Senate Will Consider Border Fencing Bill

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist pulled a maneuver that will force the Senate version of the just passed House border fence only bill to the floor. The howls are already beginning.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., used a legislative maneuver to get the bill to the floor as early as Wednesday, when the Senate could decide whether to move forward on the legislation.

"Border security is the essential first step of any effort to enact immigration reform. Only when we have convinced the American people of our commitment to securing our borders will we be able reach a consensus on comprehensive immigration reform," Frist said in a statement.

Democrats are likely to try to block the bill. They may try to attach the comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed in May as an amendment and push debate into next week. A delay could be a problem as Congress tries to wrestle with legislation addressing treatment of terrorism suspects.

"This smacks of desperation and a clear repudiation of President Bush's support for comprehensive immigration reform. It's obviously designed to play to the base. Sen. Frist was for comprehensive immigration reform before he was against it," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

House Republicans, trying to keep the illegal immigration issue before voters, passed the fence bill last week by a vote of 283-138. The House had approved the same amount of fencing last December as part of a broader bill that would have made being in the country illegally a felony. That bill is stalled.

The statements from Reid's spokesman shows just how worried the Democrats are that this is going for a debate and vote. Because they know darn well it does not "play to the base", it plays to an absolute majority of the American public. This could be devastating for the Democrats if they oppose it. Frist just painted them into a corner. I predicted a long time ago that the first party to understand that Americans want that border controlled will win in November. (Gee, I wonder if Bill Frist reads the humble Crabitat?)

UPDATE: Here's Frist on the bill from his Volpac website.