Senate Rejects Amnesty, Guest-Worker Limits
"[Amnesty] Proponents today narrowly defeated an amendment that would have
ended the bill's temporary worker program after five years. The measure was defeated 49 to 48, the narrow margin secured when Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) changed his vote at the last minute after an entreaty from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill's main Democratic sponsor," the LA Times reported. "That amendment also split California's two Democratic senators: Dianne Feinstein, a member of the bipartisan group of sponsors, voted against the amendment, and Barbara Boxer voted for it. 'American workers are going to be hurt by this,' Boxer said before the vote. 'This is a modest amendment. This is a sensible amendment.' But Feinstein, who said she had qualms about the temporary worker program, voted the opposite way."
"In other votes today, senators resoundingly defeated an amendment that would have eliminated visas for workers currently in the country illegally, the key provision that incenses Republican opponents. It went down by a vote of 29 to 66."
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