WASHINGTON (AP) House Republicans are considering next steps on two immigration bills after GOP leaders persuaded moderate Republicans to drop their renegade effort to force votes on legislation that would have protected young Dreamer immigrants with a path to citizenship.
Instead, leaders reached a deal with moderates and conservatives that will allow two votes on other bills, starting as soon as next week.
Moderates were promised a vote on a compromise immigration plan, which remains a work in progress but will likely include a citizenship pathway for the young immigrants who have been living in the country illegally since they were children. Conservatives were guaranteed a vote on their favored approach, which provides a path to legal status but not citizenship.
With a truce between the GOPs factions, House Republicans were set to meet behind closed doors today to assess the process forward on an issue that has divided the party for years and that leaders worried would damage the GOP ahead of the upcoming election season.
A spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., AshLee Strong, announced the decision late Tuesday after a bargaining session with the lawmakers from the GOPs conservative and moderate factions ended without agreement on a single package all sides could support.
Moderates had been collecting signatures on a petition drive to would force a vote. Strong said the decision to consider two bills would avert the petition drive and resolve the border security and immigration issues.
Leaders feared if the moderates had been able to collect the 218 votes needed, mostly from Democrats, it would embarrass Republicans by passing a bill that conservatives decried as amnesty for the young immigrants.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., a leader of the moderates petition drive, credited his group for forcing the issue to the fore.
Our goal has always been to force the House to debate and consider meaningful immigration reform, and today were one step closer, Curbelo said.
Conservatives were also pleased, certain that neither bill would necessarily win enough votes to pass, but confident the outcome would show the political strength of their preferred approach, a bill from Rep. Bob Good-latte, R-Va.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said even if the bill fails, voting would show we can just amend the Goodlatte bill and try again.
Strong said votes on the two bills would happen next week. But Meadows said a vote on the compromise plan may slip to the end of the month as talks continue crafting the legislation.
For weeks, the partys two wings have hunted for ways to provide a compromise that would provide the citizenship pathway and also bolster border security, but have failed to find middle ground.
The House ended Tuesdays session as moderates fell short of their stated goal of having 218 signatures a majority of the chamber on a petition that would force votes on other immigration bills that GOP leaders oppose. They had promised to do that by Tuesday in order to trigger those votes later this month.
Instead, the centrists accumulated the names of all 193 Democrats but just 23 Republicans two short of the number required.
GOP leaders have strongly opposed the rarely used petition tactic, asserting those votes would probably produce a liberal-leaning bill backed by Democrats and just a smattering of Republicans.
