An Unusual, High-Stakes, Round Robin, Anything Goes Free-For-All Gets Underway Today On The Senate Floor

Mitch McConnell Keeps His Promise; DACA Debate Suddenly In Full Swing

The New York Times calls it “an exceedingly rare step that, in effect, will allow Senators to attempt to build a bill from scratch on the Senate floor”. And as the Senate Majority Leader says: “whoever gets to 60 wins”. He’s referring to the number of votes needed to pass a bill in the Senate.

Which is of course an oversimplification of the issue. Several proposals are on the table right now to clear a way for undocumented immigrants who have been here since childhood to stay in the country. Some are bipartisan. Some aren’t. None of them would pass in the Senate and House and/or be signed by Trump as they stand now.

The latest proposal, introduced by Republican hard-liners, is more-or-less a version of what Trump’s said he wants in bill form. They’re calling it “The Secure and Succeed Act”. And we think C-Span (which is scrupulously nonpartisan) is correct in calling it a “$25-billion border security bill with DACA fix”, rather than a DACA fix that includes border security. McConnell personally endorses this plan.

Something bipartisan will almost certainly have to happen to get DACA passed, but Trump has nixed all the bipartisan deals currently on the table. And it’s unlikely Republicans in the Senate will back a plan they’re sure the President won’t sign. Democrats will likely never support the out-and-out Trump plan. And no matter what the Senate passes, there’s no guarantee it’ll pass in the House.

Axios has a nice, comprehensive guide to all the proposals currently on the table and what they all do and don’t include. It puts them side by side so you can assess for yourself where and whether there might be any room for compromise.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) NY, presents Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) Kentucky with a bottle of Brooklyn-made whiskey (yes, there is such a thing). There’s a little video clip from the Washington Post about the relationship between the two party leaders you can watch by clicking on the photo.

Deadline: March 5th. That’s when DACA protections start running out.

Trump emphasized that in an early morning Tweet:

At the same time, that strongly contradicts an admittedly puzzling Tweet he posted in September of last year: