Following Monday’s announcement of the Republican Party’s formal support for comprehensive immigration reform, news comes that the House of Representatives, which is working on its own bill separate from the Senate’s “Gang of Eight,” were close to working out the details of its plan.
Said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer:
They are close. I think they’ve made real progress. I’m very optimistic that we will pass a bill in the Senate and the House the president can sign, which will have comprehensive immigration and a pathway toward citizenship.
Hoyer also told reporters on Tuesday that he expects a final agreement to come “in the near term.”
House Speaker John Boehner added that the bipartisan House group working on immigration reform is “essentially in agreement” as it pertains to what the bill should include.
It’s unclear whether or not the House would have their own proposal on the table before the Senate. It’s largely expected that the eight senators charged with leading the immigration reform bill will have a proposal on the table for markup in April.
The House members involved in the immigration reform negotiations include Republicans Raul Labrador of Idaho, Sam Johnson and John Carter of Texas, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, and Democrats Xavier Becerra of California, John Yarmouth of Kentucky, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Zoe Lofgren of California.
The group of House members working on immigration reform have been more reluctant than their Senate counterparts in speaking publicly about the ongoing negotiations.
Let’s hope that the end result is commonsense immigration policy that works for everyone.
