Pelosi was asked about the legislative strategy during a dinner with about 70 supporters of the advocacy group, which grew out of the president’s re-election campaign. She said leadership was still deciding to press forward with the legislative maneuver, noting that doing so would take 30 legislative days.

With a discharge petition, Pelosi could force a House vote on the Senate bill by gathering 218 signatures — meaning she’d need just 18 Republicans to sign on. That proposition has many Democrats who see the odds of a comprehensive immigration bill with a pathway to citizenship emerging organically from the House as low.

But the maneuver is seen as a direct rebuke of House leadership, and it would be tough to find that many GOP defectors who both support the bill and would be willing to upset leadership.