David Perdue says RAISE act will go through regular order

Sen. David Perdue said Thursday that his newly proposed immigration bill will proceed through the Senate in regular order.

“Absolutely, that’s what the American Senate is all about,” Mr. Perdue said on Fox News. “[House Judiciary] Chairman [Bob] Goodlatte in the House is talking about doing the same thing. Congressmen Lamar Smith is putting a bill just like this in the House.”

Mr. Perdue said he has already met with Charles Grassley, Iowa Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We’re going to go regular order,” he said. “We plan to move through the Judiciary Committee in due course, and right now we’re going to build support for this in the caucus.”

Regular order means the bill will go through the appropriate committees and be publicly available for everyone to read and debate prior to voting, encouraging bipartisan ideas in the process.

Mr. Perdue’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, aims to grant skilled workers visas while reducing the number of legal immigrants in the country overall. The senators argue this would close the wage disparity gap and give Americans more job opportunities.

The bill was endorsed Wednesday by President Trump.

Mr. Perdue also said Democrats who have already come out in opposition to the bill, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, should look to Canada since that’s the system they modeled their legislation on.

“Anytime a liberal politician starts fear mongering you know you’re into something good,” he said. “We modeled this off Canada, for goodness’s sake. Nancy Pelosi herself and other liberal Democrats have talked about Canada as being beacon of light. And all we’re doing is modeling this after a program that they’ve proven for decades works.”