Attempt to Kill Guestworker Plan Fails

Seldomdo California’s liberal Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Alabama’sconservative Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions agree on anything. But they joinedTuesday in a failed attempt to kill the guest worker provision of the Senate’sbroad overhaul of U.S. immigration law, calling it a threat to U.S. workers.

Their 69-28 defeat — one of a sequence ofamendment battles that backers of the Senate bill won handily — demonstrated apowerful momentum behind the underlying legislation. Senators on both sidessaid President Bush’s push for the bill in a prime-time speech Monday night, inwhich he called for National Guard troops at the Mexican border, had aided itsprospects.

See: Senate guest worker plan survives attack

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