Harkin: Dems will try again on DREAM Act

Democrats will try one more time to bring up a controversial immigration bill in the lame-duck session of Congress, a key Senate chairman said Wednesday evening.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said Democrats would make one last stab at passing the DREAM Act in the Senate.

"We are going to try to bring the DREAM Act up one more time. And again, that may be filibustered by the Republicans," Harkin said on MSNBC. "If it is, well then, we'll have to be in here after Christmas."

The DREAM Act is an immigration bill that would provide a path to citizenship, under certain conditions, for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Conservatives have derided the legislation as a partial amnesty bill, though some Republicans have said they would back the legislation.

It's one of the many bills the Senate is looking to pore over in the closing days of this Congress, before Republicans take control of additional seats in January. In addition to the DREAM Act, Democrats are looking to pack a standalone repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell," a pared-down defense authorization bill, the START Treaty and a spending measure to continue funding the government.