Obama pushes House to pass immigration bill before recess
During his trip to South Africa President Barack Obama urged the House of Representatives to send him an immigration bill before Congress takes its August recess.
A man stands next to posters stuck on the Federal Building at a 24-hour vigil calling on Congress to pass immigration reform in Los Angeles Thursday.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Pretoria, South Africa
President Barack Obama is urging the House to quickly send him an immigration bill, saying there's more than enough time to do so before Congress takes its August recess.
Obama says he has urged both House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to find a way to pass a bill. He says a sweeping immigrationmeasure that cleared the Senate with a large bipartisan majority Thursday is a "sound framework" that has been debated for weeks.
Obama says the House has a "bunch of weeks" to get the bill done and "now's the time."
Boehner has said the House will craft its own bill and not simply take up the Senate version.
Obama spoke Saturday during a news conference in South Africa with President Jacob Zuma.