WASHINGTON – The Senate debate on a sweeping immigration reform legislation came to an abrupt halt Thursday as senators met behind closed doors to try to reach a compromise on Republican amendments to strengthen border security and make other changes in the 1,000-page bill.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said public debate on the bill would resume Monday. He added that votes on amendments to the bill could continue through next weekend as the Senate works to complete the bill by the end of this month.

Next week could be crucial in determining whether the bill will succeed. Supporters are trying to attract more Republican votes without losing their liberal allies. The legislation is supported by a rare coalition of labor unions and business groups, Catholics and evangelical Protestants, law enforcement groups and immigrant rights advocates.

Among the proposed amendments that reform advocates are worried about is one by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would require the federal government to meet a list of border security and visa requirements before undocumented immigrants could earn green cards or become citizens.

Reid said groups of senators were negotiating in rooms throughout Capitol Hill and at the White House on Thursday to figure out how to go forward with the bill.

“I hope everyone will continue working to come to an agreement on how we can improve this bill,” he said. “I kind of like it the way it is, but I’m not the one going to make that determination.”

President Barack Obama was to meet with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Democratic members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who crafted the bill. Leahy is managing the bill on the Senate floor for the Democratic majority.

Reid was about to take up a series of five amendments to the bill Thursday morning when he stopped the proceedings after huddling with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is managing the floor debate for the Republicans.

Shortly before that, senators voted to kill a Grassley amendment that would have required the Department of Homeland Security to maintain effective control of the Southwest border for six months before undocumented immigrants would be able to gain even provisional legal status.

Grassley said his change was necessary to put “enforcement first” and ensure that new waves of immigrants don’t cross the border illegally.

“As we read the details of the bill, it’s clear that the approach taken is legalize first, enforce later — the same mistake that was made in 1986,” Grassley said, referring to the last time Congress passed immigration reform.

But Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Gang of Eight, said Grassley’s amendment would undermine the bill’s goal of bringing an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants out of hiding and registering them.

“What are we telling those 11 million?” Schumer said. “If you hide successfully from the police, then maybe five years from now (when the border requirements are met) you can stay here and get the right to work and the right to travel?”

Senators voted 57-43 to table Grassley’s amendment, effectively killing it. Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans and members of the Gang of Eight, joined most Democrats in opposing Grassley’s amendment.

Another moment of drama came when Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., offered an amendment that would require the Department of Homeland Security to build 350 miles of fencing on the Southwest border before undocumented immigrants could get provisional legal status. A second 350 miles of fencing would have to be completed before the immigrants would be eligible for green cards making them permanent legal residents.

“If we start with this, I think we can convince Americans that Congress is serious (about border security),” Thune said.

But Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who is chairwoman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that would fund the fence, said it is a waste of money. Instead, she said the federal government should invest more in helicopters, drones, surveillance equipment and other technology to secure the border.

“I’m not going to waste taxpayers’ money on a dumb fence,” she said. “I’ve been in tunnels under the fence. I’ve watched people climb over the fence. I’m not going to send taxpayers’ money down a rat hole.”

Thune’s amendment did not come to a vote Thursday, but it could be taken up next week.

WASHINGTON — A sweeping immigration-reform bill won approval Tuesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee after supporters of the bipartisan legislation fended off amendments from the right and left that would have shattered the fragile coalition behind the bill.
Committee members voted 13-5 to approve the bill as an audience filled with immigrants cheered.

WASHINGTON – A land swap that would pave the way for the creation of North America’s biggest copper mine near Superior was approved on Wednesday by a key House panel.
The bill, backed by former political rivals Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., passed the House Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 23 to 19. Gosar, who serves on the committee, voted for it, while fellow Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat, voted against it.

WASHINGTON — Senators took action Thursday to strengthen border-security requirements in a sweeping immigration-reform bill while fending off efforts to delay giving legal status to the 11million immigrants already in the United States illegally.
The votes by the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee were the first real test of the comprehensive immigration-reform bill crafted by the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators, which includes Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake.

WASHINGTON – Sens. John McCain and Chuck Schumer said Thursday that they believe they can win as many as 70 votes to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate — a show of force that could help sway the reluctant House to pass the bill.

