GOW125
07-07-2006, 12:53 AM
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?fr=sfp&ei=UTF-8&p=immigration
While congressional committees held dueling hearings across the country on immigration reform, support in the Senate for its own version grew shakier.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ga., have refused to sign off on a procedure needed to allow House and Senate conferees to finish the reform bill.
The two want assurances that the final product will more nearly resemble the tougher House-passed version.
This follows a signal by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that he is willing to lean in that direction during the House-Senate conference.
The developments suggest momentum is with lawmakers who favor a bill that focuses on border security and enforcement and disdains any guest-worker or earned- legalization program.
DeMint and Sessions are refusing to provide what the Senate calls "unanimous consent" -- the agreement of all lawmakers to proceed -- on a tax provision needed to resolve a parliamentary problem with the bill.
Their opposition was first reported in The Hill, a Capitol Hill-only newspaper.
Aides declined to talk on the record but confirmed that DeMint and Sessions think they can stall the immigration bill. Other Republicans are reportedly backing them up.
Both senators voted in May against the Senate-passed version, claiming that its guest-worker and earned-legalization provisions amount to amnesty.
"We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who broke our laws," DeMint has said.
An aide said the senators will grant consent only if Senate leaders assure them that before proceeding with any other reforms, the final bill out of the House-Senate conference will require certification the border is secure.
Frist doesn't think the lack of unanimous consent on the tax issue will prevent the bill from going to conference but could complicate things, a source in his office said.
Lack of unanimous consent could, for example, make other parliamentary challenges to the bill easier, the source said. At a minimum, it would slow the bill's progress.
But Frist may already be heading in the Sessions-DeMint direction. In a letter late last month to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., he said conferees should give "serious thought" to a proposal requiring presidential certification that the border is secure before authorizing a guest-worker program.
"The Senate made a good-faith effort to design a workable system, but I think everyone would agree it could use further refinement," Frist wrote in the June 22 letter.
Congress is building toward a final push on immigration. Lawmakers backing different approaches are trying to muster support in a series of dueling summer hearings.
On Wednesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, argued for broad amnesty. He said illegal immigrants are crucial to America's largest city.
"Our city's economy ... would collapse if they were deported," he told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., at a hearing in Pennsylvania.
Backers of more-limited immigration held hearings in San Diego, Calif., and Laredo, Texas, highlighting the costs to local governments and potential national security issues.
More hearings are planned. Frist is waiting for them to end before he moves to House-Senate talks.
On Wednesday, President Bush, visiting a Dunkin' Donuts shop in Virginia run by Iranian-Americans, reiterated his call for guest-worker provisions.
But Specter recently conceded that before proceeding with a guest-worker program, the Senate might go along with a final bill that requires employee verification and border control.
Republicans need to turn out their conservative base this fall to hold onto Congress.
Democrats favor the Senate-passed version but have largely stayed out of the debate preferring to criticize the GOP for not completing a bill.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the hearings shams and accused Bush of caving in to the right wing.
"Americans should see these hearings for what they are: desperate measures from a party desperate to hold onto control," Dean said in a statement.
While congressional committees held dueling hearings across the country on immigration reform, support in the Senate for its own version grew shakier.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ga., have refused to sign off on a procedure needed to allow House and Senate conferees to finish the reform bill.
The two want assurances that the final product will more nearly resemble the tougher House-passed version.
This follows a signal by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that he is willing to lean in that direction during the House-Senate conference.
The developments suggest momentum is with lawmakers who favor a bill that focuses on border security and enforcement and disdains any guest-worker or earned- legalization program.
DeMint and Sessions are refusing to provide what the Senate calls "unanimous consent" -- the agreement of all lawmakers to proceed -- on a tax provision needed to resolve a parliamentary problem with the bill.
Their opposition was first reported in The Hill, a Capitol Hill-only newspaper.
Aides declined to talk on the record but confirmed that DeMint and Sessions think they can stall the immigration bill. Other Republicans are reportedly backing them up.
Both senators voted in May against the Senate-passed version, claiming that its guest-worker and earned-legalization provisions amount to amnesty.
"We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who broke our laws," DeMint has said.
An aide said the senators will grant consent only if Senate leaders assure them that before proceeding with any other reforms, the final bill out of the House-Senate conference will require certification the border is secure.
Frist doesn't think the lack of unanimous consent on the tax issue will prevent the bill from going to conference but could complicate things, a source in his office said.
Lack of unanimous consent could, for example, make other parliamentary challenges to the bill easier, the source said. At a minimum, it would slow the bill's progress.
But Frist may already be heading in the Sessions-DeMint direction. In a letter late last month to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., he said conferees should give "serious thought" to a proposal requiring presidential certification that the border is secure before authorizing a guest-worker program.
"The Senate made a good-faith effort to design a workable system, but I think everyone would agree it could use further refinement," Frist wrote in the June 22 letter.
Congress is building toward a final push on immigration. Lawmakers backing different approaches are trying to muster support in a series of dueling summer hearings.
On Wednesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, argued for broad amnesty. He said illegal immigrants are crucial to America's largest city.
"Our city's economy ... would collapse if they were deported," he told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., at a hearing in Pennsylvania.
Backers of more-limited immigration held hearings in San Diego, Calif., and Laredo, Texas, highlighting the costs to local governments and potential national security issues.
More hearings are planned. Frist is waiting for them to end before he moves to House-Senate talks.
On Wednesday, President Bush, visiting a Dunkin' Donuts shop in Virginia run by Iranian-Americans, reiterated his call for guest-worker provisions.
But Specter recently conceded that before proceeding with a guest-worker program, the Senate might go along with a final bill that requires employee verification and border control.
Republicans need to turn out their conservative base this fall to hold onto Congress.
Democrats favor the Senate-passed version but have largely stayed out of the debate preferring to criticize the GOP for not completing a bill.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the hearings shams and accused Bush of caving in to the right wing.
"Americans should see these hearings for what they are: desperate measures from a party desperate to hold onto control," Dean said in a statement.