Van Hollen on CNBC: Senate Immigration Bill Could Pass Today if Speaker Would Allow a Vote

Statement

"Well, I mean, clearly if they're saying it's the House bill or nothing, that's not going to happen. You'll probably get nothing. There is no House bill yet. I should be really clear. I mean, the Republicans don't have a plan in the House."

"We could, in the House, pass the bipartisan plan that came out of the Senate today if the Speaker were willing to put it up for vote. There is a majority to get that done. Unfortunately, he has taken the position that, at least so far, that he's only going to take up immigration reform in the House if it gets, not a majority of the full House, but a majority of the Republicans in the House. And that's a political decision, not a policy decision. And that will make it more difficult. So I've taken the odds of immigration reform from what I thought was something like 70 percent when the Senate bill had a lot of momentum -- now I would say it's 50-50. But it will depend on people focusing on the policy, as former President George Bush urged people to do."

"No, I think people should look at the issue and make a principled decision. What I fear is actually that the politics in the House are working the other way. In other words, there are a fair number, a good number of House Republican Members who actually think that comprehensive immigration reform is a good idea. But when they look at, not the national politics of this issue, but the politics in their Congressional districts, they are more worried about being attacked by someone on the tea party right in their Congressional district. So my concern is that people whose independent policy judgment says hey, they really -- we really do need to fix this problem in a comprehensive way -- that the politics in their districts are driving them to fear voting for it."

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