Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) isn’t saying either way whether he’s backing the new House immigration bill, but a hill source tells Breitbart News that he’s “very encouraged” by what’s happened thus far on Friday.
“Senator Sessions is very encouraged by the significant developments in the House,” a congressional source told Breitbart News.
Over the past week plus, Sessions has been a major player in the goings-on of this immigration war. When Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) introduced the House GOP leadership recommendations on behalf of the working group Speaker John Boehner set up, Sessions called the plan’s failure to mention President Obama at all–never mind his executive amnesty plans–an “institutional surrender” to Obama’s “planned illegality.”
A day or so later, Sessions issued a clarion call to the American people to melt the phone lines in Congress to stop the GOP leadership plan–which the people followed through on throughout this week.
When the leadership officially introduced its plan and the bill earlier this week, Sessions issued another statement again calling what Boehner was doing a “surrender.” As phone lines continued burning and the leadership moved forward with its plans to hold a vote–with particular bragging coming from incoming Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)–the House GOP leadership introduced into its plan some weakened anti-Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) language. Still unsatisfied, Sessions met with House members on Thursday ahead of leadership pulling its bill and then a conservative plan emerged.
On Friday, after working with conservatives like Rep. Steve King (R-IA), House GOP leadership introduced a plan that mirrored what Sessions had pushed so hard for for the last week plus.