The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday rejected the idea of giving immigrants in the United States illegally a special pathway to citizenship, and said the House must chart its own course on immigration even if it never results in a bill President Barack Obama can sign.

For many House conservatives, President Barack Obama's decision to delay a central provision of his health care law has emerged as a major arguing point not against that law but in opposition to immigration legislation.

A White House senior adviser is accusing the House GOP of "cruel hypocrisy" for contemplating legal status for unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children without also legalizing their parents.

With House action now on hold until September at earliest, immigration bill backers see Congress' monthlong August recess as crucial to their cause.

Unlike the comprehensive, bipartisan bill that cleared the Senate last month, the House Judiciary Committee has cleared four smaller immigration measures in recent weeks, none of which would include the possibility of citizenship.

The Congressional Budget Office says an immigration bill passed by the Senate would cut illegal immigration by one-third to one-half beyond what would happen under existing law.

The Senate votes to pass a measure offering the prize of U.S. citizenship to millions.

White House-backed immigration legislation is gaining momentum in the Senate, where lawmakers say they are closing in on a bipartisan compromise to spend tens of billions of dollars stiffening the bill's border security requirements without delaying legalization for millions living in the country unlawfully.