National Politics

Immigration reform: Seven ways the bill has changed

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:45:58 +0000

House immigration bill will be tougher on undocumented

Richard Cowan, Reuters — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:31:07 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan plan brokered in the House of Representatives will be tougher on illegal immigrants living in the United States than a Senate counterpart, congressional aides said on Friday.

But it fails to address the difficult issue of how many low-skilled foreign workers should be allowed into the country.

Late on Thursday, the eight Republican and Democratic House negotiators working on an immigration bill announced that they had successfully wrapped up a four-year effort and had hammered out a tentative deal.

Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, one of the negotiators, told reporters on Friday that he was “confident” that the deal will get a full airing in the House Judiciary Committee that has oversight of immigration policy.

Many Republican members of that panel are opposed to moving a comprehensive bill and instead want to take smaller steps to further bolster U.S. borders against illegal crossings and to improve access for foreign high-skilled workers.

While the lawmakers themselves refused to discuss details, which will be translated into legislative language over the next week or two, some congressional aides familiar with the plan sketched out bits of the agreement on Friday.

According to those aides, the House measure, as expected, will set a 15-year path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented residents, many of whom have been in the United States for years and are raising families here.

The Senate bill, which is now being debated in that chamber’s Judiciary Committee, sets a 13-year time frame.

Like the Senate bill, those illegal immigrants who are serving in the military or who were brought over the border as children with their parents, would be put on a faster path to citizenship. But details were not available.

The Service Employees International Union said the tentative deal showed that momentum for immigration legislation was building. Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the 2.1 million-member union, added that it was “the responsibility of the House leadership to ensure this bipartisanship continues.”

UNRESOLVED DISPUTE

Congressional aides confirmed that the negotiators failed to agree on one of the most contentious issues in immigration reform efforts: the future flow of workers from abroad that American firms want to hire as construction workers, hotel maids, waiters and for other low-skilled jobs.

Instead, if and when a comprehensive immigration bill reaches the full House, Democrats and Republicans will offer competing amendments to try to resolve the matter, according to aides. Republicans control the House by a narrow majority.

The bill in the Democratic-controlled Senate relies on a low-skilled worker program that was worked out by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO labor organization.

That deal has been criticized by some business interests as providing too few slots for foreign workers hoping to apply for American construction jobs. Labor unions have been pushing hard for stringent controls, saying a flood of foreign workers would displace domestic job-seekers.

Aides said that the House deal also would be more stringent than the Senate bill by requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to achieve new border security measures before the 11 million undocumented immigrants could begin moving into legal status.

The Senate effort requires DHS to pursue tough border security measures. But the 11 million would be able to move almost immediately to temporary legal status.

However, in at least one area, the House measure might be viewed as more progressive than the Senate bill, according to an aide.

“People will find the family reunification (provision) is better under the House plan than the Senate plan,” the aide said. Like the Senate bill, the House deal eliminates an avenue for siblings living abroad to win visas.

But the aide said the House bill will grant more leeway than its Senate counterpart on granting visas to adult offspring of U.S. residents.

One of the last areas of disagreement among the House negotiators had to do with whether newly legalized residents would be able to participate in President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

Republicans want to include a provision specifying that they would have to buy their own health insurance.

It was not yet clear how that dispute was worked out.

Obama’s right. Fictional presidents do have it easier.

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:06:18 +0000

What is Obamacare in three words?

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:43:27 +0000

Tired of gridlock? Blame congressional scorecards

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:21:27 +0000

Few civilian workers will avoid Defense furloughs

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:01:14 +0000

There is little chance that Department of Defense civilian employees will be able to avoid unpaid time off slated for this summer, federal officials said today.

Only a few types of highly essential workers — such as those maintaining nuclear submarines — will be exempt from the 11 days of furloughs announced, two senior officials said during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Most of the remaining 800,000 civilian employees will be forced to take one day of unpaid leave per week beginning July 8. Uniformed military personnel are exempt.

The unpaid leave is designed to save $1.8 billion as part of the $37 billion in cuts mandated by the sequester earlier this year.

The Defense Department will send letters between May 28 and June 5 to affected employees, who will have seven days to respond to their superiors. In theory they can make the case for why their job is essential, and local officials have some discretion.

But a senior defense official said that, in practice, few workers will be given a reprieve.

“This is a very, very tough decision,” she said. “We understand that it will create financial hardships across the board. But that is not a sheer reason for exempting (an employee) from a furlough.”

The two officials spoke only on background to avoid upstaging Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who held a town hall meeting earlier in the day on the same subject.

