DENVER – When Congress gets back to work next month, people shouldn’t expect to see a comprehensive immigration bill pass.
Instead, the country should get ready for another fight on the national debt, and whether the government should be drastically cut or temporarily shut down.
That’s the message from a gathering Wednesday of six of the seven U.S. House members from Colorado.
Congress is on break for the month of August, but when the members return, they will be staring at October deadlines for raising the national debt limit and passing a budget.
At the same time, President Barack Obama’s health care law goes into effect, and Republicans are facing pressure from their base to defund the government in order to block Obamacare.
Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, predicted that an immigration reform bill passed by Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate would go nowhere in his chamber.
“If the goal is to have the Senate bill before the House, that’s not going to happen,” Gardner said. “I don’t believe it has majority support in the House of Representatives.”
The pessimism was bipartisan. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, also doubts that immigration reform will pass.
“I will be very happy and surprised if we get this immigration bill in front of us. There is a faction of the Republican Party that just won’t have it,” Perlmutter said.
Instead, Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, pushed for several smaller bills to tackle the immigration issue – a strategy advocated by House Republican leaders.
Tipton said Washington insiders are too hung up on doing immigration reform in one comprehensive bill.
“It is time to go through in a thoughtful, businesslike fashion, and actually fix it,” Tipton said.
But Rep, Dianna DeGette, D-Denver, suspects other motives.
“It seems to me that this argument that we should have a piecemeal approach is just an excuse for really not doing anything comprehensive,” DeGette said.
The representatives spoke at a rare gathering in Colorado of six of the seven members of Colorado’s U.S. House delegation, sponsored by the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, a business lobbying group.
Among the House delegation, only Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, did not attend.
All six members tried to make business-friendly pitches to the crowd.
Tipton said businesses need fewer regulations and greater certainty.
“Businesses continue to see the goalposts moving when it comes to regulation,” he said.
Tipton also said Congress should get rid of many of the incentives and deductions built into the tax system.
“It should not be government picking winners and losers in the tax code,” he said.
Tipton did not specify which incentives he would end. Representatives got just two minutes to answer each question.
Perlmutter said a much better way to provide certainty for businesses is to end the possibility that Congress will default on the federal debt.
“The game of chicken that’s being played by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate and the White House is the root of the uncertainty,” Perlmutter said. “We are playing dangerous games with the full faith and credit of this country.”
The government’s debt ceiling will need to be raised by mid-October to avoid a default. Congress has flirted with default before, and one credit rating agency downgraded the country’s pristine debt rating as a result.
Many members of Congress are holding town hall meetings during the summer break. Tipton will be in Durango on Tuesday and Pagosa Springs on Wednesday.
Congress returns to session on Sept. 9.
joeh@cortezjournal.com