White House waiting on Rubio for immigration bill (but hasn't issued its own)

From yesterday's White House press briefing:

Q  On immigration, has the President given any more thought on moving forward on immigration -- whether you can do it in one full package, whether he’ll end up breaking it up into separate pieces?  And has he reached out at all to Marco Rubio whose plan has been out there, and the President’s has been somewhat receptive --

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I haven’t seen a plan and I don't think anybody else has. He’s spoken about it. And the principles, as I said the other day, reflect very closely the blueprint that is available on WhiteHouse.gov for the President’s approach to comprehensive immigration reform, and we find that a good thing. 

The President looks forward to working with Congress, members of both parties. He has always said that this is the kind of thing that has to be bipartisan and has in the past enjoyed bipartisan support from Republican leaders as well as rank-and-file senators and members of Congress.

President George W. Bush, as you know, was a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, as was Senator McCain. And the President looks forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in achieving comprehensive immigration reform. He does absolutely believe that we need to do this in a comprehensive way, that that's the appropriate way to move forward to ensure that we put in place the kind of comprehensive reform that achieves all the goals that are necessary here.

Q    How soon will we see something --

MR. CARNEY:  The President has made clear that he intends to act very quickly --

Q    How soon?

MR. CARNEY:  I'm not going to hem him in by putting a timetable on it, but I think you can expect him to be true to his word, which is to take up this issue very early in his second term.  And, by the way, this is the third full day of his second term.

NOTE: The White House has not yet released legislation, though it has the 2011 framework on its website.

Posted by Alex Leary

Comments

[Farm Ted]

They are not interested in Rubio's plan, which has been out there now for the 3 weeks.