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Senate Puts Off Consideration of Vehicle for Vitter/Bennett Census and Immigration Status Amendment Until Next Week or Later



By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, October 15, 2009- 7:35 am EDT


The Senate Democratic Leadership has pulled the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (C-J-S Appropriations Bill) from the Senate floor until next week or later. Senate insiders suggest that the bill will remain in limbo until the Democratic Leadership can assemble 60 votes to shut off debate and prevent a vote on a pending amendment that would require the 2010 census enumeration to ask every person living in the United States about his or her immigration status.
The census and immigration status amendment was offered by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. The specter of a vote on it has dominated the Senate's consideration of the C-J-S Appropriations bill since then.

The Senate on Tuesday attempted -- but failed-- to cut off debate on the C-J-S Appropriations Bill and bar nongermane amendments from being offered to it, a procedure known as invoking cloture. In that vote, the Senate fell three votes short of the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture on the measure. Three Democratic senators were absent for the vote, each of whom would be expected to support invoking cloture on the bill should there be a re-vote. Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has suggested that he will bring the bill back to the Senate floor once he has secured the necessary 60 votes to end debate on it.

Prior to the vote on cloture, the Senate Democratic and Republican leadership had engaged in negotiations that ultimately were unsuccessful to convince senators to voluntarily limit amendments to the bill. Following the breakdown, the Senate voted on whether to bring debate to a close, failing to do so.


The Census and Immigration Status Amendment
The Vitter/Bennett census and immigration status amendment is opposed by the Obama Administration.

The Department of Commerce, which administers the U.S. Census Bureau, has said of the amendment, “[a]dding a new question to the 2010 Census questionnaire less than six months before Census Day (April 1, 2010) would mean the Census Bureau could not complete the enumeration, processing, and deliver of census results by the statutory deadline of December 31, 2010. It is too late to shift gears at this point in the process.â€