caucus of the people who wanted to vote to have it going, but the most are opposed. so they want to offer the amendments so they are not feeling steam rolled. now, my team and i have spoken to suggest that there is enough support in the caucus to defeat any poison pill amendments that some might want to add in an effort to defeat it. but like mcconnell, they are not in a rush, and so thursday, the time frame of getting it done by thursday may be a little bit ambitious. geoff. eugene, it has been almost 40 days since we saw the first bipartisan lawmakers leaving the house to say they have reached an agreement. so how much has happened since that time with the deal they have walked out with, and to what we are actually seeing today? well, 40 days is a long time, and lot has changed. the changes at one point, the capital from west virginia was heading this up, and that is
their deadlines and they have a bit of a habit of popping the champagne and celebrating before they have gotten the w. they re likely to get this done. this deal appears to be there in terms of the big issues, but they re still ironing out the details. we ll see had they actually get it done. let s say this is the time it actually is close to being done, sahil. what are the next steps now that the text is almost finalized, when can we expect the senate to move on the bill? sure, so the first thing that will happen is chuuk schumer, the democratic leader will call the bill up as a substitute amendment. right now, they re using a shell to debate the issue. once that moves forward, they ll have some sort of an amendment process. there s always somebody who wants something. there may be some who attempt to throw a wrerch into this from the right, but there is enough buy-in on this that it is likely that the senators are likely to be able to defeat any poison pill amendments. rememb
especially drug offenses, this limit that to 25 years, the piece of legislation does not match what the house of representatives approved some time ago, they were sentenced in the house of representatives in the next day or two. i m told that is not going to be a problem and it goes to donald trump. shannon: 10,000 marshmallows. i m hungry now. senator tom cotton and john kennedy, a lot of discussion with them and even a reference to the church of scientology. how that factoring? the church of scientology signed onto the coalition to gain support for this bill. they had poison pills to overcome some of the proposed reforms in the piece of legislation, these poison pill amendments, a lot of supporters said that would kill the piece of legislation, they defeated their amendments on the floor. cotton spokeswoman says look who s supporting the bill, the church of scientology, that explains a lot, shannon. thank you.
wall street journal columnist bill mcgern. how is laying the groundwork. in 2007 the stars were in alignment for comprehensive immigration reform. and it was a group of the senate, mostly mccain and john kyle working with ted kennedy to come up with a compromise bill that was supported by president bush. there was a group of senators, i don t know about 8 that were drafting legislation and making real compromises, right? and it included the dream act in that bill. senator obama came by, suggested a few small changes. they accommodated him, thinking he was a yea vote. and then he backed these poison pill amendments. they are about five of them. but the key one was introduced by senator dorgan on guest workers. these are amendments designed to kilt deal. make people walk out because it s taking something else
senators he s going after now? my hope is these internal divisions within the republican establishment, that is between the president and senate republicans, will give us an opening for more bipartisanship and cooperation, for example, on raising the debt ceiling without poison pill amendments or achieving a budget. my fear is these divisions are just a short-lived personal spat or feud that will be papered over and, in fact, the republicans will come together, perhaps on efforts to defund central government programs as a price for moving forward on the budget or lifting the debt ceiling. you think there s a possible opportunity with the president going after his own that then they come to democrats and need your help? i m finding among my republican colleagues that there is an appetite for bipartisan cooperation on infrastructure, for example. we know we need to rebuild our roads and bridges and highways