Paul Ryan pleased with GOP "consensus," though immigration meeting had no clear resolution
House Speaker Paul Ryan said that Republicans were able to find "a lot of consensus" on the issue of immigration following a two-hour long "family" meeting with members of the conference as moderates threaten to push ahead with their discharge petition to force a vote on a series of immigration bills on the floor.
"Hopefully we can find a path ahead that is consistent with the four pillars the president laid out and avoid a useless discharge petition."
Ryan argued, as he has in the past, that "a discharge petition will result in no law, this effort to get our members to come to a common ground is the best chance at law."
Just over a dozen Republicans met Wednesday afternoon in Ryan's office to prepare for the meeting, which became a necessity after a group of moderate Republicans launched a procedural maneuver to force a vote on four separate immigration bills. The conservative flank of the GOP, meanwhile, is demanding its own vote on a more conservative measure and refuses to have it paired with votes for anything else.
If 218 members sign such a petition, the House would have to vote on a series of immigration bills. Two more Democrats signed the discharge petition Wednesday, bringing the total number of signatories to 215 – just three shy of the 218 threshold they need to force a vote.
CBS News' Rebecca Kaplan reports that while at least few dozen members spoke at the Thursday morning meeting and expressed a desire to get something done, the meeting seemed to accomplish little more than allowing members to lay out a broad swath of priorities with no clear resolution on what might go into a bill.
"There was nothing hammered out today," Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said as he left the meeting.
According to a source in the room, Speaker Ryan told members that the leadership isn't trying to force the immigration issue, but rather stop the discharge petition from getting enough signatures. The ideas discussed in the meeting aren't necessarily backed by the leaders, but are a result of the meetings with moderates and the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Denham, one leader of the discharge effort, suggested that moderates wait a bit longer before adding the final signatures to the petition. "We are looking forward to seeing an agreement put on paper," he said leaving the meeting. But as for the timing of a paper agreement or who will wrote it, he said those are questions of timing or who will write the bill, he deferred to the leadership.
Ryan told reporters on Thursday that Republicans' "new deadline is not to have a deadline" and instead "work with members to avoid a discharge petition."
"Time is of the essence if we want a legislative process we can control, which means a shot at law instead of a futile gesture of a discharge petition," Ryan added.
If the moderates do not get all the signatures on the discharge petition by June 12, they will not meet the requirements to force a vote on June 25.
CBS News' Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.
