see, one vote does count...

The New York Daily

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Schumer supplied the only voice Thursday as the Senate passed by voice vote a $600 million border security bill seen as a down payment on immigration reform

But Republicans quickly mocked the security bill they supported and said they don't trust President Obama's broader reform effort that might provide a path to citizenship for immigrants.

Since Republicans had already signed off on approving the bill by unanimous consent, the Senate invoked a rarely used procedure to avoid bringing members back to vote during a summer recess.

Schumer was the only senator on the floor for the voice vote while Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was the presiding officer. Schumer had to set up his own lectern to speak because Senate pages were also on recess.

The border security bill calls the Republicans' bluff, Schumer said, "because it pulls away their No. 1 excuse, which is we can't do comprehensive [reform] until there is border change. Certainly we were getting nowhere the old way.

"And this new law will also strengthen our partnership with Mexico in targeting the gangs and criminal organizations that operate on both sides of our shared border," Schumer said.

The bill will fund hiring for 1,500 border and customs agents, set up forward bases for the agents along the border and boost the number of unarmed drones flown on the U.S. side of the border to track illegals attempting to sneak across.

Schumer said the bill will be paid for by raising fees on foreign-based companies that use U.S. visa programs, including the popular H-1B program, to bring skilled workers into the U.S.

Obama, who was expected to sign the bill Friday, said it "answers my call" for tighter border security and "will make an important difference" in the battle for overall reform.

there is of course a dissenting opinion...

But Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said the bill "seems more like an effort to receive positive press than to genuinely improve the critical border situation."

"The Masters of the Universe in Washington are always proposing new plans to deal with the massive illegality at the border," Sessions said, but they then fail to put them into effect.

Mr. Sessions, elected in 1994, yes, 16 years ago, in Alabama, a state with as far as I can tell, not a lot of border issues to deal with...

Oh, wait...

Florida.

But that whole Masters of the Universe in Washington stuff.. 

Man, you've been there for 16 friggin' years...