Should Democrats' Reconciliation Bill for Infrastructure Include Immigration Reforms?

What’s the story?

• Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL) released a statement this week insisting that he will only support Democrats’ infrastructure reconciliation bill if it includes a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. His statement read in part:

“A robust and equitable budget reconciliation deal must include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants -- our country can’t make a full recovery without it, and I can’t support any deal that leaves so many people in my district behind. We must seize this historic opportunity to bring compassion and dignity to our immigration system and provide the certainty that comes with having the legal status that millions of immigrants and their families deserve.”

• It’s unclear whether immigration provisions could be included in a reconciliation bill because of the Senate’s rules requiring that provisions in such bills relate directly to spending, tax revenues, the deficit, and/or the debt limit, while extraneous or non-germane provisions are prohibited. A provision that has a budgetary impact that is only “incidental” to the non-budgetary aspects of the provision violates the so-called “Byrd rule” and must be removed for the bill to move through reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian required Democrats to remove the $15 minimum wage from their reconciliation package earlier this year.
• García’s statement underscores the difficult path Democrats face in enacting an infrastructure package along party-lines through the reconciliation process (which will be a separate process from what is expected to be used for the bipartisan infrastructure bill).
• House Democrats can only have four lawmakers vote against the package and still pass it through the lower chamber on a party-line vote. Senate Democrats will need the support of all 50 senators in their caucus to pass the bill with a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
• García may not be the only progressive Democrat to insist on the inclusion of their preferred policies in the reconciliation bill, although others haven’t made their demands public yet. 
• In the moderate wing of the House Democratic caucus, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) said in an interview that he plans to oppose the budget reconciliation process due to what he views as excessive spending, while another unnamed lawmaker told Roll Call they plan to also oppose the package.
• Assuming that García, Schrader, and the unnamed lawmaker maintain their stance and the reconciliation package doesn’t conform to their demands, Democrats can only afford to have one more lawmaker break ranks in the House when the vote comes up.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: U.S. National Archives photo by Kelsey Bell via Flickr / Public Domain)