House Won't Vote on Immigration Bill Any Time Soon

The House will not hold a vote on immigration reform before leaving on a five-week summer recess, the Hill reports.

On Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., released next week’s schedule for the House that includes working on a 2014 spending bill and various legislation designed to increase government accountability but makes no mention of a vote on an immigration bill.

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The members of Congress will return to Washington the second week in September.

The decision to put off a vote until after the recess was a blow to Democrats, who were hoping the House would pass some form of legislation before August.

House Democrats were planning to use the passage of any bill, no matter how narrow, as a way to kick-start meetings with the Senate.

A September vote on immigration reform might be wishful thinking, as well.

Speaking at an event in Racine, Wis., House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on Friday that GOP leaders have a plan to take up a series of immigration bills in October, although no date has been written in stone.

"Tentatively, October, we're going to vote on these bills," Ryan said. "We're going to vote on a border security bill, we're going to vote on an interior enforcement bill, like the workplace verification and the visa tracking. We're going to vote on a legal immigration bill for visas, for agricultural workers, for skilled workers."

A number of House Republicans have made it plain they are against the passage of any bill, as they are concerned a House-Senate conference might result in legislation granting some form of amnesty to illegal immigrants that would be pushed through Congress.

On the other hand, Democrats consider a conference a crucial step in the passing of a bill this year, and are likely to take Republicans to task for avoiding the issue.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made it known earlier this week that she was basically in favor of any move that set up a conference with the Senate.

“Whatever it is, whatever the path is, we have to find a path to go to conference to come up with a bill that the president will sign, that we can all support in a bipartisan way, and recognizes that we will have some unease,” Pelosi said.

“As I said to you before, there are some poison pills.

But they are not lethal, and we can live with that."

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