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Reid move places bill in jeopardy |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 06/06/07 09:09 PM [ET] |
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday set the stage for a vote to limit debate on the immigration bill, a move that risks destroying the fragile reform deal.
Reid told reporters that he plans to file for cloture on the immigration bill by today at the latest, frustrating Republicans who have blasted what they consider sluggish progress on their priority amendments. While the bipartisan team of immigration negotiators have won reprieves from Reid before, the Democratic leader was unruffled by the threat of GOP “grand bargainers” joining a filibuster.
“I was asked to give another week for negotiations. I gave them that [and more],” said Reid. “This is a bill that will never, ever make a majority of Republicans happy.”
But most Republicans lined up in opposition to a quick cloture vote, even as Reid insisted that germane amendments from both parties would be taken up during the remaining debate time.
Regardless of the outcome, Reid’s original goal of finishing immigration this week is likely to slip due to a pause in session for Sen. Craig Thomas’s (R-Wyo.) funeral.
“We’re a long way away from having as many Republican amendments considered as were considered last year,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday. “It is clear to me that the overwhelming majority of our conference would insist on having extra days.”
With a handful of contentious family-reunification amendments still unconsidered, and conservatives still unwilling to swallow a probationary visa program that they consider amnesty, Republican negotiators appeared to choose their party first.
A cloture filing this week “would be a real problem,” said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), predicting that his side of the aisle would unite to filibuster the painstakingly crafted immigration bill if a cloture vote occurred this week.
“Frankly, it’s an extraordinary act of bad faith,” Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the GOP’s conference chairman, said. “[Reid] knows people have worked to get this bill in position for a bipartisan consensus.”
Reid took to the floor late yesterday to offer votes on 20 contentious amendments from both parties before debate is cut short, earning repeated objections from McConnell. The Kentuckian noted that all 20 were offered before recess and voiced complaints from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and others that Democrats have not allowed progress on many germane GOP amendments.
Sessions noted that Republicans have lamented Reid’s quick cloture filings on other bills for months.
“It’s maddening. It’s amazing,” said Sessions. “McConnell is getting a bellyful out of it.”
GOP aides questioned the wisdom of Reid’s pushing a cloture showdown that would pose as much political danger for Democrats as Republicans. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) next move is unclear, but Reid may not be moved even by the lead Democratic negotiator’s advice against cloture.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who began as part of the immigration “grand bargain” but withdrew his support for the final deal, said he has not yet decided whether to support cloture.
At the same time, talk of a possible second bargain that could save the immigration deal emerged yesterday. Such a compromise would approve some Democratic family-related amendments and some amendments that Republicans crave. Kyl signaled that a plan from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), which would require current illegal immigrants to “touch back” to their home countries before earning probationary visas, might be part of that deal.
But relations frayed so quickly that by day’s end yesterday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) indicated he would object to taking up his own amendment on limiting legalization attempts without enough time to read the alternative plan offered by Kennedy.
Also looming is another amendment, sponsored by Cornyn and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), that could secure much-needed business support for the immigration deal, although Martinez said negotiators were unlikely to accept the duo’s skilled-worker visa plan as written. One element of that amendment — a provision that would give employers extra freedom to select individual immigrant workers for visa sponsorship — is more likely to pass muster, Martinez added.
Meanwhile, the GOP’s bitter internal rift over the immigration compromise shows no signs of abating. Hours before the Republican presidential debate yesterday, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) staged a press event in the parking lot of the Manchester, N.H., office of Sen. Judd Gregg (R) to promote the “no amnesty” pledge that Tancredo has begun circulating.
Gregg condemned the event in a statement.
“There are, unfortunately, people who wish to bury their heads in the sand by ignoring the threat our present dysfunctional system represents to our country, and who are using a jingoistic and demagogic approach of opposition to immigrants as a way to raise their own political visibility,” he said.
Manu Raju contributed to this report. |
