"The problem is internal Republican caucus politics."

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Obama: GOP politics stopping immigration bill
By Seun Min Kim, August 9, 2013

President Barack Obama insisted Friday that the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill would pass the GOP-led House, but that “internal Republican caucus politics” were preventing Congress from sending a comprehensive reform bill to his desk.

The Gang of Eight’s wide-reaching legislation, which passed the Senate with 68 votes in late June, has essentially evaporated after House Republicans – adverse to many provisions in the 1,000-plus page bill – said they would not take it up.

Obama said during his news conference that he was “absolutely confident” that if the Gang of Eight bill was put on the House floor, it would pass. It would need mostly Democratic votes to do so.

“The challenge right now is not that there aren’t a majority of House members, just like a majority of Senate members, who aren’t prepared to support this bill,” Obama said. “The problem is internal Republican caucus politics.”

Instead of the Senate’s bill, the House leadership has proposed a piecemeal approach that tackles different parts of immigration reform with separate bills. And there is a bipartisan group that is hoping to release its comprehensive reform bill in September.

Still, Senate advocates of the Gang of Eight bill are hoping to revive it if the two chambers make it into conference negotiations – a view that Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined earlier Friday.

In his news conference, Obama did not disclose specific initiatives he would take to enact political pressure on House Republicans to move immigration reform.

Instead, Obama touted the benefits of the Senate immigration bill, such as its deficit-cutting capabilities and its surge in resources for the U.S.-Mexico border.

“When I hear the opposition to immigration reform, I just run through the list of things that are concerned about,” Obama said. “I look at what the Senate bill does, and I say to myself, you know what? The Senate bill actually improves the situation on every issue that they say they’re concerned about.”

Obama also said while he prefers the House to take up the Gang of Eight bills, he was open to other methods of getting immigration reform through the chamber.

“I’d urge, when they get back [from the August recess], to do something. Put forward a bill that has an opportunity to actually pass,” Obama said. “It may not be precisely what’s in the Senate bill … but if they’ve got some additional ideas, I think the Senate’s happy to consider them.”
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