At the GOP’s joint retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania where House and Senate Republicans are laying out their 2015 game plan, Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) decided to jump into the press pool to discuss immigration. Like vultures, media figures swarmed the California Republican who declared that a DHS bill will pass, and that Republicans wouldn’t shut down that part of the government.
“We will pass a DHS bill,” said the congressman. “It will be passed on time; we will not shut down this part of the government, he added.
But, when asked if a clean DHS bill can pass without Democratic support, he said he “was not prepared to answer” that just yet. After all, we still don’t know what will come out of the Senate.
The Senate bill will be part of the policy discussions held throughout the day.
Denham said the House bill, which was passed yesterday, is heading over for debate. What are their concerns? We don’t know; “we’ve not had that discussion yet,” he said.
Asked if he spoke to Senate Republicans about it, Denham said yes. When pressed about what they had to say, the congressman simply said, “They have concern.”
He also mentioned his activities within his working group, which “for quite some time” has been discussing a comprehensive immigration bill, along with one that followed a more piecemeal approach. He also said he’s hopeful that a “real” bipartisan immigration bill will come out of the House, but “it’s going to take several months to get there.”