White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan just told reporters on a conference call that the White House supports removing a provision of the immigration bill that gives the government just 24 hours to complete background checks on illegal immigrants. “Frankly, we think there’s been a fair amount of misunderstanding” about the provision, Kaplan said. He added that the White House still thinks the 24-hour provision is a good one, but has decided to support a set of amendments put forward by Sen. Lindsey Graham that includes the removal of the 24-hour measure. “We don’t think the 24-hour requirement would have had the negative effect” that critics claimed, Kaplan said, but, “We recognize it has been something of a concern.”
On the bigger picture, Kaplan said he is “optimistic” that Senate supporters of the bill will have the needed 60 votes to bring the bill back under consideration tomorrow. “Our intelligence suggests that there will be the 60 votes there to move on with the bill,” Kaplan said. Asked what the White House would do if there are not the votes, Kaplan said, “We’re expecting to prevail, so we’re not making backup plans.”