Thread: Frist Pushes For Quick Vote On Immigration

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01919.html

Frist Pushes For Quick Vote On Immigration
Majority Leader Bypasses Committee

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 17, 2006; Page A04

Frustrated by the Senate Judiciary Committee's slow progress on politically sensitive immigration legislation, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) introduced his own bill last night to secure the nation's borders and crack down on illegal immigration.

Frist's bill will go directly to the full Senate. But he said he will allow Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to substitute a committee bill if Specter's panel could approve one March 27. Otherwise, the majority leader will stick to a strict, two-week schedule to finish work on what he conceded would be "as challenging a bill as any we'll have to address this year."



Seeking prompt action, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist introduced his own immigration bill.
Seeking prompt action, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist introduced his own immigration bill. (By Greg Campbell -- Associated Press)
U.S. Congress

Browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991.

» EXPLORE THE DATABASE
The Fix
Chris Cillizza provides daily posts on a range of political topics, from the race for control of Congress in 2006 to scrutinizing the 2008 presidential hopefuls.
• The Friday Line: Ten More Govs. Races to Watch
• 2008: The Case Against Rudy Giuliani
• Nebraska Senate: Is Deficit Issue a Winner for Ricketts?
• The Fix Archive
xmlSign Up for RSS Feed
Online Politics Extras

Join The Washington Post's or washingtonpost.com's political staff daily at 11 a.m. ET to talk about the latest political news.
• Friday: Post National Political Editor John F. Harris
• Weekly Politics Chat Schedule
Politics Trivia
This president was the subject of the first U.S. presidential assassination attempt:

George Washington
Andrew Jackson
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln

Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.

* A Democrat on the Redneck Riviera
* Avant News - Deadpan satire from plausible futures - Avant News
* Truthdig - Cartoons - Nuke Club


Full List of Blogs (8 links) »

Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web

Save & Share

* Tag This Article


Saving options
1. Save to description:
Headline (required)
Subheadline
Byline
2. Save to notes (255 character max):
Subheadline Blurb None
3. Tag This Article

The majority leader's power move stunned committee Republicans and Democrats, who have been struggling for three weeks to reach agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill. Specter said he objected to the maneuver.

"It would be chaos on the floor to have this bill debated without the committee acting first," Specter said yesterday afternoon, only to grudgingly accept Frist's move in the evening.

Some Republican aides said they believed presidential politics were at work. Frist, a prospective candidate for 2008, left out of his bill the guest-worker program that President Bush has demanded and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- a potential White House rival -- has championed. Such a program is unpopular with many conservative voters, who see it as amnesty for illegal immigrants. Many Republicans believe a new law to get tough on illegal immigrants is one of the few pieces of legislation that must be passed before the November elections if the GOP is to maintain the allegiance of conservative voters.

Frist said he was motivated by a belief that only prompt Senate action will allow Senate and House negotiators to reach a compromise on a final bill this year. The House passed in December a border security bill that did not include a guest-worker program.

Senators from both parties have come to near-agreement on provisions bolstering the U.S. border patrol, adding new technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles and raising penalties on illegal immigrants and those who aid them. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) neared agreement yesterday on a guest-worker program that could smooth the way to bipartisan passage of a Judiciary Committee bill when lawmakers return from a week-long break next week.

Under the deal, Kennedy would agree that illegal immigrants who qualify for a guest-worker visa would have to go to their home countries for a year before applying for a visa extension of three or four additional years. But, Senate aides said, that one-year return could be waived if guest workers' employers said their continued labor was necessary or if a guest worker could prove a consistent work history.

With Democrats, Bush and many Republicans favoring a guest-worker program, immigration advocates say no immigration bill can get out of the Senate without one. But House opponents say they have commitments from Republican leaders that no guest-worker program will be considered on the House floor this year.

Specter does not want this debated on the Floor because too many Americans would notice what he is trying to do and would rebuke the plan if they saw it discussed in full.

W

AMEN. Specter should face a firing squad for his treason.

RR

Go Frist, Go!!

Under the deal, Kennedy would agree that illegal immigrants who qualify for a guest-worker visa would have to go to their home countries for a year before applying for a visa extension of three or four additional years. But, Senate aides said, that one-year return could be waived if guest workers' employers said their continued labor was necessary or if a guest worker could prove a consistent work history.

This is not acceptable! It has so many loopholes, that few if any illegal aliens would be required to leave the country. We need to let Cornyn know that we are onto his shamnesty plan.

The senate wont be meeting again until the 27th. Bushwacker and Fux are meeting on the 30th at the beautiful Cancun resort in Mexico. This is where they will be going over the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. I'm sure that Bush wants to present the good news of a'guest-worker' plan to his buddy.

Butterbean's quote:

I'm sure that Bush wants to present the good news of a'guest-worker' plan to his buddy.

I don't think so, Butterbean. He wants to be able to return to America. If he presents a guest worker plan to his buddy, we will seal off the borders and refuse permission for Air Force One to land at any airport in the USA. That will leave him two choices:

1. He can remain in Mexico for the rest of his life.
2. Spend the rest of his days in the air flying over the United States with no place to land.

The big problem is that of the 20 million (NOT 12 million AS WE KEEP HEARING AND REPEATING- YOU DUMMIES!!) Illegals, some of them actually do work, and are proping up -yes illegally, parts of the economy. Your not going to deport them, or have them self deport ASAP...

The big issue, is that with 20, make it 21,000,000 (million) illegals, we DONT NEED ANY MORE!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

Butterbean's quote:

I'm sure that Bush wants to present the good news of a'guest-worker' plan to his buddy.

I don't think so, Butterbean. He wants to be able to return to America. If he presents a guest worker plan to his buddy, we will seal off the borders and refuse permission for Air Force One to land at any airport in the USA. That will leave him two choices:

1. He can remain in Mexico for the rest of his life.
2. Spend the rest of his days in the air flying over the United States with no place to land.

I WISH!!!!!!

The Congress may just be a formality. If the commitee passes an amnesty, then then country can be fooled into thinking it's a done deal.

Bush can sign an Executive Order, while in Cancun, giving amnesty to 20 million aliens.


Actually , the 27th doesn't mean anything. the amnesty can be defeated, but Bush can STILL sign an amnesty into being.





-pa

He can still sign an amnesty? Ok...I have no objections to putting him in front of the firing squad as well as Specter and others.

We stopped hanging people for treason much too soon. Examples need to be in full view.

RR