Haley Barbour: Immigration Timeline In Congress ‘Overly Optimistic’
Former Govs. Haley Barbour (R) and Ed Rendell (D), members of a Bipartisan Policy Center task force on immigration, had a word of warning on Wednesday for optimistic lawmakers: passing reform may be a long process, possibly even stretching into the 2014 election year.
“Having been in the White House in ’86, the last time we did this, I know it is complex and contentious,” Barbour said at a briefing with reporters, referring to the last passage of major immigration reform, when he was political director for President Ronald Reagan. “There are a lot of issues, a lot of which don’t get written about in the press, and to me it’s a little bit overly optimistic to be talking about what we’re going to get done this spring or before the August recess.”
Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi, and Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania, said they weren’t so sure that timelines set out by Congress were achievable. The so-called gang of eight working on immigration reform in the Senate is aiming for a bill next month, passage later in the spring, and then getting the bill through the House by August at best, or at least the end of the year.
Huffington Post
3/20/13
Magnolia Tribune
