LoungeMachine
06-22-2006, 12:01 AM
House wants hearings on immigration
Delay could spell doom for reform bill's passage this year
By Frank James
Washington Bureau
Published June 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- In a move that could sound the death knell for immigration-reform legislation in Congress this year, House Republican leaders said Tuesday they plan to hold numerous hearings on the issue this summer and only then start talks with the Senate that might lead to a final bill.
The delay raises the likelihood that Congress will end the year without passing major immigration legislation that President Bush has supported. That would be a signal defeat for the president, who has urged Congress to approve comprehensive legislation along the lines of the Senate-passed bill, which included a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. and the creation of a guest-worker program.
Failure to approve final legislation, however, would be an election-year victory for many House Republicans who have fiercely opposed any course that could lead to illegal immigrants gaining citizenship before U.S. borders are secured, a position held by many voters as well.
House Republicans have consistently decried provisions calling for legalization of immigrants as an amnesty, which they find anathema. In addition, they have said the nation's priority should be securing its borders, especially along the southern perimeter with Mexico, and cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The House passed enforcement-only legislation in December while the Senate approved its broader bill last month.
"I'm not putting any timeline on this thing but I think we need to get this done right," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told reporters. He said hearings were necessary so the House could "understand what the American people are saying."
The call for hearings was part of a strategy by House Republicans to raise public awareness of various elements in the Senate bill they find objectionable, they said.
One provision of the Senate bill would allow illegal immigrants to collect Social Security for the years when they lacked authorization to work, even when they illegally used Social Security numbers that belonged to U.S. citizens or legal residents in order to obtain jobs.
Objections to Senate bill
House critics of the Senate bill also complain it would place unreasonable limits on the information immigration officials could use to decide whether to grant an applicant legal status.
"Once [voters] find out some of things that are in this bill they will be outraged about it," said one House Republican aide who requested anonymity because he wanted to speak more frankly. "And that's the problem. If we just went into a conference [with the Senate] and then passed a bill and sent it to the president and [voters] didn't know all these things were in there, we'd be in a lot of trouble before an election."
Congressional supporters of the Senate's immigration legislation accused House Republicans and some in the Senate of acting in bad faith. "The Republican House wants to defeat the immigration bill," said Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leader of the Senate's Democrats.
"It's obvious that the Republicans in the Senate don't want an immigration bill," Reid said. "This is a stall. . . . If there were ever a time for the president to get engaged in this, it would be now. Why can't he, with this power that he has over this Republican-dominated Congress, tell them, `I want to go to conference on this'?"
Despite the delay in any start of House-Senate negotiations over the legislation, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "The president is undeterred. We are committed and we have been working very hard with members [of Congress] to see if we can reach consensus on an issue the American people have said they want action on."
Hastert press secretary Ron Bonjean said as many as eight committees will hold hearings, including the House Judiciary, Ways and Means and Homeland Security panels. Hearings would be held in July and August with negotiations between the House and Senate on a final measure slated for September.
"If this legislation is ready to pass in September, then we'll pass it," Hastert said. "But we're not going to pass it before it's ready."
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Tuesday there was no reason to hold additional hearings on the immigration bill. The decision by House Republicans was "the wrong way to go," he said, and seemed to simply delay resolving differences between House and Senate versions of the legislation.
Supporters of a more lenient approach toward illegal immigrants suggested that the House leadership hoped that by pushing negotiations with the Senate closer to the Nov. 7 midterm congressional elections, the likelihood of passing a bill would diminish.
`Run out the clock'
Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington-based organization that favors the Senate bill, said, "I think . . . the Republican leadership's game is to just run out the clock. I think that they're really uncomfortable, they're squirming with the split in their party over this. And the fact that the stars have aligned so that the president and the Senate are in the same place on this is just something they don't want to contend with" in an election year.
Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the Senate bill, raised an issue critics have aired as another reason why immigration reform might be doomed, at least for this year.
The Senate bill has some revenue-raising provisions that would require illegal workers to pay back taxes. But the Constitution requires revenue-raising measures to originate in the House.
That could force the Senate to go back and strip out those provisions and that might require more debate and votes in a Senate that already had great difficulty producing its legislation.
"The chance that they have an appetite for debate and votes again on this is not that great," he said. "So that technicality actually matters."
