Posted on 07/23/2013 6:26:28 AM PDT by cotton1706
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told donors at an Organizing for Action event Monday night that Democratic leadership in the House was weighing a discharge petition that would bring the Senate immigration bill directly to the floor for a vote.
Pelosi was asked about the legislative strategy during a dinner with about 70 supporters of the advocacy group, which grew out of the president's re-election campaign. She said leadership was still deciding to press forward with the legislative maneuver, noting that doing so would take 30 legislative days.
With a discharge petition, Pelosi could force a House vote on the Senate bill by gathering 218 signatures — meaning she'd need just 18 Republicans to sign on. That proposition has many Democrats who see the odds of a comprehensive immigration bill with a pathway to citizenship emerging organically from the House as low.
But the maneuver is seen as a direct rebuke of House leadership, and it would be tough to find that many GOP defectors who both support the bill and would be willing to upset leadership.
In an interview with Talking Points Memo earlier this month, Pelosi indicated she was shying away from that strategy.
“I fully subscribe to the idea that we should have a House bill … we shouldn’t have to just accept the Senate bill,” Pelosi said. “However, there is a Senate bill. And that gives leverage to those who say ‘now pass something in the House. Pass something and go to conference.’ If you don’t, there will be strong public sentiment, to take up, give us a vote, on the Senate bill.”
Pelosi also told donors at the OFA event that "we can win the House" in next year's midterm elections, and that she believed Democrats had a good bench of candidates.
If your representative is a democrat, call them too!
Time for Boehner to man up and let Piglosi know who the Speaker of the House is. I guess that would be asking too much though.
Blue slip coming right up!
Any Republican that would sign on with Pelosi would deserve to be introduced to Mr. Tar and Mr. Feathers.
Let her, the first thing that will happen is the bill will be blue-slipped. That’s why Reid won’t let the bill into the house yet until he gets guarantees that that won’t happen.
There can be no discharge petition for a bill not currently pending in the house, and the Senate bill clearly isn’t pending, it’s not even submitted yet.
“There can be no discharge petition for a bill not currently pending in the house, and the Senate bill clearly isn’t pending, it’s not even submitted yet.”
Wow. Didn’t know that. There’s lots of machinations going on.
So does Obamacare, and they didn’t let it stop them on it.
“Pelosi doesn’t realize it but the minority can’t force anything in the House.”
Actually they can. If she can get 218 signatures on a discharge petition, she can force a vote. That rule exists to prevent the majority party from bottling up legislation that a majority of the members want to pass.
So they’re going to try to get as many moderate republicans (which unfortunately includes the leadership and the chairmen appointed by the leadership) to sign on to the Senate bill.
Can somebody rewrite that sentence so it makes sense? What does "That proposition has many Democrats" mean? There seems to be a word missing somewhere.
Thank you, I wasn’t aware of that.
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