Frist: It’s Time To Secure The Border With Mexico
The Senate, which has been the major obstacle to strict border-security legislation this year, will take up a bill this week that calls for constructing 700 more miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s time to secure the border with Mexico,” Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night before filing the parliamentary motions to force the House-passed bill onto the Senate floor in a final effort to get a major immigration bill on the president’s desk before the elections.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Minority Leader Harry Reid, said the move “smacks of desperation” and was a “clear repudiation of President Bush’s call for comprehensive legislation.”
The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which was easily approved by the House last week, contains none of the “comprehensive” measures that President Bush, Democrats and some Senate Republicans have demanded.
Smacks of desperation? Sounds to me like the GOP is finally starting to hear the American people on this issue. I look forward to seeing this vote happen. North Dakota Representative Earl Pomeroy voted against the bill last week, it will be interesting to see how North Dakota’s Senators vote.
Frist is bringing this to the floor, so I would think that he has the votes to pass it. The bottom line is that our border needs to be secure, and it appears as though the Republicans are ready to do that.
