Update:
Rep Salmon says border bill lacked votes. “God bless the weather” he says on leadership excuse for pulling.
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) January 27, 2015
House Republicans have pulled the controversial McCaul border bill, which was scheduled to be voted on later this week. The GOP is citing inclement weather conditions, but considering the bill is opposed by the right wing (everyone from Jeff Sessions to Dave Brat to CIS’ Jessica Vaughn), the true reason for withdrawal might be the bill’s lack of support.
If the latter, that’s major bad news for the GOP. The common Republican catchphrase is that the GOP wants immigration reform — they just want the border to be secured first. But that’s what the McCaul allegedly bill does — it is literally called the ‘Secure Our Borders First Act’. Yet Republicans are not managing to secure the votes to bring even that to the floor.
Moreover, the Jeff Sessions/Dave Brat/Jessica Vaughn uprising over the McCaul bill involves their idea that the legislation doesn’t do enough against the immigrants protected by President Obama’s executive action. If the right wing gets their way with the McCaul bill, that’s an indication that the Republican Party will be forced to go balls-to-the-wall against executive action this Congressional session, taking vote after vote against DREAMers and immigrant parents until they’ve decimated their own chances of winning Latino votes and the 2016 presidential election. The GOP is at war with itself, and its fear of its own right wing is leading the party to national demographic demise.
By the way — the Rules Committee is still meeting tonight to debate the rule on some other bill, which means that Congress can keep functioning despite the weather. And Politico is reporting that the bill might be delayed until February, which certainly seems to imply a current lack of votes. Don’t buy the GOP’s “weather” excuse on the McCaul bill. They’ve created this mess for themselves – and they can’t find a way out.
