A positive movement against H.R. 3012 in the Senate…
The H.R. 3012 and Irish E-3 Visa bills failed to be taken up on the Senate floor yesterday. The Senate floor does not have any schedule for vote today. The Senate has a vote schedule tomorrow for Cloture Motions relating to consent to federal official appointments but thus far H.R. 3012 or Irish E-3 visa bill are not included in the tomorrow’s Senate floor schedule. The schedules can change and we will report it, should there be any changes with the Senate floor calendars. Irish news media reports that two ultra-conservative Republican Senators Vitter of Louisiana and Sessions of Alabama expressed that they would object to these bills. Some supporters of the stand-alone H.R. 3012 wish that the stand alone bill will pass alone, but it ignores the dynamics and different interests involved between H.R. 3012 and Irish E-3 visa supporters. It may be an educated guess that should the stand-alone H.R. 3012 come up on the floor without E-3 visa bill, the supporters of the Irish E-3 visa proposal are likely to vote against the H.R. 3012 because it will practically mean that their chance in the form of Sen. Schumer bill or Sen. Brown will collapse. Time will also work against the bills. For the reasons, the supporters of H.R. 3012 and Irish E-3 visa bill were anxious to see a break-through in the ongoing negotiation with Sen. Grassley for compromise.
