Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said this week he believed that the so-called “gang of eight” immigration bill has a strong chance of passage on the Senate floor.  He predicted he can get eight Republican votes and nearly all Democratic members.  “I think we have 60 votes. Remember, we start out at 55 Democrats.  I think the most I’ll lose is two or three.  Let’s say I wind up with 52 Democrats.  I only need eight Republicans, and I already have four, so that should be pretty easy,” Reid said for a taping for “To the Point” and reported in the Las Vegas Sun on Wednesday.

The bill must cross a 60 vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.  Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he would like to support the bill but wants some amendments first. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), one of the “gang of eight” that authored the bill, said in a Univision interview that not enough votes were in place yet to break a potential filibuster.  An unnamed aide to Marco Rubio (R-FL) told The Washington Post that the senator believes the group has more work to do to get to 60 votes.

Senator Reid has said immigration debate on the floor will start either next week or the week of June 10.