The immigration bill is crumbling. That’s the news coming out of Capitol Hill this morning after a crucial 49-48 vote capped the temporary-worker program to five years. The amendment’s passage could doom the bill for pro-business Republicans who want to import cheap labor. Meanwhile, liberals are frustrated by Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R.-Okla.) amendment to make English the official language. It passed on a 64-33 vote.

My colleagues at Heritage are ramping up their outreach about the bill. Former Attorney General Ed Meese has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today and Robert Rector writes for National Review Online. Rector’s latest cost estimate of the bill is $2.6 trillion — a whopping number that should certainly raise eyebrows of those senators who claim to be fiscally responsible.

A vote for cloture is expected at 11 a.m. This will be the first shot critics have to halt the bill. Based on my reporting yesterday, it’s a very real possibility that there are 41 votes to block the bill.