Senate abuses process in handling immigration bill
The high-handed tactics deployed by the president and Senate leaders are inexcusable. S. 1639 deserves to die so that an immigration reform package that is worthy of support can be debated, amended - and, we hope, approved.
**
Not by the back door
June 28, 2007
'The world's greatest deliberative body"? Yeah, right. The Senate's handling of the immigration reform bill this week is in fact a sham.
The maneuvers that have been used to bring S. 1639 forward are so flawed that we hope opponents collect the 40 votes they need - perhaps as early as today - to deny cloture, which would kill the measure for now.
Representative government should not be conducted behind closed doors, as has been the case with this bill. Senators were required to vote on legislation that would affect tens of millions of people, not just the illegal immigrants who could gain a path to citizenship, without public hearings or committee votes or amendments from individual senators.
Such consequential policies should be fully, fairly and openly debated, not jammed through using a confined and secretive process.
We say this as supporters of comprehensive immigration reform. We continue to believe that many illegal immigrants who have worked hard, provided for their families and stayed out of trouble should earn the opportunity to become permanent residents and eventually citizens. And that the price of this "slow-motion amnesty" should include credible, accountable measures to police the border and stanch the future flow of illegal entries.
Well-crafted legislation could attract widespread public support. But it needs to be sold to the American people, not jammed down their throats.
It has been appalling to witness the defensive and dismissive approach President Bush and his congressional allies have deployed, especially during this most recent rush through the Senate. As late as Wednesday only a handful of "grand bargainers" - including the president, leaders of both parties and a few other senators such as Colorado's Ken Salazar - were aware of the entire contents of the legislation.
When the bill passed its first procedural hurdle by a 65-34 vote on Tuesday, the bargainers permitted senators to consider only a handful of amendments, several of which were clearly included to buy off some of their colleagues. These include proposals to add a U.S. attorney's office in Utah; increase the number of federal judges in some states; and (improbable as this might seem) create a commission to study the World War II internment of Latin Americans of Japanese descent.
Meanwhile, senators from both parties who tried to offer separate amendments or object to specific provisions in the legislation were cut off - a practice that's nearly unprecedented in the normally chatty and collegial Senate.
At that point the amendment package was riddled with errors. That led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday to pull the package from consideration so it could be rewritten. When the vote on the first amendment (by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas) took place, copies of the document had not been circulated to all senators.
So yes, in this case senators literally voted on legislation they had never seen.
The high-handed tactics deployed by the president and Senate leaders are inexcusable. S. 1639 deserves to die so that an immigration reform package that is worthy of support can be debated, amended - and, we hope, approved.
June 28, 2007
'The world's greatest deliberative body"? Yeah, right. The Senate's handling of the immigration reform bill this week is in fact a sham.
The maneuvers that have been used to bring S. 1639 forward are so flawed that we hope opponents collect the 40 votes they need - perhaps as early as today - to deny cloture, which would kill the measure for now.
Representative government should not be conducted behind closed doors, as has been the case with this bill. Senators were required to vote on legislation that would affect tens of millions of people, not just the illegal immigrants who could gain a path to citizenship, without public hearings or committee votes or amendments from individual senators.
Such consequential policies should be fully, fairly and openly debated, not jammed through using a confined and secretive process.
We say this as supporters of comprehensive immigration reform. We continue to believe that many illegal immigrants who have worked hard, provided for their families and stayed out of trouble should earn the opportunity to become permanent residents and eventually citizens. And that the price of this "slow-motion amnesty" should include credible, accountable measures to police the border and stanch the future flow of illegal entries.
Well-crafted legislation could attract widespread public support. But it needs to be sold to the American people, not jammed down their throats.
It has been appalling to witness the defensive and dismissive approach President Bush and his congressional allies have deployed, especially during this most recent rush through the Senate. As late as Wednesday only a handful of "grand bargainers" - including the president, leaders of both parties and a few other senators such as Colorado's Ken Salazar - were aware of the entire contents of the legislation.
When the bill passed its first procedural hurdle by a 65-34 vote on Tuesday, the bargainers permitted senators to consider only a handful of amendments, several of which were clearly included to buy off some of their colleagues. These include proposals to add a U.S. attorney's office in Utah; increase the number of federal judges in some states; and (improbable as this might seem) create a commission to study the World War II internment of Latin Americans of Japanese descent.
Meanwhile, senators from both parties who tried to offer separate amendments or object to specific provisions in the legislation were cut off - a practice that's nearly unprecedented in the normally chatty and collegial Senate.
At that point the amendment package was riddled with errors. That led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday to pull the package from consideration so it could be rewritten. When the vote on the first amendment (by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas) took place, copies of the document had not been circulated to all senators.
So yes, in this case senators literally voted on legislation they had never seen.
The high-handed tactics deployed by the president and Senate leaders are inexcusable. S. 1639 deserves to die so that an immigration reform package that is worthy of support can be debated, amended - and, we hope, approved.
posted by jillosophy at 6/28/2007 09:37:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home