Still waiting for fuller details but Chad Pergram sees some sort of victory for tea partiers in the making. Initially, Boehner wanted to keep his own border bill separate from Ted Cruz’s and Marsha Blackburn’s bill limiting DACA, Obama’s 2012 amnesty for DREAMers. Only if House Republicans passed Boehner’s bill, the leadership insisted, would they get a vote on Cruz/Blackburn. But that was no real incentive: Either the House itself would have killed the Cruz/Blackburn bill or the Senate surely would have killed it. The only way to make DACA part of the ongoing negotiations in Congress was to add it to Boehner’s own bill, as part of the House’s formal offer to Harry Reid. I.e. “one bill, one vote.”

Mission accomplished?

New border proposal would alter Blackburn proposal to tighten up new language banning more DACA's from Obama.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2014

New GOP border proposal would block Obama from allowing more illegal immigrants already here special status.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2014

On border bill. Previous language was silent as to when DACA would be frozen. The new language freezes the program as of July 30, 2014.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2014

On the other hand:

Am told changes to border bill to coax the votes are literally a few sentences. 1 frustrated mbr says they're just "adding a few periods."

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2014

Chad Pergram’s the only reporter with details on the bill that I’ve noticed but that’s newsy enough that it’s worth flagging now. I’ll update as more details are known. As for the timetable, Pergram says they’re going to at least pay lip service to formal procedure in passing this thing even though they’ll end up ignoring Boehner’s “three-day rule” for posting the text of a bill before it’s voted on. First comes a vote authorizing the House to take up a “same day rule,” then comes the posting of the bill’s text, then comes a meeting of the House Rules Committee followed by a vote of the House on the new rule, and then finally a vote on the bill itself sometime in the late afternoon or early evening. If all goes well, the GOP will have a new message for the August recess — they’ve now formally warned the president that he should go no further than he’s already gone in granting executive amnesty. If he goes ahead and issues a mega-amnesty for adult illegals in September anyway, it’ll look more like outright defiance of the will of one branch of Congress than Congress “refusing to act” or whatever. That might help, however marginally, in the messaging war that follows.

Here’s your thread, just in case you’re following along on C-SPAN today. Updates to follow. One other point in closing in case it’s ambiguous: Cruz/Blackburn wouldn’t *repeal* DACA, it would simply close it off to new applicants. That’s a concession to the politics here. The GOP’s willing, however grudgingly, to take on Obama’s executive action, but it fears the “anti-Latino” brand enough that it won’t expel kids who are currently in the program.

Update: Speaking of the messaging war, Becket Adams wonders why congressional Republicans don’t do something bold to stress the urgency of the border crisis and cancel their recess in August. If you want to show that you’re the party that’s more serious about illegal immigration, here’s your chance:

This form of protest, which was first suggested by Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, would not only signal to the American public that House leadership gives “a damn” about the crisis, but it also would likely force the White House and the Senate to act on immigration reform (as failure to do so would invite terrible optics ahead of the November midterm elections). Obviously, getting the Obama administration to act on illegal immigration is more important than mere political posturing, the point of the protest being that it may produce a solution to the crisis.

True, it’s a bit “inside the beltway” to talk about so-called “optics” and midterms, but sticking around the city likely won’t hurt the House Republicans. So why not at least consider the idea? It seems like it could be an easy win, one that could hand a much-needed confidence boost to Republican leaders who have likely forgotten what victory feels like.

Update: At least one tea partier is satisfied.

Rep Michele Bachmann R-MN on re-worked GOP border bill: "I was a 'Hell no,' and now I can be for this bill today"

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) August 1, 2014

Update: Nope, I’m wrong. The Cruz/Blackburn bill is being split off after all.

Hse to do similar two-step as Thurs on border bills. Supplemental 1st. Then vote on new DACA. 2nd vote contingent upon passing supplemental

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 1, 2014

Not sure what’s different today from last night. Maybe Pergram’s wrong and Boehner’s agreed to allow a vote on Cruz/Blackburn no matter what; yesterday, Cruz/Blackburn wouldn’t have come to the floor unless and until Boehner’s bill passed. Or maybe the House leadership is whipping votes for Cruz/Blackburn too, so that that bill will at least pass the House before it dies in the Senate.