Thread: Johnson’s absence adds another obstacle facing immigration

Johnson’s absence adds another obstacle facing immigration bill
By Manu Raju
June 26, 2007
With the possibility that the Senate might decide the fate of the immigration bill by the slimmest of margins, the continued absence of a low-profile Democratic senator has added to the roadblocks supporters face in pushing through the carefully negotiated compromise.

The brain hemorrhage Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) suffered in December will keep him on the sidelines during this week’s much-anticipated immigration debate. The episode has forced him to miss all 226 roll call votes the Senate has cast in the 110th Congress, including nine that have been decided by a one-vote margin.

Johnson last year supported the broad immigration overhaul bill that passed the Senate but failed to clear Congress, and helped fend off amendments pro-immigration groups staunchly opposed. And he is a backer of a legalization program for the country’s 12 million illegal immigrants, a pillar of this year’s bill.

The narrowly divided Senate today is expected to approve a motion to proceed to debating the overall bill for the second time this month and possibly the final time this Congress. But it is far from clear how this week’s debate will shake out. Of the expected two dozen amendments the Senate will consider over the next few days, most of the votes will be close, according to both supporters and detractors.

Adding any amendment that strikes at the heart of the bipartisan compromise bill could prompt some supporters to withdraw their backing. And the prospects that Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) will be able to shut down debate and
bring the bill to a final vote later this week are murky at best.

Critics of the bill are regaining two votes this week: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who was out for almost two weeks after he had a benign tumor removed from his pituitary gland, and Wyoming Republican John Barrasso, who was sworn in yesterday to replace the late Craig Thomas (R) and is expected to be a reliable conservative vote in the Senate.

That makes Johnson’s loss all the more difficult for supporters of the immigration bill to swallow.

“This is like two kids that weigh the same and are sitting at opposite ends of the seesaw,â€

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