Rhino
06-28-2007, 08:24 AM
Senate Immigration Reform Bill Takes Step Toward the Grave
Thursday, June 28, 2007
By Major Garrett and Trish Turner
WASHINGTON — The fragile immigration reform bill crafted in the Senate faces sudden death Thursday when a second vote is scheduled to shut down a filibuster.
If supporters don't get the 60 votes they need to end debate, then the bill is dead since the Senate schedule does not allow any more time to revive the legislation.
In an unusual admission, two leadership aides — one Democrat, one Republican — told FOX News that they have no idea how the vote will go. Vote-counting is something that is normally down to a science in the Senate chamber. The vote to end debate, called "cloture," is expected at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The mood in the Senate took a perceptible shift Wednesday as lawmakers decided not to "table," or send into permanent limbo, one of the 27 amendments approved for debate. That amendment was designed to weaken worker verification standards that are key to the measure's approach to reducing the ability of illegals to obtain work with fraudulent documents.
The Senate vote, 45-52, not to kill the amendment stops all momentum toward passage, something the White House and bipartisan Senate leadership hoped to achieve by Friday.
Under a complicated and rarely-used procedure, the immigration bill could only move forward if amendments offered to it were defeated through tabling. But after the tabling vote was defeated, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could be heard on microphones saying that he and those who support the bill were now "stuck."
Backers of the bill allowed votes on amendments they felt confident they could defeat, thereby keeping intact a carefully balanced, bipartisan compromise....
....But the Senate refused to defeat an amendment offered by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont. It was designed to lift some of the bill's requirements on employers to verify records that illegals present to obtain work......http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286973,00.html
Thursday, June 28, 2007
By Major Garrett and Trish Turner
WASHINGTON — The fragile immigration reform bill crafted in the Senate faces sudden death Thursday when a second vote is scheduled to shut down a filibuster.
If supporters don't get the 60 votes they need to end debate, then the bill is dead since the Senate schedule does not allow any more time to revive the legislation.
In an unusual admission, two leadership aides — one Democrat, one Republican — told FOX News that they have no idea how the vote will go. Vote-counting is something that is normally down to a science in the Senate chamber. The vote to end debate, called "cloture," is expected at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The mood in the Senate took a perceptible shift Wednesday as lawmakers decided not to "table," or send into permanent limbo, one of the 27 amendments approved for debate. That amendment was designed to weaken worker verification standards that are key to the measure's approach to reducing the ability of illegals to obtain work with fraudulent documents.
The Senate vote, 45-52, not to kill the amendment stops all momentum toward passage, something the White House and bipartisan Senate leadership hoped to achieve by Friday.
Under a complicated and rarely-used procedure, the immigration bill could only move forward if amendments offered to it were defeated through tabling. But after the tabling vote was defeated, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could be heard on microphones saying that he and those who support the bill were now "stuck."
Backers of the bill allowed votes on amendments they felt confident they could defeat, thereby keeping intact a carefully balanced, bipartisan compromise....
....But the Senate refused to defeat an amendment offered by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont. It was designed to lift some of the bill's requirements on employers to verify records that illegals present to obtain work......http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286973,00.html