Another one of those ‘PASS THE BILL TO SEE WHAT’S IN IT’ manuevers.  The last time did not work out too well.  [See: Obamacare] 

WASHINGTON DC – Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy vowed to move swiftly on immigration  legislation despite calls from conservatives, including Sen. Marco Rubio, to  slow the process.

Reacting to a Rubio (R-Fla.) letter over the weekend calling for extensive  hearings on the soon-to-be-unveiled immigration bill by a group of eight  senators, the Vermont Democrat said his panel would “consider” holding a hearing  on the measure once it was introduced. But Leahy raised concerns that waiting  too long could undermine the larger effort to pass the comprehensive bill,  calling the matter “urgent.”

Senate “Gang of Eight”

“While you have conducted the process of the ‘gang of eight’ behind closed  doors, I can assure you that it has always been my position … that the work of  the Committee should be open to the public,” Leahy said in a Tuesday letter, “so  I have every intention of ensuring that debate and consideration of any future  comprehensive immigration reform legislation will be thorough and will be  conducted in open session and streamed live on the Judiciary Committee website.”  (READ MORE)

WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE – President Obama believes that the expected bipartisan immigration reform proposal should not receive extended scrutiny by lawmakers in committee, according to his spokesman, who said that immigration debates in past year should suffice.

“[A]s veterans of the Senate know, this issue has been under consideration at very serious levels periodically for a long time now,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during the gaggle today.  “There is a great need to act on comprehensive immigration reform and a great opportunity to do it now, as the President has made clear.  It has been in the past, and seems to be now, a bipartisan priority.  And that is as it should be, in the President’s view.”

Carney was rejecting Rubio’s call for “regular order,” which would entail multiple hearings on the bill and provide senators with greater latitude to offer amendments to the bill. (read more)