Reid to call for liberal immigration vote next week, slipping into defense bill

By Nicole Allan

Sep 14 2010

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this afternoon that the defense authorization bill he’s scheduled for debate next week will include the much-anticipated DREAM Act, an immigration bill that provides a path to legal residency for children who are brought into the country illegally.

Reid has previously avoided introducing the DREAM Act, despite its immense popularity within the liberal immigration reform community, because he did not think he had 60 votes for it. In a press conference today, he didn’t indicate whether the whip count had changed but rather lamented the fact that Republicans had so far stymied attempts at comprehensive immigration reform.

By slipping DREAM into the defense authorization bill, Reid sets a potential trap for Republicans: vote against the immigration measure and risk being portrayed as stiffing the troops less than two months before midterm elections. But Reid also sets a potential trap for himself, opening the door for Republican opponents — specifically Nevada challenger Sharron Angle — to emphasize his Washington insider habit of manipulating legislation so as to further his own political ambitions. “Harry Reid,” one can imagine the voice-over actor intoning, “would rather cater to interest groups than give our troops the support they need.”

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