Congress this week is expected to pass a measure continuing stop-gap fiscal year 2010 funding for the nation's refugee admissions, overseas refugee assistance, and refugee resettlement programs.  It also could deal with an effort in the Senate to use the appropriations process and the 2010 census to deny noncitizens' representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

While House and Senate immigration- and refugee-related floor activity in the coming week will be concentrated on appropriations matters, work will continue behind-the-scenes in both chambers in prepartion for what promises to be a bruising and prolonged floor battle over health care reform legislation, a battle that will include skirmishes over the treatment of noncitizens in health care reform.

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

• Stop-Gap Funding for Refugee Programs.  In addition to temporarily continuing fiscal year 2010 funding for the nation's refugee programs, the yet-to-be-introduced stop-gap funding measure that Congress will take up this week also will provide continuing funding for the other departments, agencies, programs, and activities of the federal government that have not yet had their regular fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills enacted into law.  It is antcipated that the stop-gap measure, called a continuing appropriations resolution,  will fund agencies, departments, programs, and activities through mid-December, 2010.
  
  Congressional action on a continuing appropriations resolution is necessary because Congress has not completed work on all of the 12 regular appropriations bills that fund the activities of the federal government for fiscal year 2010.  The continuing appropriations resolution will give Congress time to complete work on those measures.
  
  House floor action on the continuing appropriations resolution is likely to occur on Thursday, October 29, 2009.  The Senate is expected to act shortly thereafter. 

• Census and Immigration Status.   The Senate in the coming 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. 
  
  Senators Vitter and Bennett originally offered their census and immigration status amendment to the funding bill on October 7, 2009,  Since then, Senator Vitter has announced his intention to revise the amendment.  The revised version would only require the Census Bureau ask about citizenship status; not immigration status.
   
  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.  
  
  
• Health Care Reform.  Despite the heavy appropriations congressional agenda, behind-the-scenes negotiations among Democrats will continue in the coming week in both the House and senate as they attempt to revise pending health care reform bills so that they have sufficient support to pass in their respective chambers.  A House bill could be unveiled as soon as this week and considered by the full House of Representatives as soon as Friday, November 6.  The timetable in the Senate is less clear.
  
  Sources close to the House drafting process indicate that at the time of this writing, the bill that the House Democratic Leadership is drafting would not place additional limits on immigrants' access to health insurance beyond what was contained in the bills that were approved by the House Ways and Means, House Energy and Commerce, and House Education and Labor Committees.  However, these sources indicate that the current draft of the House bill contains a regime for verifying the citizenship and/or immigration status for individuals seeking a subsidy to purchase health insurance.  Neither the House Ways and Means Committee-, House Energy and Commerce Committee-, nor the House Education and Labor Committee-approved bills contain such a regime.