Against all odds and recent experience, the Senate actually functioned smoothly Thursday to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The vote was 68-32, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding.
Here's the basics of the bill:
The sweeping bill would put an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship and spend $46 billion to tighten the nation’s borders.
It would also increase the number of visas for high-skilled and agricultural workers and give more weight to educational and employment factors in granting visas.
The bill’s sponsors expanded the pool of Republican support earlier this week by amending the legislation to authorize 20,000 additional border patrol agents and the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the southern border. The amendment also ensured that immigrants could not claim Social Security benefits for the time they worked in the country illegally.
You could think of it as a massive jobs bill. That's $46 billion to create a whole lot of jobs in border security that Republicans sure as hell weren't going to vote for in any other form. Even with all that added Republican-sweetener, the bill faces a tough road in the
dysfunctional House, where Speaker John Boehner has significantly narrowed the possibilities for success. Not only will a House bill have to have a majority vote from the Republican caucus, he says, the resulting bill from the House/Senate conference will have to, as well.
In the meantime, congratulations to the Senate for actually, impossibly getting something significant done. It's almost enough to restore one's faith in the institution.
1:37 PM PT: Republicans voting aye: Alexander (TN), Ayotte (NH), Collins (ME), Corker (TN), Flake (AZ), Graham (SC), Hatch (UT), Heller (NV), Hoeven (ND), Kirk (IL), McCain (AZ), Murkowski (AK), Rubio (FL)
