New York Times
By Carl Huse
June 17, 2013
Senate Democratic leaders sought on Monday to spur their colleagues to pick up the pace as the immigration debate entered its second week.
With the legislation’s backers hoping to win Senate approval before members of Congress leave for the Fourth of July, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, warned that the Senate could be held in session over the weekend if there was no progress soon.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee and is managing the bipartisan immigration measure on the floor, also prodded the Senate.
“Either we do it now or we are never going to do it,” he said.
The Senate has disposed of just one amendment, setting aside a proposal on border security by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, that the bill’s supporters saw as a threat to its passage.
After getting hung up last week on the number of votes an amendment would need to pass, Senate leaders said Monday night that they had struck a deal for votes on at least four proposals Tuesday, including one on citizenship for children adopted internationally. All will require 60 votes to pass.
When the Senate slows down on big legislation that has a deadline, Mr. Reid often threatens to keep lawmakers on weekends, but rarely does the need reach that point.
“The bill isn’t perfect,” Mr. Reid said. “But it takes important steps to reform our broken legal immigration system and strengthen border security.”
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