Immigration Bill Passes Senate; Negotiations with House to Follow

Atlanta Journal Constitution: An effort to require many private businesses to verify the immigration status of their workers won a crucial vote in the Georgia Senate on Monday, setting up a a showdown with the House over citizenship checks. The 34-21 vote on Senate Bill 40 means separate immigration bills have cleared each legislative chamber, and the sponsors of both said they expected negotiators from both bodies to begin working on a compromise. Launching more than four hours of debate, SB 40's sponsor, Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, said the choice for his colleagues was simple. "The question is, simply, do you want immigration reform or not," he said. For a while, the answer was not clear. Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, spoke in skeptical terms about the proposal. Williams said small businesses need fewer, not more, regulations. "I don't know what the solution is," Williams said. The powerful leader of the Senate was arguing in favor of an amendment that would exempt more businesses from the bill's requirements. The amendment from Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee, would have raised to 25 -- from five -- the number of people a business must employ before it would be forced to use the federal E-Verify program to examine workers' citizenship. But Bulloch's amendment was defeated by three votes.