The saga Sen. Jon Kyl's Senate Amendment 629 has come to an end. The New York Times is reporting that the discriminatory amendment which would have made it illegal for US budget funds to be used to resettle Gazans in the US was withdrawn before it could be brought to a vote.
Part of the reason that Kyl withdrew the bill was because he finally acknowledged that was based on a discredited internet rumor. From the congressional record:
Mr. KYL. [The amendment] was a response to a news story which gained a great deal of attention from my constituents related to the January 30 order by the President, ordering $20 million for urgent relief efforts to provide migration assistance to Palestinian refugees. That has gotten a lot of attention from folks. They wanted to know what we were doing.
Rather than bring this embarrassment to a vote, Kyl was smart enough to take it off the table. This was not before some fellow senators could speak against it. Yesterday, Phil pointed out Senator Leahy's strong statement against the amendment, but the opposition wasn't partisan. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) responded to it by saying, "This blanket approach that nobody can enter the country is really over
the top and far too broad a brush to paint on the entire population of
an area."
A Washington insider offered a perfect summary:
It's really important to note, I think also, the coordination of back-to-back statements from Leahy and Gregg. The messaging, and optics generally, very effectively demonstrated bipartisan opposition to Kyl's bigotry and xenophobia.
Bottom line from the Senate? Hate is hate; it's not a partisan issue.
