Congressional Hispanic Caucus: No Deal On Health Care, Immigration

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) says it has not, in fact, come to any agreement that would effectively trade votes on health care for the promise that the White House and Democratic leaders will move forward with immigration reform before the end of the year.

The CHC disputed a report that its members would demand a guarantee on immigration in exchange for their "yes" votes on a final health reform package containing language from the Senate bill that would bar illegal immigrants from getting coverage through the new insurance exchanges the bill would create.
"The CHC's position remains the same: it opposes provisions in the Senate health care bill that would negatively impact immigrants," a CHC spokesperson said.

It should be acknowledged that, according to the anonymous sources cited in TPMDC's original story, CHC members wouldn't admit to the deal publicly, for fear of giving the impression that they'd given in on an important goal. But the CHC is now on record disputing that there is such an agreement.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/01/congressional-hispanic-caucus-no-deal-on-health-care-immigration/32997/