“We need that, and I think it’s doable,” said McCain, R-Ariz., at a newsmaker breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

The senators, members of the so-called “Gang of Eight” that negotiated the sweeping bipartisan immigration bill introduced this month, also predicted that gun legislation expanding background checks will be resurrected despite its recent defeat in the Senate. While gun control failed this month, McCain and Schumer see hope in the fact that opponents failed to mount a successful filibuster to block the bill from coming to a vote.

The background check bill won the vote of 54 senators, but it required 60 votes to pass.

“I think we’re at a turning point,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., saying that recent mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and elsewhere will continue to put public pressure on Congress to act.

Schumer said he believes the gun-control bill — with some possible tweaking — will come to a vote again before the end of the year.

“I agree with Chuck; I think the issue is going to come back,” said McCain, who was one of four Republicans who voted for the background bill.

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, is slated for discussion and amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee beginning on May 9 before moving to a vote of the full Senate as early as June. The committee already has held three hearings on the measure.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is confident that supporters of the bill will attract the 60 votes needed to prevent opponents from mounting a filibuster to kill it. But he said he believes supporters can go beyond that to attract enough Republican support to get to 70 votes and impress the GOP-led House enough to act.

The reason for their optimism, McCain said, is the broad coalition of interest groups supporting the bill, including labor unions, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, evangelical Protestants and the Catholic Church.

“It is a coalition we did not have in 2007,” said McCain, who helped lead a failed effort at reform that year.

A poll released Thursday by the Winston Group showed that 67 percent of Republican voters support the bipartisan bill. The poll of 800 registered voters was conducted on behalf of Americans for Tax Reform, the National Immigration Forum Action Fund and the Partnership for a New American Economy. The poll had an overall margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

While they work to build support for the bill among Senate Republicans, McCain said he and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another member of the Gang of Eight, have been meeting with House Republicans — including the conservative Republican Study Committee — to encourage them to take up the legislation.

“But I think the time to do that (lobby House Republicans) is probably when we finish on the Senate floor with a completed package so we can take it over to them,” McCain said.

McCain said he called House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Wednesday to thank him for his support of the bill. Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, has recently spoken in strong support of the legislation in Chicago with liberal Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, another member of the Gang of Eight, and Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Despite Ryan’s support, most House leaders, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., generally favor a piecemeal approach to immigration reform.

Goodlatte on Thursday said he supports a cautious, “step-by-step” approach.

“By taking a fine-toothed comb through each of the individual issues within the larger immigration debate, it’ll help us get a better bill that will benefit Americans and provide a workable immigration system,” he said.

But Schumer said a piecemeal approach to reform won’t work.

“The best way to pass an immigration bill is actually comprehensive legislation because that can achieve more balance,” he said. “Everybody can get part of what they want.”

McCain and Schumer said they sense a new mood in the Senate that bodes well for eventual compromise on immigration, gun control and the deficit.

“I do, for the first time in some time, harbor some optimism about a chance for a bipartisan approach to some of the complex issues facing the country,” McCain said.

He attributed the Senate’s willingness to tackle tough issues in part to the record low approval rates that Congress has received in recent polls. Only 13 percent of Americans approved of Congress in March, down from 15 percent in February, according to a Gallup poll. The poll of 1,000 adults had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

“When the majority of Americans think we’re not doing (our jobs), sooner or later that does have an impact,” McCain said.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, the day after U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake said he would vote against a bipartisan bill to expand background checks for gun buyers, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said he would work to replace the freshman Arizona senator.
Key votes on background checks and other gun-control measures could come as soon as today. The outcomes of the votes on amendments could determine whether the bill moves forward in the Senate.

WASHINGTON – Congress will consider the first major gun-control legislation in years after 16 Republican senators — including Arizonans John McCain and Jeff Flake — joined with most Democrats on Thursday to fend off a filibuster that would have blocked any action on the emotional issue.
Senators voted 68-31 to allow debate and votes on gun-control legislation, derailing efforts by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republican leaders to block discussion of a topic that many Americans support in some form.

WASHINGTON – Nearly 570,000 Arizonans with low or moderate incomes will soon be eligible for big federal tax credits to help them pay for health insurance for themselves and their families, says a report released Wednesday by a national health consumer group.
Arizona families of four with annual incomes of $47,100 to $94,200 will make up about 64 percent of state residents eligible for the tax credits, which could reduce their health-care insurance costs by thousands of dollars, according to the report by FamiliesUSA.