At a Racine, WI town hall meeting, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) announced the House’s pending plan to vote on important immigration legislation in the fall.  Since the June passing of the Senate immigration bill, the House has been hard at work on this issue. According to Ryan, however, the highly anticipated vote will have to wait until October as the House is in recess during August, and is only open for 9 days in September, when important votes on the economy will likely take precedence.

Come October, Ryan reported that votes on bills tackling a variety of immigration issues will take place:   “We’re going to vote on a border security bill, we’re going to vote on an interior enforcement bill, like the workplace verification and the visa tracking.  We’re going to vote on a legal immigration bill for visas, for agricultural workers, for skilled workers.” In addition, Ryan mentioned the creation of a 15-year pathway to citizenship plan (in contrast with the Senate Bill’s proposed 13 year path) with a probationary visa for undocumented immigrants.

Currently the House Judiciary Committee has cleared four pieces of legislation that would overhaul different aspects of the immigration system, while the House Homeland Security Committee has passed a border-security bill that has earned bipartisan support.  For now, the final outcomes will have to wait until October.