Senate Will Again Take Up Immigration Bill

Jun 14, 08:22 PM

Current Headlines: U.S. Senate leaders Thursday said the immigration reform bill that failed last week will be brought to the Senate floor again.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made the announcement in a joint statement.

We met this evening with several of the senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations, the statement said. Based on that discussion, the immigration bill will return to the Senate floor after completion of the energy bill.

Reid declared the immigration bill dead, at least temporarily, after it failed to get enough votes last week to cut off debate.

President George W. Bush Thursday urged Republicans to support the bill. In a Washington speech before a building contractors group, the president said giving the millions of people living illegally in the United States a path to citizenship is not amnesty.

Look, we need to do this without animosity and without amnesty, Bush said. I know there are some people who I guess believe that we could just kick them out of the country. That's just totally impractical. It won't work. We need a practical solution to a problem that has arisen as a result of a bill that didn't work, the 1986 immigration bill.