrants.
So far 23 Republicans have signed the discharge petition.
“We are adding on every vote series now,” said Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., the petition’s author.
