Senate Revives Immigration Bill

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
WASHINGTON NEWS
Senate Revives Immigration Bill
After days of doubt about whether the revived Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill could attract the 60 votes needed to survive a procedural barrier, it did so Tuesday with several votes to spare. While the 64-35 vote was not strictly along party lines, it was primarily supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans.

Media coverage of the successful "test vote" was fairly muted, and tended to focus on the bill's tenuous future. The New York Times, for example, has a feature about Canadian immigration policy on its front page, and runs its report on the Senate vote on page A17. And while all three broadcast networks covered Tuesday's developments, only ABC ran a full-length report.

ABC World News said the "controversial immigration bill that was essentially written off as dead a few weeks ago, has been revived," but "there are many legislative hurdles ahead," and passage "is considered an uphill fight."

The CBS Evening News said "immigration reform...still faces stiff opposition from Republican conservatives." NBC Nightly News notes the measure "faces another key vote in what is now a deeply divided Senate on Thursday."

The Washington Post reports opponents "insisted they would scuttle it by week's end. ... Still, Bush administration officials who have championed the proposal insisted that a bill once left for dead was now on its way toward passage."

USA Today notes the bill "picked up an additional 19 backers since a similar test vote was held earlier this month." The New York Times says "many conservatives said they were still determined to defeat the measure because it would offer legal status to most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants." The Los Angeles Times notes Democratic support "appears to be slipping and could jeopardize it as much as fierce Republican opposition does."

The Washington Times says Tuesday "was a victory for President Bush, who delivered 24 Republican votes to keep the bill alive and give it a fighting chance of surviving the week." The Wall Street Journal says Bush "must now hold together Senate Republican votes in the face of increased hostility from their colleagues in the House." The Chicago Tribune says it "is not clear that senators who supported resuming debate ultimately would vote to back the bill itself or help it clear upcoming procedural hurdles." The Financial Times says Bush "has aligned himself with Democrats and Republican moderates in support of immigration reform, in defiance of fierce opposition against the bill among a large majority of grassroots Republicans." The Christian Science Monitor and the AP also report on the vote. Fox News' Special Report reported, "Whatever the outcome of the Herculean effort in the Senate, immigration reform faces yet another daunting challenge getting through the House, where some Republican members made clear today they are not receptive."

Bush Misspeaks On "Amnesty." The Los Angeles Times reports, "At every opportunity, President Bush has said -- emphatically -- that the legislation he favors to overhaul the nation's immigration laws does not provide amnesty to those in the United States illegally. On Tuesday morning, he said it did, and his comment prompted a rare acknowledgment from the White House that the president had made a mistake."