Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that those hoping for comprehensive immigration reform and other policy changes from Congress will be disappointed this year.
In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, McConnell tempered expectations by blaming President Barack Obama for recalcitrance on various types of policy reforms, rather than a timid Congress in a midterm election year.
"There's a lot of big important things that need to be dealt with that aren't going to happen this year," McConnell said. "These things do not get hatched in Congress and forced on a reluctant president. Never happens, 435 people in the House and a 100 people in the Senate do not collectively end up tackling tough stuff and forcing it on the president."
In February, McConnell told reporters that immigration reform wouldn't happen in 2014 due to "irresolvable conflict" between the Senate and House.
The Senate minority leader also discussed global warming and climate change with the Inquirer. According to the paper, he said he thinks climate change is not a phenomenon and is not influenced by human behavior.
"For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn't," McConnell said.
McConnell faces a challenge from the right in Kentucky's Senate primary this year from Republican businessman Matt Bevin.
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