Shamnesty on the Senate floor, Day 2, Take 2
Menendez amendment fails, Kyl amendment passes
Hillary and Obama make appearances
Lindsay Graham has a hissy fit; Inhofe's English declaration passes
Clinton, Obama fail; Dorgan sunset passes
By Michelle Malkin · June 06, 2007 08:35 PM
Update: 12:40am Senate adjourned until 10am...Reid has called for a vote later today on a motion to limit debate to 30 additional hours...It's the "moment of truth" now...Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been an eloquent and stalwart amnesty opponent, says tonight: "I think enthusiasm is waning for the legislation..."

Chicago Tribune says Dorgan amendment "may have critically jeopardized the measure as it enters final days of consideration." More from Sen. Sessions:

Supporters of the bill claimed victory not only over the temporary worker program, but over the bill's entire process.
"No one has the right to meet in secret with special-interest groups and write a bill and ram it down the throats of the United States Senate," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a critic of the bill who voted to kill the guest worker program. "I hope today people begin to see that a small group of senators … don't have the power to say we can't have an amendment and we can't change it."


Update: 12:20am 6/7...Scroll for amendment updates...not on the Senate page yet, but hearing that the Dorgan amendment to sunset the Y visa program after 5 years, SA 1316 passed 49-48...confirmed...here's the roll...



The Dorgan amendment had failed by one vote two weeks ago. Six senators changed their votes and one senator who hadn't voted sided with the yeas. Here are the vote-switchers:

Switched from nay to yea:

R - Bunning, DeMint, Dole, Enzi
D - Menendez

Switched from yea to nay:
R - Grassley

Switched from no vote to yea:
Dodd

AP reports on the vote as a potential deal-breaker:

Shortly after midnight, the Senate voted 49-48 to end a new temporary worker program after five years. The vote reversed the one-vote outcome on the same amendment — offered both times by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. — two weeks ago. Six senators switched their votes, reflecting the issue's political volatility.
The temporary worker program is crucial to many business groups, and the bill's backers vowed to try on Thursday to undo the damage. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he or his allies would slightly reword Dorgan's amendment and hope for a change of heart by one or more senators who "don't want to kill the bill."

Dorgan, who contends that immigrants take many jobs Americans could fill, said no one in the debate "is talking about the impact on American workers."

"There are a lot of people here who want jobs and can't find jobs, and find downward pressure on their incomes," Dorgan said.


Allah mulls it over: Is this the killer amendment?

Update: Here's more on Lindsay Graham's embarrassing hissy fit against Barack Obama and on behalf of John McCain, which continued off the Senate floor...

Update: The White House thinks we are all idiots. Message to White House: Look in the mirror. Conservatives not amused.

Update: Latest AP coverage--"Immigration deal survives Senate threat...A proposed immigration overhaul narrowly survived strong Senate challenges Wednesday, boosting its backers' hopes that the fiercely debated legislation might soon win passage and advance to the House..."

Picking up from my liveblogging earlier today, debate on S.1348, the shamnesty bill, resumed tonight on the Senate floor at 6:45pm. Numbers USA previewed tonight's action:

* The main thrust of Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) SA 1250 is that information provided illegal alien applicants for amnesty, as provided for by the compromise proposal, could be shared with intelligence and law enforcement officials at all levels, thus encouraging real enforcement of our immigration laws.
* Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is offering SA 1331, which would prohibit any provision of this bill from impacting the Internal Revenue Code's treatment of illegal aliens' eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

* On the flip side, Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R-Ala.) SA 1234 would prohibit guestworkers imported pursuant to this bill and illegal aliens granted amnesty under this measure from claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit unless their status is adjusted to lawful permanent resident.

* A proposal considered a "deal breaker" by some of the bill's Republican proponents – notably, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the lead Republican in the "compromise" negotiations (see below) – SA 1194, sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), would add 110,000 green cards a year for adult children and sibling backlog reduction and revise the cut-off date for reducing the “backlogâ€