June 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate killed comprehensive immigration legislation, ending chances that Congress will act on the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's domestic agenda before he leaves office.

Supporters garnered just 46 of the 60 votes needed to conclude debate and proceed to final passage. Fifty-three senators, including 37 of Bush's fellow Republicans, voted against cutting off debate.

``This vote effectively kills comprehensive immigration legislation in the 110th Congress,'' said Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, head of a House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration.

Senate leaders, too, said they had no plans to try to overhaul immigration law before the 2008 presidential election. ``Absent some miraculous revival, it is not going to move forward in this Congress,'' said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat.

The measure, the biggest rewrite of U.S. immigration law since 1986, would offer 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship while tightening the border with Mexico and creating a guest-worker program to help employers fill low-paying jobs.

Today's vote makes it highly unlikely the House of Representatives would act on immigration. House Republicans voted 114-23 this week to adopt a resolution disapproving of the Senate measure.

Bush Defeat

Bush, who had lobbied Republican senators to support the legislation, acknowledged defeat, saying that ``Congress's failure to act on it is a disappointment.

``A lot of us worked hard to see if we could find common ground and it didn't work,'' he said after a speech in Newport, Rhode Island. The president delivered his words in a somber tone, took no questions and didn't engage in his usual joking banter with reporters.

The Bush administration ``is still interested in finding the solution'' to the problem of illegal immigration, said Michael Chertoff, Bush's homeland security secretary who helped draft the legislation.

``There are some very valuable tools we could have used'' to enforce immigration law ``that were left on the floor of the Senate today,'' he said.

The measure's sponsors offered provisions to increase penalties for foreigners who overstay travel or student visas. The legislation also would have required employers to verify every worker's identity to ensure none were illegal aliens.

Amnesty for Lawbreakers

Still, Republicans said the legislation didn't do enough to prevent illegal immigration and would give amnesty to those who entered the country illegally. They weren't persuaded to support the measure by Bush's endorsement of a plan to add $4.4 billion to improve border security and control illegal immigration.

Opponents cited the failure of four presidents to stem the tide of border crossings from Mexico since 1986, when Congress enacted an immigration law that offered legal amnesty to 3 million undocumented aliens then in the U.S.

``Clearly the American people don't have any confidence in the promises that it will be done when there is a track record of failure,'' said North Carolina Republican Elizabeth Dole.

Tennessee Republican Bob Corker mentioned ``intelligence gaps and evolving reasons for why we are involved in military conflicts'' as factors in the erosion of the public's faith in government's ``ability to do things it says it will do.''

`Failed the American People'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, who had demanded the support of 50 to 70 Republicans before bringing any immigration measure to a vote, made no mention of plans to push legislation in a statement she issued about the Senate vote.

Pelosi said Republicans ``failed the American people'' by blocking Senate passage of the legislation. Bush was unable to fulfill his ``obligation'' to ``persuade his fellow Republicans to pass'' the bipartisan legislation, she said.

Senate supporters of the measure vowed they would not give up. ``We will be back,'' Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy said. ``This issue isn't going to go away and we will succeed.'' Kennedy gave no indication when he thought that would be.

Twelve Republicans joined 33 Democrats and Connecticut independent Joseph Lieberman in voting to conclude debate and move the measure toward a roll call on final passage. Thirty- seven Republicans, including their party's leader, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, voted to kill the legislation along with 15 Democrats and Vermont independent Bernie Sanders.

Criticism of McConnell

Durbin criticized McConnell for not helping pass the legislation after urging Majority Leader Harry Reid to try to revive it. ``There was just no indication of help from Senator McConnell,'' Durbin told reporters after the Kentucky lawmaker voted against curtailing debate.

McConnell, who is seeking re-election next year, said he voted to kill the measure because ``I heard from a lot of Kentuckians'' who ``didn't like the idea of someone being rewarded for a crime'' of illegally entering the country.

Today's vote came three weeks after Reid, a Nevada Democrat, pulled the measure off the Senate floor when supporters lost a similar procedural vote to limit debate. The measure was revived after a bipartisan group agreed on a package of about two dozen amendments that would be voted on.

Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions said the Senate telephone switchboard was shut down by a flood of calls to Senate offices by opponents of the bill.

`Only Victory'

``The only victory here is for the American people,'' South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint said after the vote. ``People responded to this issue in a very emotional and engaged way, which changed the minds of many people here in the Senate.''

Eighteen senators switched their position from a June 7 vote when the Senate voted 64-35 to resume debate on the measure.

Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, a candidate for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, switched his vote from ``yes'' to ``no'' during the roll call.

``I wanted to signal that I am supportive of comprehensive immigration reform but that now is not the time and this is not the bill,'' Brownback said in a statement.

Five other senators seeking the presidency, Democrats Hillary Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Arizona Republican John McCain, supported the effort to cut off debate.

Opponents of the legislation had criticized a limit on amendments and used procedural tactics to delay its consideration. Today they said their stalling tactics helped sway some senators.

``In terms of personal conversations with some individual senators who were on the bubble or even supporters of the bill, they came up to me and others and said this process really wasn't fair to us,'' Louisiana Republican David Vitter said.

To contact the reporters on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 28, 2007 16:51 EDT