The Senate continues to jump through political hoops and dodge amendment bullets as it debates and aims to bring home the broadest immigration reform package voted on in decades. The bill (S 1348) – which would set up a guest worker plan, give current illegals a path to citizenship, tighten the border, create a national employee data base (going after employers who don’t check it), and switch up who gets green card first dibs – has something in it for everyone to hate, which recommends the bill equally for survival as it does defeat. If a bill is okayed, its next stop will be the House.
The House, meanwhile, will have a far easier time passing a bill that’d open up stem cell research to new cell lines – but the bill, which already has the Senates approval (S 5), is almost certain to get nixed by a presidential veto.