Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that he would bring immigration legislation to the floor if negotiators manage to reach a compromise.
McConnell pointed out that a bipartisan group of senators was discussing DACA legislation with the White House, adding that the negotiations also include border security, changes to the legal immigration system and interior enforcement.
“If negotiators reach an agreement on these matters by the end of January, I will bring it to the Senate floor for a free-standing vote. I encourage those working on such legislation to develop a compromise that can be widely supported by both political parties and actually become law,” he said.
The majority leader’s promise may facilitate the passage of a temporary spending bill this week to avoid a government shutdown, as the DACA program is one of the issues on the agenda.
A meeting between bipartisan lawmakers and Trump administration officials took place on Tuesday to discuss these issues. White House chief of staff John Kelly said at the meeting that the administration will aim to include a number of border security and immigration policies in legislation, attendees say.
Senator Jeff Flake, who was also in attendance, expressed confidence that the prospective immigration bill will get the necessary 60 votes to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
“The meeting we had yesterday was a good step forward. Our biggest concern moving ahead with the bipartisan group was that we were negotiating without really knowing what would be acceptable to the White House in terms of the border portion of this, and we got a good idea,” he told Politico.
Flake added that the White House will present its list of demands by the end of the week. However, they may very likely be met with a lot of skepticism by Democrats.
“They want everything imaginable and we’re going to have to bring them down to earth,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin noted.
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