The Senate is taking up a House-passed bill that would block Syrian and Iraqi refugees, a "pause" in the refugee resettlement process Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claims. But he also claims that Democrats are fearmongering when they say this bill would bar widows and orphans from entering, which it would. Minority Leader Harry Reid, however, has a plan. The Senate will take its first procedural vote Wednesday afternoon, and Reid won't let it go forward unless Republicans agree to go on the record with a vote on Donald Trump's plan to ban on all Muslims.
"As the front-runner of the Republican nomination, Donald Trump and his proposals are leading the public debate in our country," Reid said from the Senate floor. "Republicans who support these illogical plans should be prepared for the next logical step: Voting on his vision of America." […]
Reid said that Democrats will help Republicans get the 60 votes needed to move forward if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will allow votes on a handful of Democratic amendments, including one related to Trump's proposal. […]
Reid added that Democrats "will seek to advance a limited number of amendments on this bill... not tons of amendments, not scores of amendments, but four or five amendments." Democrats could also offer amendments on blocking suspected terrorists from being able to buy a gun and increasing funding for law enforcement antiterrorism efforts.
McConnell is going to need at least six Democrats to break a filibuster. He's potentially lost one Republican—Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)—unless there are substantive changes to the bill. "I believe it's intended to knock out all refugee entrants and I'm not there," Flake said Tuesday. "I believe we should still accept refugees."
If McConnell agrees to allow Democratic amendments, or an amendment that Flake can support, Democrats are likely to allow the debate to continue on this first vote. Complicating things for McConnell is that he’s got his presidential candidates—Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz—in Washington for the vote. They want to match Trump in their anti-refugee fervor, as long as they don’t necessarily have to endorse his calls for an all-out ban.
But it doesn't seem too likely that McConnell is going to want to subject the handful of his vulnerable senators to voting on Donald Trump's platform. At the moment, a vote is expected by mid-afternoon Wednesday, but negotiations between Reid’s and McConnell’s staff on amendments continue.
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