13
Feb

Chuck Schumer backs E.J. Dionne on immigration

Published on February 13th, 2014

By TAL KOPAN | 2/13/14 9:53 AM EST

Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday he supports a new idea to get the Senate’s immigration reform bill through the House using a discharge petition, saying immigration is the “No. 1” way to get the country on track.

In a statement to POLITICO’s Mike Allen, Schumer said he supports an idea mentioned in E.J. Dionne’s column in The Washington Post to have a majority of members of the House force House Speaker John Boehner to allow a vote on the Senate-passed bill.

“The idea that’s begun circulating, to do a discharge petition on immigration reform in the House, is a good one and I would urge House Democrats to take it up,” Schumer said in the statement. “It’s clear a majority of the House supports immigration reform. A minority faction has scared Republicans out of acting even though large parts of the Republican base, including business and religious groups, support the bill, making a discharge petition an appropriate remedy.”

Dionne argued in his column that Tuesday’s House vote passing a clean debt ceiling hike with nearly every Democrat and a handful of Republicans should provide a model for moving immigration reform.

Schumer has also floated a proposal to have an immigration bill pass that doesn’t go into effect until 2017, under the next president, mitigating Republicans’ concern that President Barack Obama could selectively enforce whatever they pass.

He said Thursday that the important thing is passing reform.

“I believe immigration reform is the No. 1 thing we could do to straighten the country out and get our country moving again,” Schumer said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “The CBO said that, actually, immigration reform would increase GDP by 3.5 percent, more than any Democratic spending program or any Republican cut program. So I feel a keen urgency to get this done.”

Schumer said his proposal shows Democrats are not pushing immigration reform for political reasons.

“If Democrats wanted political advantage, we’d pass a bill that was way to the left and beat up our Republican colleagues,” Schumer said. “In this Senate … we forged a coalition. So in the House there’s a lot of trouble because our tea party friends are very much against it, and while a lot of Republicans are the same as I believe they were on the debt, they want to vote no but hope yes, there’s a real chance, I still think, to get this done.”

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