Lack of key support has Joe Heck holding back his Dream Act bill

WASHINGTON — Were everything going according to plan, Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., would have introduced his immigration bill by now.

The second-term congressman began working in earnest almost six months ago on the draft legislation to put immigrants unauthorized to be in the United States on a pathway to citizenship provided they complete a course of post-secondary study or military service. He’d met with local and national stakeholders about it. And last week, he’d hinted strongly that a formal introduction of his version of the Dream Act — the first by a House Republican — was imminent.

Although the bill is finished — with no further changes expected — Heck has elected to sit on it, apparently waiting for a fuller coalition of support that most likely won’t come.