Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will meet with Speaker John Boehner Wednesday to discuss a host of hot-button issues—immigration reform among them.
“I would hope that, as a consequence of our meeting, that he will understand that the House needs to work its will,” Grijalva said.
Grijalva thinks the Gang of Eight bill being debated in the Senate right now has a good chance of passing the House. But, it’s not clear that it will ever get the chance for a vote.
“I don’t see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn’t have a majority support of Republicans,” Boehner said during a news conference Tuesday.
Boehner promised his caucus in a closed door meeting that he would not support an immigration plan that violated the Hastert rule, Politico reported. And at least one member, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California has threatened Boehner’s speakership over the whole thing.
Gang of Eight members and the White House remained hopeful that a new CBO report showing the immigration bill would cut the deficit by $197 billion dollars would satisfy deficit hawks.
“I would hope that those that have harped the loudest about the cost and about the expense to the American taxpayer will now realize that their argument has no standing. It is baseless, and it’s not true. And in that sense, hopefully that will tone down the rhetoric,” Grijalva said.
Kristin Donnelly