Donald Trump is wading into a fight over highly-skilled worker visas, but there’s a bigger debate already underway.
www.semafor.com
Republicans’ real immigration dilemma: How big to go in Congress
“… The GOP is preparing to take up an infusion of border security money as soon as this month, but it hasn’t settled on how broadly to craft that bill. There’s a twist: To get an immigration bill done without a filibuster, Republicans may need to bend or even break some of the Senate rules.
The border spending bill that Trump and congressional Republicans are mulling would devote as much as $100 billion to border security, including barriers, technology and manpower; it would be paid for by new energy leases.
To get it to Trump’s desk without having to seek Democratic votes or changing Senate precedent, however, the GOP will need to limit any policy changes they add to their bill — a central tenet of the filibuster protections they plan to use.
… “I’ve heard rumors that there is going to be a movement to pressure Senate Republicans to overrule the parliamentarian in order to enact policy in reconciliation,” retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., told Semafor.
Sinema warned that doing so would be “a backdoor elimination of the filibuster, and very dangerous.”
While the filibuster-proof reconciliation rules are designed to limit bills to fiscal policy only, Republicans have plenty of reasons to want to push the boundaries. Their biggest motivation is the staying power of laws: Trump will have broad sway over many executive actions on immigration, but President Joe Biden dismantled some of Trump’s first-term moves, and a future Democratic president could do the same. …”
