Determined to salvage one of the top legislative priorities of his second term, President Bush will visit the Senate today to urge lawmakers to revive the moribund immigration reform bill.
“I believe we can get it done,” Bush told reporters in Bulgaria. “I’ll see you at the bill signing.”
Before leaving Europe, the president called three GOP senators to brainstorm about how to convince other Republicans to work with Democrats on the immigration legislation.
“What do we need to do to work with senators like Sen. Ted Kennedy who is strongly committed to a comprehensive bill,” Bush said.
But Bush’s kind words about the Senate’s liberal icon were not expected to reassure conservatives, who view the bill as an amnesty for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Bush rejects the amnesty label, but acknowledges the bill would grant legal status to illegal immigrants.
Last week, 38 Republicans and 12 Democrats voted to block the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid subsequently pulled from consideration. The Nevada Democrat blamed Bush for the failure of the bill.
Reid’s deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin, complained that Republicans wanted too many amendments to alter the legislation.
“We need a breakthrough on the Republican side,” the Illinois Democrat told Fox News. “We’re not going to waste more time on procedural slowdowns.”
In an effort to achieve such a breakthrough, Bush will make a rare visit to Capitol Hill, joining lawmakers at their weekly policy lunch. He acknowledged it will be an uphill battle.
“The immigration debate is a tough debate. I’m under no illusions about how hard it is,” Bush said. “There are people in my party that don’t want a comprehensive bill; there are people in the Democrat Party that don’t seem to want a comprehensive bill.”
But he insisted last week’s setback was only temporary.
“The political process sometimes isn’t pretty to look at it,” the president said. “We made two steps forward on immigration, we took a step back, and now I’m going to work with those who are focused on getting an immigration bill done and start taking some steps forward again.”
