The Hill reports that support in the Senate is snowballing in favor of the comprehensive immigration reform bill. We’re talking in the 68-72 range. It’s a few days old, but Chris Cillizza has a whip count that shows where people stand. Despite Rand Paul moving firmly into the ‘no’ camp since then, the count has continued to improve. It now looks possible that all 54 Democrats will be supportive. There are only six totally committed and on-the-record opponents: Chuck Grassley of Iowa, David Vitter of Louisiana, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. There are another twelve senators in the ‘likely no’ camp. That places the upper limit at 82 votes, so we can see why some are predicting a number as high as seventy-two. Also helpful, Bill O’Reilly endorsed the bill on Thursday night.
What seems to have been decisive was the decision to accept an amendment introduced by Republican Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee that will spend a whopping $38 billion on border agents and fence-building. In comparison Socialist Bernie Sander’s support was apparently obtained with a $1.5 billion youth jobs program. Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich were able to carve out some kind of exemption for foreign workers in the state’s fishing industry.
Opponents of reform are going to feel very isolated, especially now that the Senate has decided to spend a ludicrous amount of money on border security and the Congressional Budget Office has predicted that the bill will save $700 billion over the next two decades. Senator Schumer predicted that House inaction on the Senate bill would result in a million or more people marching in the DC streets, which is not a bad prediction.
Still, this is John Boehner we’re talking about here. He’s the guy who just brought the Farm Bill to the floor and watched his own party crush it.
