'Time is of the essence on this legislation,' says Reid. Reid threatens cloture on immigration

The Senate must speed ahead on its attempt to remake U.S. immigration policy, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday morning, threatening to file to cut off debate by Monday.

Reid said the workload for the Senate will be heavier than usual and that if the Senate doesn’t get to work on agreement on tranches of amendment votes, it will find itself working on the weekend — a familiar threat from the Nevada Democrat. Reid hopes to finish the legislation before the July 4 recess.


“Time is of the essence on this legislation,” Reid said. “We want to make sure that some of these major issues that people have had the time to work through them.”

“We’re going to either file cloture on this Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday,” Reid added of moving to a vote to end debate.

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The Senate will have its first significant votes on four amendments on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m., and Reid urged his colleagues to get in other significant amendments as soon as they can. That includes an effort by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) to come to some sort of compromise on border security language with the Gang of Eight.

“They’re working on something dealing with border security. I’m not telling anyone what to do other than tell them to do it as quickly as you can,” Reid said. “This may not be one of our normal weekends where we shoot out of town.”

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Corker said on Monday that the group of senators working on a compromise on border security that could appeal to both Democrats on Republicans is getting close, but wouldn’t tip his hand.

“There are a number of folks who are working together to try to attempt to get to that place that answer the border security issue but also does it in the way that’s objective, so there’s not a worry about the goalposts being moved down the road,” Corker told reporters. “I think we’re getting close. But again there’s a number of conversations underway and it continues to be slightly fluid. I just have a sense that there’s a good chance.”