CIR Daily Update 5/21/07:
Senate Votes to Proceed with Floor
Debate
The Senate voted today to begin formal consideration of comprehensive
immigration reform legislation. Immediately following this vote, Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) agreed to extend debate by one week and indicated that
the Senate will resume debate after the Memorial Day recess. Consideration of
amendments to the placeholder bill S. 1348 is expected to begin tomorrow with a
substitute amendment that would replace the current contents of the bill with
the “Grand Bargain” legislation negotiated last week.
Summary of Senate Proceedings—5/21/07
The Senate began debate this afternoon on comprehensive immigration reform.
Senator Sessions (R-AL) opened today’s proceedings with a speech detailing
why the Senate should not proceed to a cloture vote today (to place a time
limit on further informal consideration of comprehensive immigration reform off
the Senate floor, and thereby overcome a filibuster and bring it to formal
debate on the floor), and cited his general opposition to the measures currently
being proposed in the so-called “Grand Bargain” comprehensive immigration
reform bill negotiated last week. Senators Bunning (R-KY), Vitter (R-LA),
Corker (R-TN) and Nelson (D-NE) echoed this opposition, and also urged the
Senate to take more time debating this complicated bill and not proceed to a
cloture vote and subsequent debate prematurely.
Senators Salazar (D-CO), Kennedy (D-MA), Graham (R-SC), Leahy (D-VT),
Martinez (R-FL), Domenici (R-NM), Specter (R-PA), Menendez (D-NJ) and McConnell
(R-KY) then spoke in support of a cloture vote on the bill, and urged their
colleagues in the Senate not to delay bringing the bill to the Senate floor for
debate. While many of these Senators who spoke in support of cloture expressed
concern over certain provisions in the bargain bill, all stated that the only
chance to make any headway on immigration reform this year was to begin formal
debate on the Senate floor immediately.
At 5:40 pm, the motion to proceed on S. 1348, the bill that the Senate
passed last year and that was introduced as a placeholder by Majority Leader
Reid (D-NV) earlier this year, was put to a cloture vote. This vote passed
69-23 in favor of invoking cloture and beginning formal debate.
Next, after cloture was invoked, Majority Leader Reid announced that his
timetable for passing the bill in the Senate would be amended. Citing the need
for extensive debate on this complex issue, the deadline for a final vote on
the bill was moved from this Friday, and extended an additional week. Debate
will therefore begin this week, halt during the Memorial Day recess next week,
and begin again the following week. A final vote is expected to take place at
the end of the second week of debate, around June 8.
After this announcement, Senator Kyl (R-AZ) announced that the bargain bill
negotiated last week would be offered tomorrow as a substitute amendment to
replace the contents of S. 1348. As of now, no agreement has been announced as
to the number of other amendments that will be introduced.
AILA believes this “bargain” is unacceptable and unworkable in its
current form. However, while the process is still very much in flux, we
are working closely with our allies to improve the bargain as much as possible
during Senate floor debate over the next few weeks. We will keep you posted
about amendment information as it becomes available.