Yesterday’s vote in the United States Senate on “cloture”, which means to end a debate on a certain issue so that an up-or-down vote can be taken, cleared a major hurdle in favor and now moves to the Senate floor for debate. The Croker-Hoeven amendment, from Republican Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota, which strengthens our nation’s border security and enforcement, passed the Senate with overwhelming support, 67 to 27. Fifteen Republicans voted in favor of cloture, and zero Democrats broke from their party to oppose the measure. The vote was just one of final last steps left before the Senate is expected to give final approval to the bipartisan measure later this week. The deal was designed to garner the support of a collection of other Republicans, including Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and Roger Wicker (Miss.).
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a key Democratic supporter of the immigration bill, said Monday’s vote “shows that the pro-immigration forces on both sides of the aisle continue to make progress. We realize we have a long hard road ahead of us, but this vote puts the wind at our back.” According to the Washington Post, in voting no, several Republicans Monday complained that the amendment doesn’t go far enough to bolster border security and that Senate Democrats rushed consideration of the proposal while blocking votes on other GOP proposals. The always outspoken and vocal critic of Senate processes, Republican from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said to the Post… “What is the rush? Why are we proceeding gangbusters?” Thereafter Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who also voted against the cloture arguing the amendment is still lacking broader border security measures, agreed with Sen. Cruz saying that “is simply no reason we need to end this debate now in order to meet some artificial deadline determined by the majority leader’s summer schedule.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who wrote the immigration bill wants to hold a final vote before the start of the July 4th congressional recess but consideration of comprehensive immigration reform in the House remains in doubt after lawmakers of both parties rejected a broad five-year farm bill that revived concerns about whether House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) can cobble together enough support among Republicans and Democrats to pass significant legislation. Despite this, Reid hopes that the House will devote most of the July recess to consider immigration proposals and approve a bill before the month-long August recess, which would allow negotiators to spend the last few weeks of the summer working on a final deal that Congress could approve in early fall and send to the President’s desk.
The remaining fifteen Senate Republicans that ultimately voted to move forward on the Corker-Hoeven amendment are: Corker, Hoeven, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Jeff Chiesa of New Jersey, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Dean Heller of Nevada, Mark Kirk of Illinois, John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Corker-Hoeven proposal will stem illegal immigration by a “greater” amount than the current bill, but couldn’t give a precise figure. In its formal assessment of the Gang bill last week, the CBO said the legislation would stop only 25 percent of illegal immigration into the U.S.
And the border security additions from Senators Corker and Hoeven will cost an additional $38 billion, the CBO said — although cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal deficit over two decades. To attest to that, additionally here are some interesting key facts on comprehensive immigration reform from the CBO,
- The CBO analysis showed that the Senate immigration bill would cut the deficit by $197 billion over the next ten years, $700 billion over the following ten years, and add 5.4% to GDP by 2033.
- In May, a letter to Marco Rubio, the Chief Actuary at the Social Security Administration provided analysis projecting that comprehensive immigration reform would add over 3.2 million new jobs and bolster the solvency of Social Security.
- From 2006 to 2012, one in four engineering and technology companies started in the U.S had at least one foreign-born founder – in Silicon Valley it was almost half of new companies (Kauffman)
- A recent Fox News Poll shows 74% of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants “as long as they meet certain requirements like paying back taxes, learning English, and passing background check” (Fox News Poll, 6/13)
