Senator Marco Rubio, a co-author of the Senate’s immigration reform proposal, said Thursday that he did not believe his GOP colleagues were “trying to gut” the bill with a slew of amendments.
“I don’t think amendments are trying to gut it. I’ve read headlines that say that, I don’t understand it. That’s the way the process is supposed to work,” said Rubio on CBS’s “This Morning.”
His comments come as the Senate Judiciary panel on Thursday begins to markup the Gang of Eight’s bill and weigh more than 300 proposed changes which have been filed.
Pro-immigration reform advocates fear that any of those amendments could shatter the bipartisan consensus and kill the bill.
Rubio, though, insisted that he welcomed the amendment process.
“What we’ve always worked on is a starting point,” he said of the immigration proposal.
“Now we are asking our colleagues for suggestions on how to improve it. Some of those amendments would have the effect of destroying the bill, but that’s true on both sides. But by and large most amendments are actual efforts to improve it and we welcome that,” Rubio added.
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