Appropriations, Alien Smuggling, and Health Care Dominate Week's Immigration Legislative Agenda
Last Updated on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 10:35 am EDT
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Action on Appropriations, Revision of Alien Smuggling Laws, and Behind-the-Scenes Negotiations on Health Care Reform to Dominate this Week's
Immigration Legislative Agenda
By Micheal E. Hill
Monday October 19, 2009 - 7:00 am EDT
[Updated on Monday, October 19, 2009 - 10:35 am EDT
Most of the immigration- and refugee-related legislative action will be in the Senate this week as it attempts to clear for the President's signature the Homeland Security Appropriations conference report, and it potentially resumes consideration of an appropriations bill that is the target of an effort to use the upcoming census to deny noncitizens representation in U.S. House of Representatives. One significant action in the House this week will involve its consideration of a bill that would increase penalties for smuggling, or harboring illegal aliens.
Despite the heavy appropriations congressional agenda, behind-the-scenes negotiations among Democrats will continue in both the House and senate as their leaders struggle to revise pending health care reform bills so that they will pass in their respective chambers.
This week's anticipated immigration- and refugee-related legislative action in the Senate includes:
Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. At some point this week, the Senate expects to take up a House-approved compromise version of H.R. 2892, the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. Should the Senate approve the conference report accompanying H.R. 2892, it will clear the measure for the President's signature. The compromise bill contains a three year-long extension of the controversial E-Verify Program, as well as three year-long extensions of the EB-5 Investor Visas Regional Centers Program, the Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker Visa Program, and the Conrad 30 State J-1 Visa Program. The conference report also directly appropriates about $50 MILLION for refugee and asylum adjudications and provides for the admission of widows and orphans of deceased United States citizens under some circumstances. From an immigration perspective, the conference report is more controversial for what it does not contain. It rejects a number of controversial immigration enforcement policy provisions that the Senate adopted when the Senate considered the measure last Summer, including E-Verify, border fencing, and SSA No-Match letters. As the week begins, it is unclear whether Republican senators will force the Senate into an extended debate on the measure and/or require a 60-vote majority for the Senate to approve the measure.
Preparation for Senate Floor Consideration of Health Care Reform Bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is working with the leadership of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to meld the work of the two committees and fashion the bill that he hopes to bring before the full Senate. The Majority Leader has indicated his desire to bring the bill before the Senate during the week of October 31, 2009. By all accounts, the melded bill will contain the same restrictions on both legal and illegal immigrants' access to health insurance that are contained in the bill that the Senate Committee on Finance last week.
Census and Immigration Status. The full Senate this week could resume its consideration of H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The measure has become a vehicle for a controversial immigration-related amendment that would require the census bureau to ask every person living in the United States about their citizenship status as part of the 2010 Decennial census. The proposal was offered to the bill by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert F. Bennett (R-UT) on October 7, 2009, and has held up consideration of the bill ever since. H.R. 2847 includes funding for the immigration court system, the Board of Immigration Appeals, alternatives to detention for immigration detainees, and funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).
This week's anticipated immigration- and refugee-related legislative action in the House includes:
Revision of Alien Smuggling Laws. This full House of Representatives this week is expected to take up a measure containing a set of provisions that would make significant and controversial changes to the nation's alien smuggling laws. This week's House action is set to occur in connection with H.R. 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. Title XII of the measure is comprised of the text of a H.R. 1029, the Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act, which the House of Representatives passed on March 31, 2009, by a voice vote.
House Health Care Reform Bill. The House Democratic Leadership continues this week in its attempt to merge the work of three House committees and throw in a few ideas of its own to produce a new version of H.R. 3200, the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009." The Leadership has difficult choices to make on the treatment of both legal and illegal immigrants in the bill that it takes to the House floor.The House Democratic Leadership has expressed its intention to bring a bill before the full House of Representatives in early November.
Hearing on International Violence Against Women Issues. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs this week will hold a hearing on international violence against women issues, at which the actress Nicole Kidman is expected to testify.
Click Here for a complete run-down of the coming week's anticipated immigration- and refugee-related legislative activity...
legislative action will be in the Senate this week as it attempts to clear for the President's signature the Homeland Security Appropriations conference report, and it potentially resumes consideration of an appropriations bill that is the target of an effort to use the upcoming census to deny noncitizens representation in U.S. House of Representatives. One significant action in the House this week will involve its consideration of a bill that would increase penalties for smuggling, or harboring illegal aliens.