Democrats have a ransom problem. A key ally doesn’t support them holding this specific “hostage.”House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and some Democrats are trying to leverage the budget vote to extract a vote on an unrelated immigration bill.Speaker Paul D. Ryan used the “hostage” language, but the Republican author of the bipartisan immigration measure Democrats are pushing is not backing Pelosi & Co.’s effort either, even though he agrees with the underlying request.“I’ve been supportive of funding our government, so I think we should just have a clear and easy [vote],” Texas GOP Rep. Will Hurd said. “I don’t know why there’s reticence to having a vote on something like this.”Hurd said he’d most likely vote for the budget deal but said he never reveals his actual vote until after casting it, in case of last-minute changes.While Hurd, one of the most vulnerable incumbents this year, obviously wants a vote on the bipartisan immigration bill he authored with California Democrat Pete Aguilar, he just doesn’t want to risk a government shutdown to get it.“I’ve made it very clear,” he said. “My name is obviously on it. … We [should] get it to the president’s desk. And if people have some suggestions, let’s have them in there.”Watch: Ryan — I Don’t Want to Risk a Veto On Immigration Bill That Trump Doesn’t Support[jwp-video n="1"]Democrats aren’t demanding a solo vote on the Hurd-Aguilar bill. They’ve said they would like an open debate under a rule known as “queen of the hill” that would allow Republicans to put up on the floor a conservative bill by House Judiciary and any other measure they want.But under queen of the hill rules, the bill with the most votes above the required simple-majority threshold wins. Of the existing immigration proposals the House has to choose from, the most likely top vote-getter would be Hurd-Aguilar.Ryan on Thursday committed to a floor vote on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program at some point and signaled it would come before the March 5 deadline. But he wouldn’t commit to the rule it would be brought up under. He stressed he still stands by his position that he would only bring up a bill that has President Donald Trump’s support because he doesn’t want to risk a veto.Trump opposes the Hurd-Aguilar measure, which has a companion Senate measure introduced this week by Arizona Republican John McCain and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons.Hurd said he supports the queen of the hill strategy. A handful of other moderate Republicans signed on to a Problem Solvers Caucus letter to Ryan Wednesday also backing that process.“This isn’t rocket science,” Hurd said. “Let’s have an open process.”
