Illegal Immigration Watch: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert Wants “A LONG LOOK” at Senate Immigration Bill

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., right, participates in a mock swearing-in ceremony with House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Ill., left, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, June 13, 2006. Bilbray’s wife, Karen holds the Bible as his son Patrick looks on at right.

ASSociated Press: Hastert Deals Blow to Immigration Bill

Hopes for a quick compromise on immigration were dealt a blow Tuesday after House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he wanted to take a “long look” at a Senate bill offering possible citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.

Hastert said hearings on the Senate bill should be held before appointing anyone to a House-Senate committee to negotiate a compromise immigration bill. Later, he said he was unsure what the House’s next move would be.

“We’re going to take a long look at it,” Hastert said late Tuesday.

House Majority Leader John Boehner agreed. “I think we should know clearly what’s in the Senate bill,” Boehner said. But he added there are lots of ways to understand its contents.

Code Words for – if our GOP majority members will not support an amnesty-laden immigration bill, then there will be NO conference committee appointed.

And on the Senate side, the GOP majority may have figured out that voters do not support their bill……

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also scheduled a hearing for Monday to review provisions in the bill requiring employers to verify that their workers are legal.

Cornyn said he opposes a provision allowing workers to use up to 20 documents to verify they are legal workers. Also, the Department of Homeland Security has raised concerns about how quickly it must have in place an electronic system that employers will use to verify their workers legal status, Cornyn’s spokesman Don Stewart said.

“This will give us a chance to look at it in more detail,” Cornyn said.

Sending a bill that has already passed the Senate to hearings would be a highly unusual move and make completing a final bill before Congress goes on its summer recess in August far less likely. Disagreement on procedural issue has kept negotiations from starting, but there were hopes that could be resolved this week.

As Flap said before, NO BILL is better than the Senate’s “amnesty for illegal aliens bill.”