“Queen of the hill”: the obscure House rule that could force the House to take up immigration bills

The House of Representatives has so far avoided taking up any immigration bills to address the fate of the the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and the 690,000 or so young unauthorized immigrants facing the loss of their temporary deportation protections under it.

Some members are trying to force the issue. And they’re moderate Republicans.

On Wednesday, five House Republicans — Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Will Hurd (R-TX), David Valadao (R-CA) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) introduced a discharge petition to force Speaker Paul Ryan to take up a series of immigration bills under an obscure provision called the “queen of the hill” rule. It’s probably not a coincidence that they’re some of the House’s most vulnerable Republicans in the November midterm elections (except for Diaz-Balart, a longtime Republican immigration reformer).

The “queen of the hill” plan, which was first introduced in March as a nonbinding resolution, would force votes on four different immigration bills. Two of the bills the plan’s proponents (which include the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as well as the moderate Republicans) have in mind would give permanent legal status to DACA recipients; a third would be the conservative bill written by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) that the conservative House Freedom Caucus has been pushing, which would grant temporary status to DACA recipients in exchange for deep cuts to legal immigration and beefed-up interior enforcement; and the fourth bill would be up to Paul Ryan to decide.

Paul Ryan (who has been squeamish, as speaker, on immigration, and who is trying to look out for his anointed successor as speaker Kevin McCarthy) didn’t show any interest in taking up the queen-of-the-hill plan on his own. So now, the moderate Republicans are trying to force him.

They need 219 signatures — which means they’d need to get not only every Democrat on board, but over 2 dozen Republicans. But that might not be as much of a longshot as it seems. In March, the “queen of the hill” plan’s backers said they had 240 members in favor. The question now is whether enough of them are willing not just to say they support the plan, but to use some muscle to force Paul Ryan to put it into action.

When the Trump administration announced in September that it was winding down the DACA program, members of Congress from both parties leaped to promise that they’d pass a bill in the next six months to prevent the immigrants protected by the program from losing their work permits and deportation protections en masse starting in early March.

But after it became clear that President Trump and the White House weren’t committed enough to a DACA deal to make any actual compromises — and after federal judges stepped in to partially reopen the DACA program by allowing current recipients to apply for two-year extensions while lawsuits over the program’s future make their way through the courts — most Republicans lost appetite.

The Senate held a cursory debate on immigration in February but couldn’t get 60 votes to break a filibuster on any bill (though the bill Trump supported did get 60 “no” votes). The House never moved a bill at all.

House inaction frustrated both Democrats and moderate Republicans — who were convinced the House had the votes to pass a bill to legalize DACA recipients — and Freedom Caucus members who backed the Goodlatte bill. (Ryan reportedly promised the Freedom Caucus he would bring Goodlatte’s bill to the floor but hasn’t done it yet, raising questions about whether he’s struggling to find the votes for it or just dragging his feet.)

The “queen of the hill” plan solves these problems. It would bring four bills, in a series, to the House floor for a vote, and whichever one got the biggest vote margin in favor would pass:

These bills are mutually exclusive. But because of the “queen of the hill” rule, members who supported more than one would be able to vote for more than one — because even if two bills got 218 or more votes, only one of them would actually be passed under the rule.

Normally, it’s up to the House Rules Committee (which attaches procedural rules to every bill that comes normally to the House floor) to decide when to use the “queen of the hill” rule. But Denham and company have proposed a resolution to use the rule on the four immigration bills — so if 218 members of the House voted in favor of the resolution, it would trigger the “queen of the hill” quartet. And they claim they have 218 votes, and then some.

It’s hard to get 240 members of the House to agree on anything, so if the Denham-CHC group had its math right in March, they already accomplished something impressive.

But just getting 240 people to say the “queen of the hill” plan was a good idea didn’t bring it any closer to the House floor. So now, the moderate Republicans are escalating.

Members whose priorities are stuck in limbo often threaten to start a “discharge petition” to bypass the speaker and bring a bill to the floor. But few discharge petitions can get the 218 signatures needed. If all 240 members who support the “queen of the hill” plan put their signatures where their mouths are, it actually would. Which makes it all the weirder that they’re not planning to start one — at least not yet.

Hurd said that they “reserve the right” to use procedural tools like a discharge petition if they don’t get their way. But they’re hoping they won’t have to. Denham said Wednesday that “when you can show the overwhelming majority of the House that is supportive of this, you shouldn’t need a discharge petition” — which is a little puzzling because those are the only times a discharge petition can actually be used.

Denham, Hurd, and a handful of other Republicans are in a tricky position in 2018. They’re moderates in purple (and diversifying) districts. Their ability to hang on to their seats depends on the ability to both distance themselves from Trump and make voters feel that they are getting something done that’s worth keeping them in office. Supporting a policy like the legalization of DREAMers does the first — but supporting a proposal that isn’t going anywhere doesn’t help with the second.

The “queen of the hill” plan is a sign that some Republicans might be willing to pressure their own leadership to take some action on immigration. But it’s obviously not enough on its own, and it’s still an open question how far the Republican dissidents are willing to go.