House GOP rebukes Senate bill

House Republicans yesterday unveiled a resolution expressing their disapproval of the Senate immigration bill. It was offered by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and simply read: “resolved the House GOP Conference disapproves of the Senate immigration bill.”

The move puts the House Republican Conference at odds with President Bush, who has endorsed the Senate bill. Hoekstra said that while he preferred not to break with the president, the language and content of the Senate bill compelled him to vocalize his opposition.

{mosads}It is the second time this year that members of the House Republican Conference have publicly vocalized opposition to Bush policy. The first came last month when Reps. Ray LaHood (Ill.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) attracted the ire of White House officials for allegedly speaking to reporters about a meeting on the Iraq war between Bush and centrist Republicans.

Hoekstra said he had not spoken to Bush, but had been in contact with White House staff. The resolution went back to the floor for debate yesterday afternoon and a vote was expected after press time.

“The staff indicated that this would not be helpful,” Hoekstra said.

“I broke with the president on No Child Left Behind … I don’t like doing it,” he said. “This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.

“The Senate bill is a bad piece of public policy … you can’t overestimate the amount of frustration there is [with the bill] in the conference,” Hoekstra added.

His resolution passed the House Republican Conference by a large margin, despite the fact the Senate bill’s language has yet to be finalized.

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he has very serious concerns about the Senate bill.

During the discussion of the measure yesterday morning, LaHood attempted to block the Hoekstra resolution but was defeated soundly by a vote of about 114-23, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

According to a source, the failure of the LaHood motion prompted Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a supporter of the Senate bill, to say that the Hoekstra resolution “demeans the House.”

Yet Flake is in the minority in his conference in his support for the measure; 100 Republicans have already joined the House Immigration Reform Caucus, a fervent anti-amnesty group.

“There’s growing momentum on the House side to have our voices registered on the Senate immigration bill,” Hoekstra said during a press conference yesterday.

Hoekstra said the amnesty provision, no matter how strict the language, was a deal-breaker for most House Republicans.

“That’s why the fundamental bill has no credibility, and basically what we are saying today is it is dead on arrival in the
House, we can’t have secret deals, this has to go through committee, it has to go in pieces,” echoed Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.). “A comprehensive bill will not pass the House.”

 “The Z visa is unenforceable,” Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif) said, referring to a provision of the Senate bill that would put those in the country illegally on the path to citizenship.

During a press conference yesterday, Bush did little to help his cause when he told reporters that the bill included amnesty. White House spokesman Tony Snow issued a press release shortly thereafter stating that the president had misspoken.