- Senator Pat Toomey.
Senator Charles Schumer is this week attempting to secure support for an Irish E-3 visa deal in Congress from his Republican colleague Senator Charles Grassley.
Grassley, from Iowa, has placed a "hold" on a bill that merges a Senate E-3 measure with an already House-approved bill dealing with the allocation of green cards to certain nationalities.
Grassley, who is from Iowa, has concerns over the Senate bill which is effectively a combination of Schumer's bill and a separate Irish E-3 bill crafted by the GOP's Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
Brown predicted z couple of week's ago that the bill laws about to "pop" on Capitol Hill but there has been no action since. The Senate is in recess this week in observance of the President's Day holiday.
Last Friday evening, Schumer presided at a meeting of Irish E-3 backers - including representatives of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, Ancient Order of Hibernians and GAA - at his Midtown Manhattan office, this after flying back to New York from Washington in the late afternoon.
The meeting focused on ways that Senator Grassley's concerns over the proposed E-3 legislation, as it currently stands, might be mollified.
Schumer's office is in touch with Grassley's office in this regard though at presstime there was no indication of any significant breakthrough.
Senator Brown, meanwhile, was the focus of a report on the Politico website which pointed to difficulties he was experiencing securing passage of his E-3 proposal.
Stated the report: "Sen. Scott Brown is proving he may not have the luck of the Irish. Last week, the Massachusetts Republican told the Boston press that his efforts to expand visas to workers from Ireland were "about to pop."
But Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley seems ready to burst that bubble."
The report, in referring to Grassley, said that the "powerful ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is opposing Brown's efforts to quickly pass a bill that could certainly help him in a state about a quarter of whose population has Irish roots. And anti-illegal immigration forces are stepping up their opposition as well, lobbying GOP senators to block the bill on the grounds that it could hurt American workers."
The report added that Brown had "pulled in some heavy hitters to lean on Grassley, soliciting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to push the Iowa Republican to cut a deal."
The Politico report said that Grassley said he was still talking with Brown, "though a deal is far from done."
Said Brown in reference to his GOP colleagues: "I'm working on using every mechanism and every means to address their concerns like I do on every bill."
Brown told Politico he didn't mean to imply the bill was on the verge of passing with his "pop" reference.
"I said the issue is about to pop; I never said the bill was about to pop," he said. "The fact that we're talking about it, and it's in the forefront, that's about to pop."
The E-3 proposal needs 60 votes in the Senate to secure "cloture," and so avoid having potentially fatal amendments attached to it. It has 53 votes by dint of Senate Democrats and 65 once Brown's name is added and also that of Pennsylvania GOP senator Pat Toomey, who late last week signaled his support to AOH members in the state who had been seeking his backing.
