Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, says that there would be more jobs if Republicans in the House of Representatives would stop stalling and got on with the business of passing immigration reform legislation.
The comments were made following the publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job report for June, which showed that the US economy added 288,000 jobs last month. Reid claims that this number would have been considerably higher had the immigration reform bill, which was passed over a year ago by the Senate, been passed into law by the House of Representatives.
“Comprehensive immigration reform would have added an average of 121,000 more jobs per year over the next ten years,” Reid insists. “Unfortunately, House Republicans, under the influence of the Tea Party, refused to bring it up for a vote. Their refusal is costing our economy added growth that we need.”
John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has made it clear that he has no intention of bringing the comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate to the House floor at any point in 2014. Reid claims that this inaction is stopping the reduction of the country’s deficit by $200 billion over the next decade and is calling on the Republican party to step up.
President Obama, meanwhile, has declared that Boehner’s refusal to move forward with the legislation is going to lead him to take executive action over the issue.