The House Throws Up An Amnesty Roadblock

23 May, 2006 by John Hawkins

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Last week, in an exclusive interview with Right Wing News, Congressman Jack Kingston said that you wouldn’t see a bill that supports amnesty come out of the House because 180 out of 231 Republicans oppose it. If the numbers are really that high, then it may very well mean that we’re going to get a bill conservatives can live with or no bill at all:

“Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s insistence that major legislation reach the House floor only if it appears to be backed by a “majority of the majority” could throw a high hurdle in front of efforts to reach a House-Senate compromise on immigration later this year, lawmakers said. Hastert (R-Ill.) has invoked the policy in blocking bills that appeared likely to win approval from more than half of the House’s 435 members but less than half of its 231 Republicans.

That is the scenario that could emerge in the House this summer, sources say, because the immigration debate divides both parties along unusual lines. It is possible, they said, that enough House Democrats and Republicans — but not a majority of the Republicans — could support a version of the legislation backed by Bush and most senators to enact it into law.

But Hastert would prevent House action on such a measure under his leadership policy, spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday. Hastert still embraces the majority-of-a-majority rule — first enunciated in a 2003 speech — “and he intends to do so with any immigration bill that comes out of [a House-Senate] conference,” Bonjean said.

…A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on background to be more candid, said Hastert and his lieutenants will not be persuaded by Bush to embrace a conference report opposed by most GOP members. “There’s a feeling that no bill is better than a bill that further alienates our base and divides the [Republican] conference,” the aide said.”

It’s sounds like Dennis Hastert is planning to make sure that any immigration bill that gets through will actually be supported by the American people and the Republican base. That’s something that the Republicans in the Senate and George Bush, almost inexplicably, haven’t been doing. So, it’s fantastic to see that it looks like a little bit of sanity is about to be inserted into this process.