Word: specter
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...Monday night, Reiff and other business lobbyists broke into applause and embraced each other in the Dirksen office building as the Senate Judiciary committee voted 12-6 to send a bill sponsored by chairman Arlen Specter to the floor that swings the momentum back to their side. In a sharp rebuke to Senate majority leader Bill Frist, who had said he would introduce his own, tough counterpart to the House bill, Specter, three other Republicans and all the committee's Democrats united to force a pro-business, pro-immigrant bill through. Said a smiling Reiff minutes after the vote: "Specter...
...committee, the entire pro-immigrant (and pro-business) bill Kennedy and Senator John McCain had crafted over the last year. The business lobby was not shy about taking credit. "We got him to introduce it," says Reiff, "because he's a Republican." When it came time for final passage, Specter literally produced gasps in the hearing room as he cast the final vote in favor of the bill himself, giving it extra momentum as it heads to the floor...
...businesses weren't the only ones excited by the result. The Catholic Conference of Bishops had a representative attending the entire judiciary committee mark-up. Religious officials of all denominations had protested the House bill because it would have criminalized assistance to illegal immigrations. The Specter bill produced yesterday would do no such thing...
...hallmarks of the amnesty his potential supporters on the right detest. Emerging from the elevator banks in the Dirksen building as the last of the jubilant business lobbyists was leaving and walking slowly down the hall toward a meeting with the rest of the Republican leadership and Senator Specter, Frist admitted the committee vote had altered his plans: "I'm sure it will shape my thinking," he said with understatement...
...woods yet, however. The Specter bill faces 10 tough days of floor debate. And the part that deals with verifying employee status isn't even finished yet. "We're very concerned about that," says Reiff. Even if the Senate does pass the bill, the conference with the House would be very difficult. "It'll probably die in conference," says Randel Johnson of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That would be just fine, of course, with the business lobby, which knows that sometimes the best thing money can buy, especially in Washington, is the status...