“This bill is quite simply a way, for some, to score political points … by demonizing immigrants,” said Rep. Jim McGovern , the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. “Language has consequences.”. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise promised to put a proposal written by Roy on the floor during the first two weeks of January, but the raucous exercise to elect McCarthy speaker exposed the difficulty of passing legislation through a four-vote majority.
must-pass bills if the legislation moved forward. That forced leaders to introduce Roy’s bill in the Judiciary Committee instead of Homeland, where Gonzales and other Hispanic Republicans sit. , and as many as a dozen threatened to sink the bill at multiple points, causing leadership to twice delay consideration of their bill in the committee.“They were going to lose enough Republican votes it was going to sink. And some of the members that had the biggest concerns have been actively involved in the committee process and think that the changes have been impactful enough that they now are supportive of it,” said Rep. Don Bacon , who initially had concerns.