Update May 28th: Connection between Sotomayor pick for Supreme Court and the June 8th meeting, here.
Just now Rush Limbaugh said that Obama hasn’t yet scheduled a White House forum of sorts on immigration reform, but I had just read last night that he has. It apparently will be a little different then the previous Delphi Technique meetings in that it will be with only legislators.
From last week at Politico:
President Barack Obama is inviting members of Congress to the White House for a June 8 meeting to highlight immigration reform, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO Wednesday.
“The meeting will be an opportunity to launch a policy conversation that we hope will be able to start a debate that will take place in Congress later in the year,” the official, who asked not to be named, said.
Asked if the session would be billed as a summit or a forum, like similar meetings on health care and fiscal responsibility earlier in the year, another official said, “This isn’t a forum or a summit with outside groups, this is solely a meeting with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the issue.”
Readers concerned with reform of refugee resettlement, don’t get your hopes up, this reform is strictly involved with Amnesty and may not even be pushed this year. Can you imagine in the middle of massive unemployment the firestorm such a move would set off among the general public. I would love to see it happen—-the firestorm, that is!
Immigration reform advocates have been pressing Obama to vow to pass immigration reform this year. He has promised make the issue a priority, but has stopped short of setting a goal of getting a bill through Congress by December.