Sen. Grassley Offers Border Security Amendment to Schumer-Rubio-Obama Amnesty Bill; Senate Votes to Table the Amendment
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered the first amendment for consideration during full Senate debate of the Schumer-Rubio-Obama Amnesty bill, S.744. His amendment would require certification that the border is fully secured before any of the 11 million illegal aliens would be eligible to receive legal status and work permits. Instead of holding an up or down vote on the amendment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid motioned this morning to table the amendment. The motion passed by a 57-to-43 margin split mostly along party lines.
Yesterday, Sen. Reid asked for unanimous consent to require 60 votes to pass the first 5 amendments brought to the Senate floor on S.744. Sen. Grassley objected to Reid's call for consent. In order for Reid to proceed, he needed to either table Grassley's amendment or hold a vote requiring only 50 votes for passage.
"So I have to ask, who is obstructing now?" Sen. Grassley said. "There is no reason, particularly in this first week, at the beginning of the process, to be blocking our amendments with a 60-vote margin that's required when you suppose there is a filibuster."
"Otherwise, it really looks like the fix is in and the bill is rigged to pass basically as it is. Bottom line, you should have seen how the 18 members of the Judiciary Committee operated for five or six days over a two-week period of time. Everything was open, everything was transparent," he explained. "There was a complete cooperation between the majority and the minority, and there is no reason why we can't do that out here in the United States Senate right now and particularly at the beginning."
"This is a very provocative act," Grassley warned.
Voting with the Democrats to table the amendment were Gang of Eight members Senators Rubio, McCain, Graham, and Flake. Sen. Murkowski also sided with the Democrats. Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Mark Pryor voted with the Republicans. Surprisingly, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is the only Republican aside from the Gang of Eight to publicly support the bill, voted with the Republicans.