What's left out of immigration debate

Amendments excluded from the Senate bill may yet alter the course of reform efforts.

By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 28, 2007 edition

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Washington - In a bid to complete work on a historic immigration-reform bill this week, Senate leaders agreed to limit debate to 26 amendments – and no more.

But the dozens of amendments blocked from the Senate floor could yet play a role in the outcome of this momentous debate. That's because their omission may alter how Republicans in the other chamber of Congress – the House of Representatives – regard the bill when it's their turn to take up the issue. It may also affect how talk radio, bloggers, and the American public come to see it.

The excluded amendments range from those that would revise mechanisms for enforcing immigration law to those that challenge the bill's essential fairness.

"It's a rigged process," says Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina. "It undermines minority rights in the Senate."

In a procedural standoff at time of writing, senators who have been refused the right to offer amendments threatened to derail the process.

"We've been told by the master crafters of this bill that it's a delicate compromise that can't allow our amendments to be debated," says Sen. David Vitter (R) of Louisiana. "At the same time, these crafters of the compromise are changing their bill every half an hour.... That's unfair."

In response, majority leader Harry Reid said: "We've had 21 days of Senate debate since 2006. We've really worked this thing hard. This is a bill that people should fully understand."

Despite such concerns, the Senate on Tuesday voted 64 to 35 to resume debate on immigration reform.

Distaste for the process

"It's a constricted and constrained procedure, which I don't like," Sen. Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania said Wednesday as the Senate resumed work on the bill. Still, he says, the unusual move to limit senators' rights to offer amendments was needed to get to a vote. "It's going to be tough, but we're going to see the will of the Senate worked one way or another," he added.

In a sharp response to the Senate move, the House Republican caucus on Tuesday voted 114 to 23 on a resolution to disapprove of the Senate bill.

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