U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin says the House can still act on immigration reform – if chooses to. The Wisconsin Democrat said President Barack Obama acted on the issue because House Republicans chose not to.
“Today marks the 512th day since the U.S. Senate passed, on a bipartisan basis, comprehensive immigration reform, and so any cry of ‘not enough time’ strikes me as disingenuous,” Baldwin said.
Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan told the Washington Post that House Republicans only needed a few more weeks. “We’ve gone to the president and said, ‘Give us time to do immigration reform, to work on the issue this year. We want to get this done.’ And this is the reaction he has to that? He had two years with a super-majority of his own party, and he didn’t lift a finger. And now he won’t give us a few weeks?”
“We still have some days left before the end of the year, and I would certainly urge the House of Representatives to act,” Baldwin said. “These are prioritizations that the president has announced. But the only real solution – as he said – is for Congress to step up. It’s time for the House to act.”