Senate Vote Shelves Immigration Bill

[Jeffrey]

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.

Republicans were united in the 38-60 parliamentary vote but Democrats, who have insisted on no amendments, lost six votes from their members. Earlier Friday, President Bush prodded lawmakers to keeping trying to reach an agreement, but both sides said the odds were increasing that a breakthrough would not occur until Congress returns from a two-week recess.

More…

breitbart.com/news/2006/04/07/D8GR7L20E.html

 

[LCMS_No_More]

Jeffrey:

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.

Republicans were united in the 38-60 parliamentary vote but Democrats, who have insisted on no amendments, lost six votes from their members. Earlier Friday, President Bush prodded lawmakers to keeping trying to reach an agreement, but both sides said the odds were increasing that a breakthrough would not occur until Congress returns from a two-week recess.

More…

breitbart.com/news/2006/04/07/D8GR7L20E.html

It’s untrue that Democrats “insisted on no amendments.” I watched the parliamentary motions that took place yesterday. The vote today was on a motion to commit on the Hagel-Martinez Amendment and it was specifically said by the Democrat leadership that they would have no objection to amendments after the cloture vote.

Truth is, the Republicans spent all morning complaining about what “the other side” was doing and how they were being obstructionist and the like.

Like I said before, I honestly believe that this is part of the Republican 2006 campaign strategy to use immigration as the big wedge issue. Nothing new but always sickening.

 

[gilliam]

Looks like Republicans had a lot to do with the bill failing:

From The Corner:
One Republican Senate staffer who’s been working on the immigration bill tells NRO how it all went down: Around Wednesday afternoon, it became clear that Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) were preparing to offer their compromise bill as an alternative to the original Judiciary Committee bill. The compromise wasn’t really a compromise at all, because both bills were big on amnesty and weak on enforcement.

On Wednesday night, as soon as the floor was clear, Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) entered the Senate chamber and added their own substitution - an enforcement-only bill that called for the construction of a fence, the addition of more enforcement personnel and broader use of surveillance technology, among other measures. Under Senate rules, their substitution blocked the Hagel-Martinez bill from consideration.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-'08) wanted a vote on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and so he sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions that the committee strip out the Sessions-Nelson enforcement bill and add in the Hagel-Martinez compromise.

The committee complied, and sent the bill back to the floor with the changes Frist wanted. This morning, the Senate voted 38-60 against cloture on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and 36-62 against cloture on the original Judiciary Committee bill - effectively killing both. The similar margins, the staffer says, “show you that the compromise didn’t get us very far.”

Posted at 06:03 PM

Looks like some Senators know we need a strong border first.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

gilliam:

Looks like Republicans had a lot to do with the bill failing:

From The Corner:
One Republican Senate staffer who’s been working on the immigration bill tells NRO how it all went down: Around Wednesday afternoon, it became clear that Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) were preparing to offer their compromise bill as an alternative to the original Judiciary Committee bill. The compromise wasn’t really a compromise at all, because both bills were big on amnesty and weak on enforcement.

On Wednesday night, as soon as the floor was clear, Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) entered the Senate chamber and added their own substitution - an enforcement-only bill that called for the construction of a fence, the addition of more enforcement personnel and broader use of surveillance technology, among other measures. Under Senate rules, their substitution blocked the Hagel-Martinez bill from consideration.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-'08) wanted a vote on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and so he sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions that the committee strip out the Sessions-Nelson enforcement bill and add in the Hagel-Martinez compromise.

The committee complied, and sent the bill back to the floor with the changes Frist wanted. This morning, the Senate voted 38-60 against cloture on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and 36-62 against cloture on the original Judiciary Committee bill - effectively killing both. The similar margins, the staffer says, “show you that the compromise didn’t get us very far.”

Posted at 06:03 PM

Looks like some Senators know we need a strong border first.

What I said all along. No real intention to actually make any reforms, just grab the issue for the election.

Cynical.