WHY YOU SHOULD LOBBY CONGRESS
Citizens may feel it is a waste of time to contact elected leaders, because their minds are made up already. But on most issues, legislators try hard to determine the desires and leanings of their constituency before they vote. Politicians worry about being re-elected, and know that the happier their constituency, the more likely their own re-election.
Contact Your Members Of Congress On This Issue!
Tell your members Of Congress That Its Time To End The Illegal Actions Of The Obama Admin & Other Government Agencies!
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) believes Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will negotiate on comprehensive immigration reform next year, despite his declarations to the contrary.
The Democratic leader argued that Boehner has a new willingness to confront Tea Party groups and this, in turn, gives Reid confidence that he will not have to break up the Senate immigration bill to negotiate a series of piecemeal reforms with the House.
“I think that John Boehner will conference with the Senate. Why wouldn’t he? He’ll have a lot of pressure from his members now that the election is getting closer,” Reid said in an interview with The Hill.
“Some of his members are in very marginal districts where they need to do something on immigration,” he added.
Boehner has vowed he will not let the Senate bill, which spans more than 1,200 pages, reach the negotiating table. The most controversial element of the package is a provision granting a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
“We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters last month.
A spokesman for Boehner said his boss is sticking to his strategy.
“The Speaker has been very clear that the House will only address immigration reform in a step-by-step common-sense manner,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.
Boehner has been under pressure from conservative members of his conference not to pass even smaller pieces of immigration reform.
They fear being strategically outmaneuvered. Narrowly-tailored legislation on border security or work visas could be combined with the Senate’s comprehensive bill and then returned to the House floor for an up-or-down vote, they fear.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a Tea Party favorite, has organized a group of conservatives pledging to vote against any immigration reform bill to prevent Democrats from using it as a legislative vehicle to enact the pathway to citizenship.
Even Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, has backed away from calls to go to conference with the comprehensive measure.
“At this point, the most realistic way to make progress on immigration would be through a series of individual bills,” Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said in October.
