House Passes DREAM Now Moves On To The Senate

Last night the house passed the DREAM Act with a vote of 216 to 198,  the Senate is expected to vote today.

Scott Wong of the Politico has the full story here:

After a two-hour floor debate, the House passed the DREAM Act along mostly partisan lines, 216 to 198, with 38 Democrats voting against the bill and eight Republicans supporting it. Democrats framed the legislation as a civil rights issue. Republicans denounced it as a “nightmare” amnesty plan that would encourage illegal immigration.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passionately defended the measure:

"The DREAM Act itself symbolizes what it means to be an American. It’s about equality. It’s about opportunity. It’s about the future.”

Both advocacy groups and the White House had worked tremendously hard to pass the legislation in the house:

The House vote came amid an enormous push for the DREAM Act by immigrant activists and the Obama administration. The president telephoned lawmakers this week to rally support for the bill. In a statement, he called the DREAM Act part of a larger debate needed to fix the nation’s broken immigration system. “The DREAM Act corrects one of the most-egregious flaws of a badly broken immigration system,” Obama said. “A flaw that forces children who have grown up in America, who speak English, who have excelled in our communities as academics, athletes or volunteers to put their lives and talent on hold at a great cost to themselves and our nation.”

As the legislation heads to the Senate, it is unclear how if there are the votes needed to pass it:

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled a procedural vote for Thursday morning.But in the waning days of the lame-duck session, Senate Republicans have vowed to filibuster any legislation unrelated to the expiring Bush-era tax cuts and the funding of the government.