The Hill
Gutierrez confident DREAM Act still alive; will stump for Reid
By Jordy Yager - 09/25/10 09:06 AM ET

Confident that the Senate may take another swing at the DREAM Act before leaving, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is hitting the campaign trail for the Senate’s most powerful Democrat while crediting the White House with giving the measure renewed legs.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would provide residential status to certain students who came to the U.S. illegally, fell four votes shy of the 60 needed to proceed in the Senate earlier this week after President Obama met with Gutierrez, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s Immigration Task Force, and two other pro-immigration reform lawmakers in an attempt to galvanize the Democratic base.

But Gutierrez is holding out hope that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who faces a difficult reelection bid this November, has plans to bring it back up before the upper chamber breaks for the fall.

Gutierrez pointed to a Senate rule that allows the bill, with two days' notice, to be brought to the chamber’s floor for consideration at any time. He also suggested that the Senate hold an up-or-down vote on the measure alone instead of attaching it to the defense authorization bill.

“I’m really really hopeful [that the DREAM Act will come up before the end of the year],â€