USA TODAY International Edition
House uses rare move to force DACA vote
WASHINGTON — A group of Republican lawmakers used a rare congressional maneuver Wednesday to try and force the House to vote on a series of bills to protect DREAMers.
They were confident they would get enough Republicans to join their effort and bypass party leadership.
Nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have been in limbo ever since President Trump ended the Obamaera Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last year. Federal courts have forced the administration to keep the program running, setting up a possible Supreme Court showdown this year.
Democrats in Congress tried several times to pass permanent protections for DACA recipients, even prompting a brief government shutdown in January. But now a handful of moderate Republicans are trying to restart the DACA debate in the House.
Reps. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Jeff Denham of California and Will Hurd of Texas filed what’s known as a “discharge petition” on Tuesday. That is a procedure that allows a bill to reach the floor of the House even if it hasn’t been approved by a committee, or scheduled for a vote by the speaker of the House. If a majority of House members sign on to the discharge petition, it bypasses the committee process and goes straight to the House floor.
“This is about doing our job. This is about making sure we’re not consolidating power in the White House,” said Rep. Mia Love of Utah. “If we are not allowed to bring bills to the floor, to debate the bills on the floor, then the people ... that have voted for me to represent them will not have a voice on the House floor.”
Going around leadership, especially leadership in your own party, to file a discharge petition is rare and members were urged to go another route. But, they said, because of the way the House schedule works they only have a limited number of days they can bring up the bill before the end of the year.
Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP Whip and No. 3 to Speaker Paul Ryan, told reporters that a discharge petition was “not the way to solve this problem.”
“We are well aware that the speakers’ preference was to not have this process,” Curbelo said. Curbelo said that he tried to convince Ryan that the specific measure they were pushing, if passed, “actually empowers him” because it would allow Ryan to pick one bill to vote on.
Denham said that the group went to talk to Ryan on Tuesday to lay out their plans and it “was a very difficult conversation to have. But at the end of the day I’ve got to fight for my community and fight for my country.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said: “We continue to work with our members to find a solution that can both pass the House and get the president’s signature.”
There are 193 Democrats in the House, and most are expected to support the measure. That means at least 25 Republicans are needed to sign the petition. As of mid-afternoon Wednesday 15 GOP lawmakers had signed on.