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President Biden has made it clear that he supports efforts to include a path to citizenship in the reconciliation package and expects Democrats to bring a new proposal to the Senate parliamentarian after suffering a setback earlier today , a White House the spokesperson told Fox News on Sunday evening.
Elizabeth MacDonough, a non-partisan Senate parliamentarian, has ruled that Senate Democrats cannot use the controversial $ 3.5 trillion package to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens. The Associated Press called his decision a “damaging and disheartening setback” for the administration.
But Biden’s White House didn’t seem disheartened.
“The president has made it clear that he supports Congress’ efforts to include a path to citizenship in the reconciliation package and is grateful to the leaders of Congress for all the work they are doing to make this a reality,” said the spokesperson. “The parliamentarian’s decision is deeply disappointing, but we expect our partners in the Senate to come back with alternative proposals for the parliamentarian to consider.”
The issue has been hotly contested in Washington.
Senator Lindsey Graham, RSC, told Fox News in July that the Democratic push to add amnesty to the package is a “takeover” that may be the dumbest idea in White House and Senate history.
“If you give someone legal status, there will be a leak at our border like you’ve never seen before… the dumbest idea in Senate history, the history of the White House. It will lead to the collapse of law and order beyond what you see today, ”he said.
Graham took to Twitter to congratulate the parliamentarian’s decision which he said reinforces “the Senate’s longstanding traditions that major political changes must be made in collaboration and not through the process of reconciliation.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Leader of the Senate, released a statement after the parliamentarian’s decision, saying his party was “deeply disappointed with the decision but that the struggle to provide legal status to immigrants as part of budget reconciliation continues”.
Parliamentary opinion is crucial because it means the immigration provisions could not be included in a huge $ 3.5 trillion measure that has been shielded from GOP obstructions. Left vulnerable to these deadly delays, which require 60 votes in the Senate to defuse, the language of immigration barely stands a 50-50 chance in the Senate.
In a three-page memo to senators obtained by The Associated Press, MacDonough noted that under Senate rules, provisions are not allowed in such bills if their budgetary effect is “incidental.” To their overall political impact.
Citing the sweeping changes Democrats would make in the lives of immigrants, MacDonough, a former immigration lawyer, said the language “is in every way a broad new immigration policy.”
Patrick Ward of Fox News and Associated Press contributed to this report
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