“We were there," said Collins, who pushed to secure support for legislation earlier this year. "At one point I could count the 60 votes.”

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Lawmakers voted on a flurry of immigration measures after Trump canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September.

Trump gave Congress until March to find a legislative replacement for DACA, but neither chamber has passed a bill and the House has yet to vote on any proposal.

Several court rulings have kept the Obama-era program in place as lawmakers have weighed efforts to enshrine the protections in law.

Of the four bills that the Senate voted on earlier this year, a centrist, bipartisan measure got the most votes (54-45), but it failed to overcome the chamber's 60-vote threshold.

Collins hosted bipartisan talks that produced that proposal, which Trump threatened to veto because it did not cover all four "pillars" of the White House immigration proposal.