Harry Reid: Getting 60 Votes For Immigration Reform Will Be 'Pretty Easy'
The Huffington Post | By Elise Foley Posted: 05/29/2013 10:31 am EDT
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WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) predicted on
Tuesday a relatively easy path to passage for the bipartisan "gang of eight"
immigration bill, saying he thinks he can get eight Republican votes and
nearly all Democratic members.
“I talked about this to a number of my senators today, and what he wanted
to say is they haven’t done a whip count on this yet," Reid said in a
taping for "To the Point," according to the Las Vegas Sun. "I think we have
60 votes. Remember, we start out at 55 Democrats. I think the most I’ll
lose is two or three. Let’s say I wind up with 52 Democrats. I only need
eight Republicans, and I already have four, so that should be pretty easy."
The bill must cross a 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster, but not
everyone is convinced the bill is there yet. Reid's comments were in
contrast to ones made last week by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of
the gang of eight. There are four Republicans -- Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.),
John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) --
in the group who also support the bill; Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) voted for
it in the Judiciary Committee, although he has not yet said whether he will
support its passage on the Senate floor.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he would like
to support the bill but wants some amendments first.
Menendez said despite the support from those Republicans, they weren't yet
to 60 votes.
"We need to add more votes on the floor," Menendez told Univision anchor
Jorge Ramos in an interview that aired Sunday on "Al Punto." "That means
that the community in your state, in every state, should be contacting your
state’s two U.S. senators saying that they want comprehensive immigration
reform, that they are going to judge their political future based on this
vote. And if we do this, both in the Senate and, later, with the members of
the House of Representatives, we can achieve the victory that we want."
An unnamed aide to Rubio told the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin on
Tuesday that the senator also believes the group has more work to do to get
to 60 votes.
Reid predicted in February on ABC's "This Week" that the immigration reform
would pass in the end.
"It's certainly gonna pass the Senate," Reid told host George Stephanopoulos
of immigration reform. "And it would be a bad day for our country and a bad
day for the Republican Party if they continue standing in the way of this.
So the answer is yes."