— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on November 18, Tuesday.
Welcome to the CNBC Business Daily.
Following the mid-term elections, U-S senators are already busy scrambling for votes on two controversial topics -- Immigration, and Keystone.
President Obama's plan for immigration laws could affect as many as 3.3 million people living in the U.S. illegally over the past few years.
That's according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based immigration research organization.
But are illegal immigrants really hurting U.S. Jobs?
CNBC's John Harwood reports.
We're only two weeks past mid term elections and already Republicans and Democrats are barreling toward major confrontations in Washington. Here are the 2 flashpoints. One is the keystone pipeline, and the second is immigration. President Obama is preparing to sign an immigration executive order that would grant legal status and the ability to work for millions more people who are in the country illegally now. Republicans are outraged, said that's unconstitutional. Question is, how to they counter the president. Republican leaders are going to try to deflect it more extreme demands by some of their members for either impeaching the president, triggering a government shutdown, or a debt crisis. And it could end up as a legal challenge against the president. There's already one ongoing.
Keystone is more of a straight forward legislative fight. The house of representatives last week voted to authorize the Keystone pipeline. The senate is now preparing to vote. But Rob Portman told Squawk Box that it is not yet clear if Republicans in fact, with some Democrats, have the 60 votes they need to push that through.
[Rob Portman / U.S. Republican senator] "The votes right now are uncertain. I think we're at 59. We need 60. We'll see that 60th vote has been elusive. But I do think it will happen eventually."
Rob Portman is right. If not in the congress, congress will get the votes to authorize the Keystone pipeline in the new congress in January. Question then is what President Obama doing? He has indicated that he would veto the first bill that comes to him because of the ongoing administrative review his aids are conducting. But he's not strongly opposed to the Keystone pipeline. There's no indication of that yet. So what you hear from aids is the possibility of negotiations with Republicans in which the president would agree to the Keystone pipeline, if Republicans could give the administration some of its priorities. The question is, given the fighting and how intense it's getting already, whether there's going to be appetite for dealmaking on either side. Back to you.
Obama's actions are expected to provide a clearer guidance for agencies to enfoce laws related to employee immigration.
I'm Chen Qian, reporting from CNBC's Asian headquarters
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