John Boehner says he won't support a bill that violates 'the principles of our majority.' Boehner requires GOP support

Speaker John Boehner privately tried to assure conservatives in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he wouldn’t advance an immigration bill through the House without the support of the majority of Republicans.

Boehner acknowledged that he has violated this principle — called the Hastert rule — before, but only when there is “zero leverage,” or a bad alternative, such as on the fiscal cliff and hurricane relief.


“Let me be clear,” Boehner said, according to a source in the closed GOP meeting, “Immigration is not one of these scenarios. We have plenty of leverage. And I have no intention of putting a bill on the floor that will violate the principles of our majority and divide our conference. One of our principles is border security. I have no intention of putting a bill on the floor that the people in this room do not believe secures our borders. It’s not gonna happen.”

( PHOTOS: 20 quotes on immigration reform)

Boehner reminded the closed Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club that former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) — the namesake — also broke the pledge on campaign finance reform. And he added that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved ahead with a minority of her party’s members when it came to funding the Iraq war.

The speaker called the issue a non-story.

He repeated his comments afterwards, at a news conference. But asked if he would require majority Republican support on a bill that came out of a formal negotiation with the senate, Boehner said “we’ll see when we get there.”

Boehner has repeatedly said that he wants to get an immigration bill out of this Congress, but on Tuesday, he began blaming Democrats for inaction. In the closed meeting, the speaker said the White House has “adopted a strategy of ensuring nothing is enacted before the 2014 elections.”

Asked after the meeting if he could lose his job over violating the Hastert rule, Boehner said “Maybe.”

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