GOP senators balk at bill

Senators from both parties yesterday rushed to keep the door open for a bipartisan immigration deal, but Republicans are already confronting a choice between blocking the start of debate or taking up a bill many of them reluctantly backed last year.

Taking Republicans even closer to a filibuster, four pivotal GOP members of this year’s immigration talks urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to call up a new measure or nothing at all.

{mosads}“We are united in our resolve to enact comprehensive immigration reform this year and will only support moving forward with legislation that is a product of the ongoing bipartisan discussions,” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) wrote in a letter sent to Reid yesterday.

Senators were slated for another bipartisan sit-down late yesterday, but Republicans could not hide their frustration with the choice to use last year’s immigration bill — which 23 of them voted for — as a starting point. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a hard-liner on immigration, said many in his conference held their noses when voting for last year’s bill, counting on the then-GOP House to make the measure more conservative in conference.

“I’ll steadfastly object to going to last year’s bill,” Sessions vowed. “What could be happening is, you bring up last year’s bill … then, plop comes down some new bill, 700 or 800 pages, then there will be an attempt to move it rapidly.”

Sessions implored Republican leaders to act without fear of Democratic attempts to tar the minority as obstructionist for blocking a motion to proceed on immigration. Reid laid the groundwork for that argument yesterday, reminding reporters of the strong GOP support for last year’s bill.

“How could they complain about using this as a document?” Reid asked, adding, “It would be a tragedy for the American people if Republicans would block this very important legislation.”

If the bipartisan talks have not produced legislative language by next week, as appears increasingly likely, Reid said senators would be able to use last year’s immigration bill as a starting point and remove or replace unacceptable provisions one by one. Martinez, however, offered the alternative of calling up an effectively blank bill that senators could fill in gradually during the two weeks before recess.

“It would be a placeholder that doesn’t mislead anyone into thinking that last year’s bill has life,” Martinez said. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has joined him in withholding support for last year’s bill.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), another member of the immigration inner circle, called one veiled filibuster threat “just a warning shot in the air,” although he criticized the idea of starting debate with a skeleton bill. He and two fellow Democratic negotiators, Sens. Edward Kennedy (Mass.) and Ken Salazar (Colo.), walked back Tuesday’s talk of a “grand bargain” by describing the talks as far off from a deal.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the Judiciary Committee chairman who shepherded last year’s immigration bill alongside Specter, advised President Bush to personally jump into the intense discussions.

“He shouldn’t just send up a Cabinet member,” Leahy said, referring to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez’s and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s presence in the talks.

The 2008 elections, both presidential and congressional, continued to loom large. Two supporters of last year’s bill now up for reelection, Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), declined to address whether they would still support the 2006 measure.

“We need to pass something,” Coleman said, remaining hopeful for a new breakthrough.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) crosshairs for his reelection bid and one of the immigration negotiators, said the talks could yield a bill this week if senators recommitted themselves and moved away from political positioning. On that point, the GOP conference vice chairman offered Reid some advice.

“He ought to quit listening to Senator [Charles] Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the [DSCC] and start listening to Senator Kennedy and people who are really interested in fixing the problem,” Cornyn said.

But Cornyn played down talk of a Republican filibuster on the “placeholder” appearance of last year’s immigration bill.
“I haven’t spent the last two months in meetings … [only] to block it,” Cornyn said.