Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has set an end-of-month deadline for Senate passage of immigration reform, giving the chamber three weeks to debate legislation on the floor. “We are going to finish the bill before the July 4 recess,” Reid said Thursday. “We need to finish this bill and we’re going to do it as quick as we can.” The July recess will begin after the last week of June.
Reid has met with Republicans and told them they have already had weeks to review the legislation during the Judiciary Committee’s markup last month. “Everybody knows pretty much what this bill is about,” he said. “No one can complain about not having had time to read the bill. They’ve read it, they’ve studied it, and there’s no reason we can’t finish this debate quickly.”
Members of the Senate Gang of Eight, which drafted the bill, have set a goal of passing it with 70 votes, but Reid is more focused on clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. “I am totally convinced that there is tremendous momentum to get this legislation passed no matter what people are saying on the record, off the record,” Reid said.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill, said “the momentum is getting stronger every day,” citing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agribusinesses, evangelicals, and the high-tech community. He said those groups are contacting undecided senators to urge them to support the bill. Schumer said Democrats are willing to strengthen the border-security provisions but do not want to give anti-immigration opponents a chance to block the path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
