Former Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday that the Donald Trump-endorsed immigration bill would have passed if the Republican leadership had applied the same pressure they did for the Paul Ryan amnesty bill.
Jordan said,” …if our leadership had put the same whip effort behind that immigration legislation, Chairman Goodlatte’s legislation, it would have passed.”
The Ohio conservative continued:
The mandate from the 2016 election was real clear; the American people made Donald Trump president, made Republicans the majority in the House and the Senate, to build the border security wall, stop chain migration, end the sanctuary city policy, reform our asylum laws, get rid of the visa lottery and deal with the DACA population. That legislation consistent with that mandate and the promise he made to the American people was on the floor just three days ago and fell a few votes short of passing, got 193 votes.
The Goodlatte immigration bill failed to pass through the House last week with a vote tally of 193-231. Forty-one Republicans voted against the immigration bill.
The Freedom Caucus has lobbied Republican leadership for a vote on the bill. The Freedom Caucus tanked a May vote on the Farm bill because they did not believe the Republican leadership would bring the Goodlatte bill to the House floor for a vote. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) only obtained a floor vote on the Goodlatte bill when Speaker Ryan agreed with moderate Republicans to also vote on a “compromise” immigration bill that would prevent giving amnesty to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens first, and then, maybe, build Trump’s promised border wall later.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), another member of the Freedom Caucus, said at a press conference last week that the “leadership team decided that a committee was not wise enough to get 218” votes to pass through the House. Labrador said that the leadership “meddled with the bill.”
In a June interview with Breitbart News, Jordan said that the Ryan amnesty bill is inconsistent with the 2016 Trump election mandate.
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