Harry Reid told KNPR today that if immigration passes the house and goes to conference it “would lead to the win.”
Reid also called the Tea Party members “modern day anarchists.”
The Politico reported, via KNPR:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared Friday that the Senate’s immigration bill would “win” if the two chambers ever went into bicameral negotiations to pass a comprehensive reform bill.
During an interview on KNPR, a public radio station based in Las Vegas, Reid said he feared that House Republicans would prevent a conference even if the chamber passed some small-bore immigration bills.
“If we go to conference, we would win,” Reid said, arguing that public opinion was on the side of the Senate and its Gang of Eight bill, which overhauls essentially every corner of the U.S. immigration system.
Views such as Reid’s is precisely why conservatives in the House are reticent to go into a conference committee with the Senate on immigration. Many components of the Gang of Eight’s legislation – such as the 13-year pathway to citizenship – are anathema to House Republicans.