House GOP leaders are considering delaying a vote on their party-line immigration enforcement bill until after next week’s Memorial Day recess, according to three people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.
That would mean inching right up to — or beyond — President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline for the legislation.
The Senate has yet to release final bill text or launch debate, meaning the House might not get the bill until well into Friday. Leaders there don’t know how long they can keep their members in town ahead of a busy holiday weekend. A number of New York Republicans, for instance, want to attend a Friday event with Trump in Rep. Mike Lawler’s district.
Speaker Mike Johnson is set to meet with Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon, where they will likely discuss next steps.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said he saw no harm in the House taking up the package after the recess.
“We can do it when we come back,” the Freedom Caucus chair said, adding that there was “no emergency about doing it by June 1, except the president had thrown that date out.”
“This is an election year,” he added. “People have schedules, they have graduations, they have weddings to go to. … The fact of the matter is, if the Senate can’t do its job on time, then we’ll have to take care of it when we come back.”
