Senate Reform Bill Passes First Test

The Senate Judiciary Committee closed debate on S.744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill, and voted to send the revised bill to the full Senate for consideration.  Passage by the committee was the first major test of the immigration reform effort.  Members of the Gang of Eight that drafted the bill largely stuck together and managed to protect the essential compromises necessary to move the bill out of committee.  The bill will now go to the full Senate where it will again be subject to amendment and debate before being scheduled for a Senate vote.  That vote will likely come sometime in June.  Opponents of comprehensive immigration reform are likely to intensify their efforts, focusing largely on the House of Representatives where the Republicans hold a majority and where progress on a comprehensive bill has proven much more difficult.