Thread: CNN: Amendments Threaten Immigration deal

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/22/ ... index.html
with video

Amendments threaten immigration deal

Story Highlights

• NEW: Two amendments seek to alter immigration bill's guest worker program
• One amendment would cut program in half, other would eliminate it
• Senator said amendments would throw bill out of kilter but not off track
• Senators back off Memorial Day deadline, give bill two weeks of debate

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Tuesday could debate and vote on two Democratic amendments that would dramatically alter the bipartisan legislation announced last week.

The bill is the result of a deal struck after nearly three months of bipartisan talks and endorsed by the White House last week. It would offer the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now in the United States a path to citizenship, boost border controls and establish a guest-worker program that would grant two-year residency for up to 400,000 people.

North Dakota Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan's amendment would eliminate the guest worker program entirely. The amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, would cut the program in half.

Many Democrats don't like the program because they think it drives down wages for American workers and creates a permanent underclass of immigrant workers.

Republicans generally favor a strong guest worker program because businesses say they need the labor.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, one of the negotiators who crafted the agreement, said he is concerned about both amendments passing but especially Bingaman's because a similar amendment passed last year with 79 votes.

Graham said passage of the amendment "would throw things out of kilter but not completely off track."

No word yet what Republicans will offer as an amendment but Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, said Monday he's hoping it will be his proposal to make English the official language of the U.S.

Key bill negotiators are to huddle privately before floor action begins to determine how they'll vote on the various amendments. They say they'll do this each day to ensure they can preserve the "grand bargain" they forged.

The bill survived its first hurdle Monday evening, a 69-23 procedural vote that brought the measure to the Senate floor. Opponents argued the 380-page bill needed closer scrutiny before coming before the chamber, but they fell short of the 41 votes needed to keep it off the floor.

Some lawmakers complained they have not yet finished reading the 380-page bill, which was distributed over the weekend.

"Why are we in the midst of this rush to judgment, this rush to pass this bill?" asked Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana. "I believe there's a very simple political answer, and it is that if the American people fully understood what is buried in this bill, there would be a massive outcry against it."

Vitter complained that the legislation was coming to the floor without review by Senate committees or an analysis of its financial impact by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. And Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, said the bill "needs some time to be disinfected by the light of day."

Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, said the bill "needs some time to be disinfected by the light of day."

I love this man... tell it like it is Sir...disinfected is right[/quote]

"Why are we in the midst of this rush to judgment, this rush to pass this bill?" asked Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana. "I believe there's a very simple political answer, and it is that if the American people fully understood what is buried in this bill, there would be a massive outcry against it."

BINGO!!!