Hoyer: House would ‘address’ immigration if Senate acts first

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Friday promised
only to “address” any comprehensive immigration bill that manages to pass the
Senate.

Hoyer’s caution and refusal to commit to putting an
immigration reform bill on the floor if one passes the Senate casts further
doubt on Congress’s ability to make immigration reform a reality before the end
of the year.

“The Senate has agreed to move this legislation first, and
we think that’s appropriate,” Hoyer said Friday in an appearance on C-SPAN’s
“Newsmakers.”

{mosads}“The Senate was unable to move a bill in the last Congress,
and we’ll see if they can move one in this Congress … But if they do, we will
certainly address it.”

Pressed on whether “addressing” a Senate bill would mean
bringing it up for a vote in the House, Hoyer responded: “If the Senate passes
a bill, as I said, the Speaker and I have both indicated we will address that
bill.”

“If they act, we would be prepared to act,” he said a few
moments later.

Hoyer was interviewed by The Hill, The New York Times and “Newsmakers” host Greta Brawner. The program will
be aired on Sunday.

Knowing an immigration debate could deeply damage their
ability to hold on to their majority ahead of the midterm election, House
leaders reached an agreement with their members, the White House and the Senate
ensuring that the Senate would have to pass immigration legislation before the
House would follow suit.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated a
willingness to put a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill on the
Senate calendar as early as this summer — a move that’s designed, in part, to
strengthen his own reelection chances.

Hispanic Democrats, primarily in the House, have become
increasingly frustrated with what they believe are a string of false promises
from their leaders, including President Barack Obama, to work to pass an
immigration bill this year.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and, more recently, Rep. Xavier
Becerra (D-Calif.), a member of the House leadership, have publicly aired that
frustration, and with increasing frequency. The perception that their own
leaders in the House are now backtracking on an arrangement made months ago in
the face of Reid’s seemingly very real desire to move an immigration bill could
only inflame those frustrations.

Although House leadership aides recently acknowledged that
Democrats are prepared to take on a much lighter and less contentious workload
following their passage of healthcare reform, Hoyer said that the House would
still have the energy to address immigration before November.

But Hoyer would not say whether he’d prefer to see the
Senate act this year, or if he’d rather wait until next year to face the
prospect of getting an immigration bill from the Senate.

“Sen. Reid has indicated that he might be addressing this
issue in the Senate as early as sometime this summer,” Hoyer said. “And that’s
the judgment of the Senate, and we’ll certainly defer to Sen. Reid in making
that judgment.”