Last Updated on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 1:40 am EDT

By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 2, 2009 - 7:00 am EST

After months of skirmishing and preparation, the full House of Representatives this week could finally take up its health care reform bill, a measure that addresses both legal and illegal immigrants' access to health insurance.  And after more than a month of threats and delay, the full Senate could finally pull the trigger and dispose of a proposal to deny noncitizens living in the United States representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the meantime, Senate Health Care reform negotiations continue as Majority Leader Reid struggles to assemble 60 votes in support of the Senate's version of health care reform legislation, and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled action for this week on a bill to make it easier to denaturalize and deport persons who have committed human rights violations.

The following briefly previews the coming week's immigration- and refugee-related legislative activity:

• House Consideration of Health Care Reform Bill.  The full House of Representatives this week is scheduled to take up legislation that would reform the nation's health insurance industry.  Included in the measure are a number of provisions impacting the ability of both legal and illegal immigrants to access health insurance.  While the bill that was introduced resolved a number of issues relating to immigrants' access to health insurance, three highly controversial immigration-related questions that were resolved in the introduced-version of bill could be reopened prior to the final vote in the House on the measure. 
  
  This week's House floor action will occur in connection with H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009".  Members will likely engage in skirmishes relating to the bill as soon as Monday, October 2, 2009. However, the full House of Representatives will not likely begin formal consideration of the bill until Thursday, November 5, 2009, or later. The House is not expected to cast a final vote on the measure until Friday, November 6, 2009, or later.
  
  The House Democratic Leadership unveiled H.R. 3962 during a Thursday, October 29, 2009, mid-morning rally on the West Front steps of the U.S. Capitol Building. Representative John Dingell (D-MI), the Dean of the House, introduced the 1,990 page-long measure.
  

• Census and Immigration Status.   The Senate this week could resume consideration of a measure that has become the target of a proposal by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) to deny noncitizens representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The Vitter/Bennett proposal is embodied in an amendment that the two senators have offered to the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (C-J-S Appropriations Bill).   The amendment would require the Census Bureau to ask every person in the United States about his or her citizenship and immigration status. 

Should the Senate resume its consideration of the stalled appropriations bill, it likely will face a procedural vote  on invoking cloture on the measure, a move that would shutdown debate on the bill and prevent a direct vote on the Vitter/Bennett amendment.  In order to prevail on the procedural vote and bar a vote on the amendment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will need the votes of 60 senators. 

The Senate first took up the C-J-S Appropriations Bill on Monday, October 5, 2009.  However, Majority Leader Reid pulled it from the Senate floor late in that week, in part, in order to avoid a direct vote on the Vitter amendment. 

Senator Vitter has stated that he intends to use any data gained by  citizenship or immigration census questions to ensure that noncitizens are not represented in the United States House of Representatives.  The Vitter/Bennett amendment is vigorously opposed by the Administration, former census bureau directors of both parties, Democratic leaders  in the House, rank-and-file Democratic Members from the three minority caucuses in the House, and by much of the immigrant, civil rights, and minority communities.  

• Human Rights and Immigration Law.  The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a markup for this week during which it could take up a measure that would make it easier to denaturalize and/or deport persons in the United States who have committed human rights violations. This week's action is scheduled on S. 1472, the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009.  This week's markup is scheduled for 10:00 am on Thursday, November 5, 2009, in Room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.