Curses, foiled again...
WASHINGTON - With a White House-backed immigration bill on life support in the Senate, the likelihood that Congress can overhaul the nation's tattered immigration system before the onset of the 2008 presidential election year is growing increasingly remote.
The White House, Senate leaders and the bill's supporters insist that the measure can be resuscitated. But thus far they've been unable to bridge a maelstrom of colliding special interests, and the challenges will only intensify as election-year politics complicate their efforts.
"There's a faint pulse there, but it suffered a heavy blow on Thursday," said Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that embraced Bush's call for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. "It would be a major surprise at this point if it came back to life."
The 627-page bill was pulled from the Senate floor late Thursday after Democratic and Republican leaders failed to resolve a standoff over GOP demands to submit additional amendments. The bill's collapse dealt a withering setback to President Bush, who'd made a comprehensive restructuring of the nation's immigration laws his top domestic priority.
The White House, Senate leaders and the bill's supporters insist that the measure can be resuscitated. But thus far they've been unable to bridge a maelstrom of colliding special interests, and the challenges will only intensify as election-year politics complicate their efforts.
"There's a faint pulse there, but it suffered a heavy blow on Thursday," said Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that embraced Bush's call for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. "It would be a major surprise at this point if it came back to life."
The 627-page bill was pulled from the Senate floor late Thursday after Democratic and Republican leaders failed to resolve a standoff over GOP demands to submit additional amendments. The bill's collapse dealt a withering setback to President Bush, who'd made a comprehensive restructuring of the nation's immigration laws his top domestic priority.
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