The answer is, try somewhere else. Rubio is hoping to convince other Senate committee chairmen — all Democrats, of course — to hold hearings on the bill. It’s not clear if he’ll have any luck. So Rubio is also discussing the possibility that the Republican Policy Committee, a GOP group headed by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, might hold hearings of its own.
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Of course, any Republican Policy Committee hearings would be more accurately described as “hearings,” since they would be a partisan exercise and not the work of an actual Senate committee. In that sense, GOP “hearings” on immigration might be similar to sessions Democrats held during the Iraq War, when they wanted to examine the Bush administration’s handling of the war but did not control either House or Senate and could not force any regular committees to do anything.
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