The DREAM Act amnesty is a hot topic in the Senate lame duck session this week. Senator Harry Reid continues to push this amnesty toward a vote, but the clock is ticking. Reid did not file for cloture today, but told senior aides that he intends to file early this week and move forward with the bill as promised.
Back on November 17th, @SenatorReid posted this on Twitter "I will move the DREAM Act as a stand alone bill in the lame duck. It's good for the economy & Pentagon says good for natl security."
Firm "NO" is a Good thing
Senator Hutchison's office took a good meeting with us and gave us a statement yesterday "Senator Hutchison has been consistent and clear about her position against the current DREAM Act legislation, particularly her concern that the bill goes far beyond the intended group of children who grew up in the U.S. and attended primary and secondary schools here." She will vote NO on the cloture and NO on the DREAM Act. Her staff was clear that she is not supporting the DREAM Act.
Senator LeMeiux's staff spent 20 minutes with us and said he is clearly opposed to the DREAM Act in its current form. His office communicated to us from a statement "he won't support such aid for the DREAM Act authorization and effective measures are taken to secure our borders." LeMeiux is a NO on cloture and a NO on the DREAM Act.
We had a very nice 30 minute meeting with Senator Kay Hagan's staff. She is opposed to the DREAM Act. Her staff said that she has made multiple statements against the bill but we could not pin down specifics. I'm comfortable reporting that she is a NO on cloture and a NO on the DREAM Act, but calls into her office to get the official statement on record would help.
Lindsey Graham's staff reported that he will not support the DREAM Act. His staff meet with us and were very polite. They pointed us to his statement on Fox News Sunday this past weekend. He will not support the DREAM Act as a stand-alone measure. We were instructed to call his press secretary for an official statement and to get something more on the record. He has not made a statement for the press, but he is a NO on cloture and a NO on the DREAM Act.
Senator Johanns staff was very pleasant and spent about 30 minutes with us. They were happy to see us and good to see people who are against the DREAM Act. His staff pointed us to his website and press room pages and releases. Johanns is a NO on cloture and a NO on the DREAM Act.
No Statement is a Bad sign
We need calls into John McCain's office. We did not get a statement from his office. We are working on scheduling a meeting for Tuesday or Wednesday, but we did not get anything from his staff on Monday.
Much the same from Scott Brown's office. No statement, they requested that we set a meeting.
Senator Gregg's office said that he is hoping to retire before a vote comes up! They said that we could schedule a meeting, but that his staff is pretty booked this week.
We had 20 minutes with Senator Jim Webb's staff, he did support the DREAM Act in 2007. He has no statement currently. His staff reported that the Department of Defense asked that the DREAM Act be included as part of a recruiting effort. They need and want the DREAM Act. However, his staff that he has no statement on the current bill and that he is reviewing the situation.
Ugly in Maine
It's coming. Staffers have the DREAM Act on their tally sheets, they are fielding calls left and right and answering emails from constituents. The calls are pretty even across the board, but the open-border and pro-amnesty side are getting more calls into Senators Collins and Snowe from Maine. Both of the lovely ladies from Maine voted YES for the DREAM Act in 2007.
The major push back from the GOP camp in Maine was that (1) the DREAM Act does have numerical limits as there is specific end frame called the "qualification period" and that our facts about "no end date for the application process" were not correct. (2) On in-state tuition, Collins staff communicated to us that her constituents are pushing for state rights and that shouldn't in-state tuition be a states rights issue and not a federal issue. This is a big point that we need to counter on. (3) They are probably dropping the age limit to 30 and there is no way that anyone up to age 35 or 41 as we were reporting could qualify. Another key point form our meeting here is that Collins' staff agreed that it was a complex problem, but that no one was coming to them with a solution for the 2.1 million young adults and that next year there will be more.
Both Senators voted NO a few months ago but strictly on the lines of procedure and lack of debate. They both want to discuss the issues and they are looking to their constituents for more input. The open-border sides are beating us 5 to 1 on phone calls and e-mails into their offices.
No comments:
Post a Comment