WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, trailing in polls in heavily Hispanic Nevada, wants to pursue legislation to provide legal status for many unlawful immigrants before the Senate tackles a climate change and energy bill and as Democrats defend their congressional majorities ahead of the November congressional elections.
Reid broached the change of priorities during a meeting this week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to two Democratic officials familiar with the developments.
Pelosi has long said the Senate must vote before the House on an immigration bill.
"When you're ready with one, we will take it up," Pelosi says she told Reid.
The slow-moving Senate is far from being ready for debate on either issue. And it's not clear Democrats could muster the 60 votes this year or next to block Republican filibusters of either bill. The president's party traditionally loses seats in midterm elections.
Reid's seat in particular is in peril. The four-term senator, 70, is well-financed and faces only token opposition in the June primary. But independent surveys indicate he is running behind lesser-known Republicans and is battered by the state's double-digit unemployment and record bankruptcies.
In Nevada, 26 percent of the population is Hispanic, according to the census.
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