Immigration bill stalls

Bush, who has strongly lobbied for the plan, suffers big blow

By Dave Montgomery - McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, June 8, 2007

President Bush suffered a devastating setback on his top domestic priority on Thursday as a broad immigration bill collapsed in the Senate amid an apparently irreconcilable partisan standoff.

The 627-page bill was taken off the Senate floor at the end of a contentious day that saw the bill's sponsors desperately trying to resolve differences between Democrats and Republicans over GOP demands to offer additional amendments.

Senators, for the second time in a span of hours, voted overwhelmingly Thursday night against a motion to cut off debate, prompting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pull the bill. But Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both declined to proclaim the bill dead and expressed hope of resuming work on the bill if they find a way out of the deadlock.

The prospects for reviving and ultimately passing the bill, which had been roundly criticized by both core Republican voters and liberal Democrats, appeared uncertain, but supporters insisted it could be done. "We're still open for business on this bill," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a leading Republican supporter of the measure.

Crafted by a bipartisan group of senators after three months of negotiations with the White House, the bill seeks to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, create a temporary guest worker program, toughen security along the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, and crack down on employers who hire illegal workers.

Bush, who has called for immigration changes since the outset of his presidency, has aggressively committed his administration to passing the bill, even criticizing Republicans who denounce it.

If the bill isn't revived, it would mark the president's second defeat on the issue within the span of a year and would invite a political backlash in advance of the 2008 presidential election.

A diverse array of interests -- from business to pro-immigration groups to conservatives demanding toughened border security -- has long bemoaned the nation's immigration system and looked to the White House and Congress for changes.

But the compromise was laden with what even supporters called imperfections, and it failed to attract enthusiastic public support, signaling the difficulty in trying to find a solution to one of the nation's most volatile issues. An earlier immigration bill passed the Senate in 2006 but died in a stalemate with the House of Representatives.

Warnings surfaced throughout the day that the bill was in trouble after the Senate, by a vote of 33-63, rejected an initial cloture motion to shut off debate. The second cloture motion came hours later, at mid-evening, after a day of background negotiations and calls to lawmakers from White House emissaries. In the second vote, senators voted 45-50 against cutting off debate, well below the 60 votes needed for approval.

Thirty-eight Republicans, 11 Democrats and one independent voted against the motion, while seven Republicans, 37 Democrats and one independent voted for it. California's Democratic senators split their votes, Dianne Feinstein voting to end debate and advance the bill, while Barbara Boxer opposed the motion.

Reid had pressed for the cloture motions to begin winding down debate and limiting an onslaught of amendments that he claimed was aimed at killing the bill. The majority leader, while stressing the importance of immigration legislation, said the Senate had committed adequate time to the bill and needed to move on to other issues.

Republicans agreed among themselves to vote against the cloture vote to press their point that Democrats were bottling up amendments they wanted. In turn, Reid charged that the Republicans were engaging in stalling tactics and said he would withdraw the bill if the second cloture vote failed.

Reid also charged that Republicans' insistence on consideration of a long line of amendments was stalling because they did not want to move on to other topics, including Iraq, gasoline prices and whether embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should remain in office.

At least one Republican admitted he was trying to thwart the overall bill. "I've been trying to kill it since the beginning," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

But others contended they were being denied the opportunity to offer amendments to improve the legislation.

The bill's Senate architects -- nicknamed the "Grand Bargainers" -- suffered their most serious setbacks during the past two days as the Senate passed amendments that would phase out the guest worker program in five years and that would enable law enforcement officers to investigate, and likely deport, illegal immigrants who unsuccessfully applied for Z visas that would have allowed them to remain in the country legally.

Supporters on both sides of the aisle were insistent that the bill could be resurrected.

"Oh, no, it's not dead," said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the bipartisan coalition.

But Graham's fellow South Carolina Republican, Sen. Jim DeMint, said the legislation was beyond repair. "It's time to scrap this mess of a bill," he said.

Reid and other Democrats called on Bush to pressure wavering Republicans to support the measure. "We want to help him and we are helping him," Reid said. "He can't help himself."

Reid said he had tried and failed Wednesday night to wake White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in Europe, where the president was attending a G-8 summit of the leading Western economic powers and Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said it was just as well.

"With regard to the president on this issue, I hope he concentrates on G-8," Lott said.

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