The BBC’s man in Washington, Jamie Coomarasamy, says that the Z Visa Immigration Bill, previously thought to be pining for the fjords.. is now officially an ex-Bill after the Senate voted 46-53 against moving on the proposals – “It could try to resurrect legislation, but Thursday’s vote was probably the last serious attempt to get immigration reform through Congress under this presidency”. Meanwhile, although agreeing that it’s a huge defeat for Bush, Slate’s Mickey Kaus is predicting that the House of Representatives could be the next arena in which the various interested parties will next do battle over the illegal immigrant issue.
Cloture Fails: 46-53. The Grand Bargain doesn’t even get a majority. … I was going to predict that the House of Representatives would take up the immigration issue anyway–actually, I still do (they’ll claim to be taking a different approach).
Adds One of the Bill’s backers, Senator Edward Kennedy, is quoted in this report
After the vote, [Senator Kennedy] said: “It is now clear that we are not going to complete our work on immigration reform. That is enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country.”