[Mb-civic] Bush Begins Push for Immigration Deal With Congress - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Bush Begins Push for Immigration Deal With Congress

By Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 25, 2006; A04

IRVINE, Calif., April 24 -- Under pressure from Republicans to play a 
bigger role in the immigration debate, President Bush will begin meeting 
key lawmakers Tuesday to help forge a bipartisan agreement by Memorial 
Day to offer some undocumented workers a path to citizenship.

But White House aides emphasized that Bush has no intention for now of 
staking clear legislative positions on the immigration bill. He does not 
want to embrace a proposal, only to see it lose once House and Senate 
negotiators try to reach a final agreement, whose prospects are still 
seen as remote on Capitol Hill.

For a president eager to show he still wields power in Washington, the 
immigration issue is looming ever larger. Beyond a few smaller energy 
and science proposals, legislation to tighten the nation's borders, 
address the 12 million illegal immigrants already here and offer new 
avenues for legal employment for immigrants may be the only major 
domestic initiative still attainable for Bush this year.

Speaking here to the Orange County Business Council, in a region where 
the competing arguments about immigration are in constant tension, Bush 
rebuked those who believe the answer is sending illegal immigrants back 
home.

"Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic. It's just not 
going to work," Bush said, while anti-immigration demonstrators chanted 
outside the hotel. "You can hear people out there hollering it's going 
to work. It's not going to work."

As Bush's comments suggested, the issue has left his party deeply 
divided between conservatives who favor a bill that only clamps down on 
illegal immigration, and others who believe any immigration legislation 
must maintain a supply of low-cost labor for an economy dependent on it. 
A compromise forged in the Senate this month is locked in a procedural 
stalemate, even though it appears a clear bipartisan majority supports it.

"The president . . . has to get involved in immigration right now," said 
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), an architect 
of the compromise.

But beyond general calls for a comprehensive approach to the immigration 
issue, Bush has refused to say exactly what he wants in a bill. In his 
speech to the business council, he again stopped short of endorsing a 
particular bill. Instead, he spoke favorably of components of the 
middle-of-the-road approach that Specter and the bipartisan group of 
senators are pursuing.

The president called the Senate group's idea of allowing illegal 
immigrants an easier path to citizenship the longer they have been here 
an "interesting approach" that Congress must debate. Work visas should 
be temporary, he said, but "the definition of temporary will be decided 
in halls of Congress."

To Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a co-author of the compromise, 
Bush's statements amounted to an endorsement of the bill at a critical 
time. Other Democrats -- and many Republicans -- were not so sure.

"I had hoped that the president would finally weigh in and exert some 
leadership, but that did not happen again today," said House Minority 
Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).

A senior aide said Bush -- after private discussions with Senate 
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert 
(R-Ill.) -- is trying to push Republicans for a compromise before 
Memorial Day that does not alienate either his party's conservative base 
or the fast-growing Latino community.

Tuesday's meeting will be heavy on senators favoring the Senate 
compromise, including Frist, Specter and John McCain (R-Ariz.), Mel 
Martinez (R-Fla.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Minority Leader Harry M. 
Reid (D-Nev.), Kennedy, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Joseph I. Lieberman 
(D-Conn.).

Of those invited, only Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has 
not endorsed the plan. In contrast, its most vociferous opponents, 
including Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), will not be there.

But Bush is resisting pressure from members to take the lead hands-on 
role in cementing a congressional compromise, aides said. The White 
House first wants to see if the Senate can strike a bipartisan agreement 
on its own. Bush does not want to be seen as interjecting himself 
prematurely while the legislative debate remains fluid.

Bush's strategy, said aides, is to press for a Senate deal and step up 
his personal involvement to get the House to agree to its parameters. 
Many House leaders, including Hastert, have told Bush they are open to 
softening the bill they passed in December and allowing illegal 
immigrants a road to citizenship, as long as it includes stiff financial 
penalties and back taxes for illegal immigrants who seek lawful work 
papers, and strong border enforcement. White House advisers see the 
debate playing out like previous ones over Medicare and tax cuts, in 
which Bush allows Congress a lot of leeway and then comes in at the end 
to help secure a deal -- and claim credit.

White House officials consider the next few months critical to Bush's 
domestic agenda. With the budget season in full swing, Congress will 
also consider new spending for math and science training and other 
components of the president's "competitiveness initiative," a 
centerpiece of Bush's 2006 wish list.

The House and Senate will also debate Bush-backed plans to provide new 
incentives for production and use of domestic fuel sources such as 
ethanol and hydrogen. The energy debate is moving to the top of the 
agenda with gasoline prices expected to hold at $3 or more per gallon 
throughout the summer.

White House aides are scrambling to find new proposals to hold down gas 
prices and deflect criticism that Bush is doing little to ease consumer 
pain at the pump. Bush plans to put increasing pressure on companies to 
prove they are not colluding to drive up prices, though Republican aides 
concede the move is mostly cosmetic.

All of this must be done with an eye toward holding down overall 
government spending. Conservative activists have told top officials the 
chief concern of many Republican voters is not the war or even the rash 
of scandals but the growth of government under Bush.

A key part of the Bush political recovery plan, which aides hope will 
result in what they jokingly call a "Bolten bounce," is persuading the 
Republican Congress to cut spending before the August congressional 
recess. New White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten has told aides 
he hopes the addition of former congressman Rob Portman as head of the 
budget office and other forthcoming changes will help facilitate a 
willingness to make tough budget cuts.

One key congressional aide will not be leaving, according to White House 
sources: Candida Perotti Wolff, the head of the legislative affairs 
office. At a morning meet with top aides, Bolten said that he has full 
confidence in Wolff and that she will be staying, the sources said. 
Bolten also reaffirmed his support for White House counsel Harriet 
Miers, the sources said.

Still, the budget-cutting efforts may prove difficult -- Congress has 
already rejected Bush's call for trimming entitlement spending. Worried 
about conservatives sitting out the November elections to protest 
spending, White House and top congressional officials are planning a 
summer push for legislation on abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell 
research to excite social conservatives. After losing control over 
policy as part of the White House shake-up, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl 
Rove is expected to focus intensely on maximizing voter turnout, as he 
did in the 2004 presidential race.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/24/AR2006042401450.html?nav=hcmodule
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