House conservatives warned GOP leaders they could be ousted if they fail to put a border security-centered immigration proposal on the floor for a vote.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus said they want Republican leaders to make a serious push to help pass legislation authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., that would impose new immigration restrictions and allocate funding for border security in exchange for providing legal protections to so-called Dreamers.
“I can say it is the defining moment for this speaker,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said at a forum sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. “If he gets it wrong, it will have consequences for him, but it will also have consequences for the rest of the Republican Party.”
Any House majority faction has the power block the election of a speaker because it’s a vote that requires a majority of the full House, which means nearly everyone in the party must vote in unison. A speaker is elected every two years, when a new Congress convenes. The Freedom Caucus is comprised of about three dozen members.
Conservatives have been warning GOP leaders for weeks against moving a more moderate immigration bill to the House floor that does not include the provisions in the Goodlatte bill, or at least the framework put forward by President Trump last month, which they say is an acceptable substitute.
The basic components of each plan include funding for border security, including a southern border wall or fence, new limits to chain migration and and end to the visa lottery system.
In exchange, the Trump plan would provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants eligible or enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Republican leaders this week said they are whipping the Goodlatte measure, which is a process of gathering support for the bill. They have warned conservatives the Goodlatte measure lacks the majority needed for passage.
Goodlatte’s bill does not provide a pathway to citizenship and includes stricter immigration reforms.
Meadows and other HFC members said the leadership should be working harder to win support the Goodlatte bill and haven’t moved quickly enough on it.
Goodlatte introduced the measure on Jan. 10.
“We’ve had the Goodlatte legislation for several weeks now,” HFC member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said. “Why the reluctance to whip it when we know we have overwhelming support for it?”
Ardent backers of the Goodlatte measure have warned not only Speaker Paul Ryan but Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., presumably next in line for the gavel, that their leadership positions could be threatened if they bring a weak border security measure to the floor that also provides a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers, who came to the U.S. as children.
“If the fix is in on something like this, it’s going to be problematic not just for me, but for those making the big decisions around this place,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said.
Perry and other HFC members said the Goodlatte measure didn’t necessarily have to pass to maintain their backing of the leadership.
“The minimum for me is the process has to be correct,” Perry said. “Even if the outcome is not what I want.”
Majority Whip Steve Scalise on Wednesday called the Goodlatte measure “a bill that we are moving,” while McCarthy said the House GOP is seeking “a compromise that all sides can come to an agreement.”
The House is beginning to weigh an immigration plan as the Senate struggles to pass its own reform measure.
Debate on individual proposals started Wednesday after a day-long delay caused by Democrats, but nothing appears to have won the backing of 60 Senators needed to pass a bill.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working on a narrow plan that legalizes Dreamers in exchange for some border security funding. But, President Trump has warned he won’t sign legislation unless it includes the four provisions included in his framework.
Conservatives fear the Senate will pass a moderate bill that Republican House leaders will then move to the House floor for a vote, where it could pass with bipartisan support.
Ryan didn’t specify the legislation he planned to take up. He said the House would have to consider an immigration bill by next month, although he suggested the March 5 deadline, when the DACA program officially ends, is not as important anymore because of recent court decisions extending it.
“This place works better with deadlines, and we want to operate on deadlines,” Ryan said. “We clearly need to address this issue in March. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Conservatives say they are looking for the GOP leadership to show the same effort in pushing the Goodlatte measure as they exerted on tax reform, or repealing Obamacare, which made it through the House but stalled in the Senate.
“Put some oomph behind it,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said. “That is what we are wondering really, is there going to be the oomph to get it done.”
