Boehner can’t stop a floor vote on immigration out of a conference committee

There's been a lot of speculation as to whether Speaker Boehner would bring a bill to the floor for a vote out of the conference committee that didn't have the support of a majority of House Republicans. A quick read of the following quote  provides a sigh of relief in that regard, right?

...“The Speaker said that we’re going to have a majority of the conference for anything that goes over [to the Senate] or comes back [from conference],” a lawmaker at the meeting said. 

“People were asking, ‘Well, can you guarantee me what’s going to come back from conference won’t be the Senate bill-light?’ 

“[Boehner] said, ‘I can’t guarantee what’s going to come back from conference because it hasn’t happened yet, but I can guarantee that we’re going to have something a majority of the conference accepts,’” a lawmaker in the room told The Hill....

Not so fast! Read between the lines. He promises to "...have something a majority of the conference accepts." NOT a majority of House Republicans. Who will be appointed by House leadership to serve on the conference committee? Considering that Boehner is on record as stating that immigration reform is his top legislative priority for 2013, you can be assured the group won't include anyone who could muck up the process.

Furthermore, Boehner has no power to prevent a floor vote out of conference anyway. The debate is over at that point.

.....Once a bill has been passed by a conference committee, it goes directly to the floor of both houses for a vote, and is not open to further amendment.....

Even if the conference committee serves up a crap sandwich, it will pass the House with a handful of blue state Republicans, and Boehner will claim that he "tried."  House Republicans must not allow a conference with the Senate bill. Kill the bill now!

H/T Newark Hawk for Wikipedia link

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