GOP blocks number of bills for New Yorkers, including DREAM Act with filibuster

BY Erica Pearson and Thomas M. Defrank and KENNETH R. BAZINET in Washington
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, December 10th 2010, 4:00 AM
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday stalls DREAM Act vote another week.
Brandon/AP
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday stalls DREAM Act vote another week.
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The 9/11 health care bill wasn't the only legislation important to New Yorkers that went down in flames Thursday.

A Republican filibuster stalled the DREAM Act, which would make it possible for undocumented immigrants raised in the U.S. to get green cards by either going to college or into the military.

City teens who would qualify hope that a procedural move by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to keep a House version of the bill alive will let the Senate take it up again next week.

"We're scared, but at the same time we're happy that we have more time," said Olga Reyes, 18, an undocumented City College freshman who came from Mexico to Jackson Heights, Queens, when she was 11. "It's giving us a chance to keep on fighting, to keep on calling the Senate."

The act applies to the children of illegal immigrants who arrive in the U.S. before they turn 16. They must be under 30 when they apply, spend at least two years in college or the military and have no serious criminal record.

Senate Republicans also scuttled an attempt to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

The defeat is a stinging embarrassment to President Obama, the leadership at the Pentagon and Democratic activists, all of whom want to end the policy requiring gays to keep their sexual orientation private or risk being thrown out of the armed forces.

New York City Council members decried the outcome.

"They chose to uphold a discriminatory policy that has forced out more than 13,500 brave men and women from serving in our armed forces," Speaker Christine Quinn, and Councilmembers Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, House Democrats gave the thumbs-down to Obama's tax cut plan, delaying for a few more days a vote on that deal.

That move came as the Democrats' family feud went local when the Rev. Al Sharpton accused Rep. Anthony Weiner of ignoring the needs of working people. The fiery activist promised "pushback" if the Democratic lawmaker keeps attacking Obama over the tax cut deal. Weiner fired back that working families are his top priority.

kbazinet@nydailynews.com


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