Delay could spell doom for reform bill's passage this year
By Frank James
Washington Bureau
Published June 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- In a move that could sound the death knell for immigration-reform legislation in Congress this year, House Republican leaders said Tuesday they plan to hold numerous hearings on the issue this summer and only then start talks with the Senate that might lead to a final bill.
The delay raises the likelihood that Congress will end the year without passing major immigration legislation that President Bush has supported. That would be a signal defeat for the president, who has urged Congress to approve comprehensive legislation along the lines of the Senate-passed bill, which included a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. and the creation of a guest-worker program.
Failure to approve final legislation, however, would be an election-year victory for many House Republicans who have fiercely opposed any course that could lead to illegal immigrants gaining citizenship before U.S. borders are secured, a position held by many voters as well.
House Republicans have consistently decried provisions calling for legalization of immigrants as an amnesty, which they find anathema. In addition, they have said the nation's priority should be securing its borders, especially along the southern perimeter with Mexico, and cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. The House passed enforcement-only legislation in December while the Senate approved its broader bill last month.
"I'm not putting any timeline on this thing but I think we need to get this done right," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told reporters. He said hearings were necessary so the House could "understand what the American people are saying."
The call for hearings was part of a strategy by House Republicans to raise public awareness of various elements in the Senate bill they find objectionable, they said.
One provision of the Senate bill would allow illegal immigrants to collect Social Security for the years when they lacked authorization to work, even when they illegally used Social Security numbers that belonged to U.S. citizens or legal residents in order to obtain jobs.
Objections to Senate bill
House critics of the Senate bill also complain it would place unreasonable limits on the information immigration officials could use to decide whether to grant an applicant legal status.
"Once [voters] find out some of things that are in this bill they will be outraged about it," said one House Republican aide who requested anonymity because he wanted to speak more frankly. "And that's the problem. If we just went into a conference [with the Senate] and then passed a bill and sent it to the president and [voters] didn't know all these things were in there, we'd be in a lot of trouble before an election."
Congressional supporters of the Senate's immigration legislation accused House Republicans and some in the Senate of acting in bad faith. "The Republican House wants to defeat the immigration bill," said Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leader of the Senate's Democrats.
"It's obvious that the Republicans in the Senate don't want an immigration bill," Reid said. "This is a stall. . . . If there were ever a time for the president to get engaged in this, it would be now. Why can't he, with this power that he has over this Republican-dominated Congress, tell them, `I want to go to conference on this'?"
Despite the delay in any start of House-Senate negotiations over the legislation, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "The president is undeterred. We are committed and we have been working very hard with members [of Congress] to see if we can reach consensus on an issue the American people have said they want action on."
Hastert press secretary Ron Bonjean said as many as eight committees will hold hearings, including the House Judiciary, Ways and Means and Homeland Security panels. Hearings would be held in July and August with negotiations between the House and Senate on a final measure slated for September.
"If this legislation is ready to pass in September, then we'll pass it," Hastert said. "But we're not going to pass it before it's ready."
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Tuesday there was no reason to hold additional hearings on the immigration bill. The decision by House Republicans was "the wrong way to go," he said, and seemed to simply delay resolving differences between House and Senate versions of the legislation.
Supporters of a more lenient approach toward illegal immigrants suggested that the House leadership hoped that by pushing negotiations with the Senate closer to the Nov. 7 midterm congressional elections, the likelihood of passing a bill would diminish.
`Run out the clock'
Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington-based organization that favors the Senate bill, said, "I think . . . the Republican leadership's game is to just run out the clock. I think that they're really uncomfortable, they're squirming with the split in their party over this. And the fact that the stars have aligned so that the president and the Senate are in the same place on this is just something they don't want to contend with" in an election year.
Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the Senate bill, raised an issue critics have aired as another reason why immigration reform might be doomed, at least for this year.
The Senate bill has some revenue-raising provisions that would require illegal workers to pay back taxes. But the Constitution requires revenue-raising measures to originate in the House.
That could force the Senate to go back and strip out those provisions and that might require more debate and votes in a Senate that already had great difficulty producing its legislation.
"The chance that they have an appetite for debate and votes again on this is not that great," he said. "So that technicality actually matters."