Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R- Ky.) had a meeting with Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, in his office on Tuesday. After the meeting, McConnell is hoping for a ‘free-flowing’ immigration debate to take place in the coming week. He stated that any proposal that gets the 60 votes first will get through the upper chamber.
McConnell is best known for ‘keeping his cards close to the vest.’ On Tuesday, he stated that upcoming fiscal shutdown will mark a “rare occasion” leading to an open debate next week, creating an “opportunity for a thousand flowers to bloom.”
In a press conference, the Senate Majority Leader said in a statement, “I’m going to structure in such a way that’s fair to everyone. … Whoever gets to 60 wins.”
One of the reported asked that there are numerous proposals in line to be taken into consideration before making a decision. McConnell laughed it off before saying that there is no ‘secret plan’ involved.
He added, “I can’t be specific because there’s no secret plan here to try to push this in any direction. The Senate is going to work its will, and I hope that we will end up passing something.”
The No. 2 Senate Republican, Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) believes that this move might create a heated floor fight with senators who are largely in dark at this moment. He stated, “I know everybody wants an advantage, but he’s been pretty scrupulous about not giving anybody any ideas about where he’s starting.”
When a reporter asked Sen. John Cornyn about the Senate’s base bill, he replied: “That’s the $64,000 question everybody wants to know, and Sen. McConnell hasn’t told us.”
In January 2018, Mitch McConnell promised that he will set up a debate on immigration if the government decides to cancel shutdown plans. The Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer (N.Y.) agreed with the plans of Mitch McConnell, which is to vote to open the government after a three-day shutdown.
In other news, the majority of the GOP lawmakers do not want to take up the immigration bill forward, unless they are sure that President Trump will back it up.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) stated that the talks are happening among the leadership over immigration bill but he will not bring up a bill that is not backed by the President.
In a press conference, he told the reporters, “We’re not going to bring immigration legislation through that the president doesn’t support. We’re working on something here in the House. We’re working on bipartisan negotiations. It’s going to be a bill that we support and the president supports.”
