CHC Delays Vote on Curbelo Membership

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) last week was expected to invite Congressman Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) to join their Caucus. However, that vote never happened. Instead, CHC members voted 19-8 to delay the vote to even invite Curbelo. Two members told the Washington Examiner that the Caucus got ahead of its membership. One CHC member said they were “going to go ballistic” had Curbelo been voted in. Some of the resistance to welcoming Curbelo is related to the fact that he hasn’t wholeheartedly supported a clean DREAM Act. The tension over whether or not to let Curbelo join is a dramatic reversal from what CHC Chair Congresswoman Michelle Luján Grisham (D-NM) told McClatchy last week. Curbelo was certainly expected to be welcomed, Grisham said, and more GOP members would be invited shortly thereafter. The CHC used to be bipartisan, but the Republican members left in the late 1990s over policy differences, and in 2003, formed their own group, the Congressional Hispanic Conference. Currently, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus includes 31 Dems, and touts itself as a forum for Hispanic members to coalesce around and advance priorities of the Latino community. More here.