Monday, June 25, 2007
Last-minute thoughts (continued)
The other side keeps their eye on the ball: Conference Committee
Even the best amendments will not matter if they are (1) dropped in conference committee or (2) never enforced.
The other side knows these things are true.
They will accept any bill that can get through the Senate because the House-Senate conference is the real ball game where final decisions will be made:
"It would be a huge blow, an enormous bill, if this [pick an amendment] happens," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council for La Raza, the largest Latino rights group.
But Munoz and members of other immigrant rights groups said they will still support the bill's passage, while pressing for changes in the House or in eventual House-Senate negotiations.
"If this was the final bill, if this was going straight from the Senate floor to the Rose Garden signing ceremony, there would be full-throated opposition, but it's not. We still have another chamber to go through," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, which supports the bill.
And when it comes to enforcement, well, everyone can trust the Bush Administration to do the right thing, right?
What Senator Cornyn is referring to is a provision the bill which, frankly, we think there's been a fair amount of misunderstanding and mythology about. There is a provision -- what he's talking about is a provision that said that when the undocumented workers come in out of the shadows to register for a probationary card, that DHS should give the card to them in 24 hours. ...
That said, because that mythology exists and there are people concerned about it, there's an amendment that will be considered this week that removes the reference to the 24-hour -- and I think -- my understanding is that's expected to pass. So that, I think, unjustified concern will be taken off the table completely.
Unless the law states otherwise, the Bush Administration could create its own 24 hour rule as part of its enforcement plan even if Congress rejects it.
Executive discretion will decide a good many things Congress has neither the time or the energy to resolve. Trust will matter.
|posted by Jim on 11:02 PM|
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