Majority Leader Schumer has put senators on notice that the text of the bill will be released soon and that votes on the immigration and Ukraine-Israel aid package will begin next week.
Key Senate negotiators say they’ve struck a tentative deal to enact tougher U.S. immigration and asylum laws, marking a significant breakthrough on a politically explosive issue as the 2024 election year gets underway.
But the pact is in jeopardy even before senators release the text of the bill, which they’re hoping to do in the coming days in anticipation of voting on it beginning next week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that senators plan to release the “full text” of the immigration package, which will include aid funding for Ukraine and Israel, “as early as tomorrow” and “no later than Sunday.”
“That will give members plenty of time to read the bill before voting,” he said, adding he plans to hold the first procedural vote on the package “no later than Wednesday.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON — Key Senate negotiators say they’ve struck a tentative deal to enact tougher U.S. immigration and asylum laws, marking a significant breakthrough on a politically explosive issue as the 2024 election year gets underway.
James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., represents an ambitious effort to tackle a problem that has bedeviled Congress for decades — in the middle of an election year.
The measure faces uncertainty in the Senate, pushback from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and a steady bombardment of opposition from likely GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump that is endangering Republican support.
Another reason for the delay is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been speaking to his members to make sure there’s enough support when the bill is released, according to a source with knowledge of the talks, so that it won’t have to be changed after the fact to accommodate conservative concerns.
Further complicating matters, House Republicans are preparing to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of refusing to enforce immigration laws even as he has met with the Senate negotiators to discuss the new deal.
The legislation is likely to lose the votes of a contingent of progressive and Congressional Hispanic Caucus members, who argue that Democrats are conceding too much to the GOP without securing their priorities, such as normalizing the status of young “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
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