WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama intensifies pressure for wide-ranging immigration reforms, some Republicans in the Congress on Wednesday made clear that a less ambitious, piecemeal approach might be more realistic for 2013.

Lawmakers are divided over how to update the nation’s immigration laws while also dealing with the 11 million undocumented foreigners living in the United States. Also complicating the passage of legislation this year is both parties’ efforts to woo Hispanic votes in the 2014 congressional elections.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, seeking to help the Republican Party shed its image as a defender of the rich, stressed his working-class upbringing and the need to save social safety net programs during his response on Tuesday to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

The back-to-back speeches by Obama and Rubio underscored the differences between Democrats and Republicans that have brought gridlock to Washington for more than two years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Marco Rubio, seeking to help the Republican Party shed its image as a defender of the rich, planned to stress his working-class upbringing and the need to save social safety net programs during his response on Tuesday to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

For Rubio, 41, the speech represented a potential star-making moment at a time when Republicans are desperate to reach out to the nation’s fast-growing Latino population, which voted overwhelmingly for Obama and Democrats in the November elections.

Feb 7 (Reuters) – Facing government spending
cuts that could delay air travelers, pare education programs for
the poor and weaken military readiness, Democrats in the U.S.
Congress this week sought to shift the deficit-reduction burden
to the rich.

Without congressional action, about $85 billion in
across-the-board spending cuts are set to begin on March 1. If
allowed to continue, they could slow economic growth this year,
according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

LEESBURG, Virginia (Reuters) – Facing government spending cuts that could delay air travelers, pare education programs for the poor and weaken military readiness, Democrats in Congress this week sought to shift the deficit-reduction burden to the rich.

Without congressional action, about $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts are set to begin on March 1. If allowed to continue, they could slow economic growth this year, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats in the House of Representatives will unveil a proposal on Thursday to combat gun violence, including a bid to ban assault weapons, party sources said.

In addition to outlawing semi-automatic assault weapons and imposing limits on high-capacity ammunition clips, the House Democrat package, like one advanced by Democratic President Barack Obama, would require that all gun buyers be subject to background checks and provide for improvements in mental health services.

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The first major U.S.
immigration reform effort since 1986 came under attack on
Tuesday from congressional Republicans who cast doubt on a
proposal backed by President Barack Obama to give 11 million
illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens.

An immigration overhaul suddenly looked possible last week
when a group of senators from both parties launched a reform
campaign. But it has not taken long for partisan rancor to
emerge.

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House
of Representatives on Tuesday challenged President Barack
Obama’s central goal for immigration reform that would put 11
million undocumented residents on a path to citizenship, adding
fresh doubts on whether legislation can be passed this year.

During a kick-off hearing, House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Bob Goodlatte explored a possible “middle ground”
between the current U.S. policy of deporting those who have come
to the United States illegally and of placing them on a path to
citizenship, as Obama has demanded.

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. immigration system is
badly in need of reform but Congress should not rush legislation
to President Barack Obama, who is demanding prompt action, a
leading Republican said on Tuesday.

In the first of a series of hearings planned by the House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee, Chairman Bob Goodlatte
warned a packed hearing room that his panel “needs to take the
time to learn from the past so that our efforts to reform our
immigration laws do not repeat the same mistakes.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will seek to build momentum for immigration reform this week ahead of his State of the Union address, which is expected to challenge Republicans to take up an overhaul amid an increasingly contentious debate in Washington.

Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on Tuesday to lobby for their support, and he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to tout the administration’s border security efforts.