Thread: Critics Take Aim at Heart of Immigration Bill

June 19, 2007
Critics Take Aim at Heart of Immigration Bill
By CQ Staff, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
By Michael Sandler, CQ Staff

Senators critical of immigration legislation that is expected back on the Senate floor this week will aim 20 or so amendments at core elements of the bill, hoping to substantially alter or kill it.

The amendments, evenly divided between the two parties, go to the heart of a bipartisan deal that was negotiated behind closed doors and under the supervision of two Cabinet secretaries.

A key procedural vote that would re-open the debate will likely take place June 22, said a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid said senators should prepare for votes over the weekend.

Leadership has yet to make public an official amendment list, but a draft list of at least 20 are circulating among staff and lobbyists.

Republicans and Democrats backing the legislation — a new version of the bill (S 1639) was introduced Monday — have said repeatedly that the basic tenets of the “grand bargainâ€

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