WASHINGTON–Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) one of the Senate “Gang of Eight” negotiating the immigration reform bill on Monday said it would be a “big mistake” for them to make extra concessions just to pick up 70 votes for the bill–ten more than the 60 needed to pass.
Backers of the bill have been saying that they are looking for 70 votes in order to build as much GOP support as possible to shore up efforts to win more Republican support in the House.
Durbin on CBS “This Morning” was asked about the 70 votes; he said, in New York
“No, we need 60.”
“By Senate standards, the more the better though. I just don’t want to compromise the basic values in this bill,” Durbin said. “We worked all this time to come up with a basic framework. If we are going to abandon this now to pick up two, three, four, five votes , that’s a big mistake.”
Durbin spoke on the show set in New York.
