Passing 68-32, S.744 failed to garner the 70 votes predicted it would receive in the U.S. Senate.
Fourteen Republicans voted with all Senate Democrats on both the vote to end debate and the final vote on passage:
- Alexander-TN
- Ayotte-NH
- Chiesa-NJ
- Collins-ME
- Corker-TN
- Flake-AZ
- Graham-SC
- Hatch-UT
- Heller-NV
- Hoeven-ND
- Kirk-IL
- McCain-AZ
- Murkowski-AK
- Rubio-FL
The bill now proceeds to the House of Representatives where Speaker Boehner stated it was unlikely to pass. Huffington Post reports:
“The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes,” Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters. “We’re going to do our own bill, through regular order.”
Not only will that legislation have to go through the entire committee process in the House, whatever emerges will have to meet the “Hastert rule,” named after former Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.), which says the majority of the party in control of the House must back a given measure for it to receive a vote by the full chamber.
“For any legislation, including a conference report, to pass the House, it’s going to have to be a bill that has the support of a majority of our members,” Boehner said, referring to the members of the Republican caucus.
Dan Stein, FAIR’s president commented:
“We fully expect that this betrayal of the American public will be dead on arrival in the House. Thankfully, the House has made it clear that true immigration reform must protect the interests of the American people. FAIR expects to work with members of the House to ensure that legislation coming out of that body provides a workable plan to secure our borders, enforce immigration laws in the interior of the country, and protect American jobs and tax dollars.”