In a memo to top Pentagon officials released today, Hagel said the furloughs would be imposed in “every military department as well as almost every agency.” Some departments, such as the Navy, had hoped to be spared, but Hagel argued it is better to evenly spread the pain.

Exactly how the furloughs will be implemented is being left to local officials. Commissaries may be closed on a specific day so that other workers know to pack a lunch, while hospitals may rotate shifts with reduced staff. Furloughs for schoolteachers at military bases won’t begin until next fall to ensure students meet standards for days in the classroom.

The furloughs come as a last resort, the officials said. The sequester called for across-the-board cuts because it was supposed to be unpleasant enough to force Congress to agree to a better budget deal, a strategic move that backfired.

That left Pentagon accountants without much flexibility when it came time to implement the cuts.

The Army already has canceled rotations at its combat training centers, while the Air Force has reduced the number of combat squadrons. Routine maintenance is halted, and ceremonial activities such as performances by the Blue Angels air demonstration team are canceled.

“We kept going back. And finally, we got to a point where I could not responsibly go any deeper into cutting or jeopardizing our formations, our readiness and training,” Hagel said at the town hall meeting in Alexandria, Va., today.

The furloughs are an improvement over earlier predictions, however. The department originally had anticipated 22 days of unpaid leave, then later reduced that to 14.

If other military spending comes in under budget before the end of the fiscal year, some of the 11 days of furloughs may be canceled, though Hagel warned that it was not likely at this point.

The future remains uncertain for civilian employees of the military.

The plan outlined by Hagel still needs approval from Congress, although that is expected. President Obama’s budget for next year includes a 1 percent pay raise, but that depends on Congress passing a budget through the regular process — something it hasn’t done since 2009.

Another senior official said that most of the civilian employees work around the country.

“These people aren’t doing PowerPoint slides in the Pentagon,” he said. “They fix our ships, our tanks, our planes. They staff our hospitals, they’re teachers in our schools. … I think we will seriously adversely affect the productivity in almost all support areas of the Department of Defense.

“This is not something we wanted to do.”

Minnesota becomes 12th state to back gay marriage

Megan Boldt, St. Paul Pioneer Press — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:42:42 +0000

The Minnesota Senate approved a bill to legalize gay marriage on Monday, positioning the state to become the 12th in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

It passed on a 37-30, with one Republican crossing over to vote yes and three members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party voting no. Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign it as soon as Tuesday and was tentatively planning a celebration on the Capitol steps for event. Gay marriages could begin Aug. 1.

“With just a few words we have the ability to bring families across Minnesota into the full sunshine of equality and freedom,” said bill sponsor Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis.

Gay marriage supporters, donning “I Support the Freedom to Marry” T-shirts and rainbow flags, far out numbered opponents at the state Capitol on Monday, arriving early to line the steps to greet lawmakers as they came in. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman also proclaimed May 13-17 “Freedom to Marry Week” in the city. Pride flags line the Wabasha Street Bridge, which has been temporarily named the “Freedom to Marry Bridge.”

Outside the Senate chamber, the Capitol erupted with cheers when the vote was finalized.

But opponents said as there’s a lot of celebrating, there’s a lot of grieving as well. Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville, said legalizing same-sex marriage would divide the state like nothing since the Civil War, destroying businesses and confusing children.

“People ask me, ‘Senator Hall, don’t you want to be on the right side of history?’ The truth is, I’m more concerned about being on the right side of eternity,” Hall said.

The bill changes state law to specify that marriage is a civil contract between “two persons” rather than “a man and a woman.” It also offers protection for clergy and religious organizations that don’t want to solemnize gay marriages, which supporters argue is the strongest in the nation.

Opponents of same-sex marriage argue that those religious protections don’t go far enough. Private businesses, public officials and nonprofits that disagree wouldn’t be able to refuse service if they had religious objections to gay marriage. That means marriage counselors or wedding photographers would have to take on clients, regardless of their religious viewpoints, said Republican Sen. Paul Gazelka of Nisswa. He offered an amendment that would protect religious entities, not just those affiliated with churches, from the new law.

“It’s about living your faith out loud, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day,” Gazelka said.

Supporters of same-sex marriage argued that it’s already illegal under Minnesota’s human rights act for a business to refuse service based on religious objections. Legalizing gay marriage wouldn’t change that.

Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said Gazelka’s amendment would essentially “gut the Human Rights Act” and legitimize discrimination against people for who they marry. That includes interracial couples, a Lutheran who marries a Catholic or someone with a disability who weds someone without a disability. Latz said he strongly believes legalizing gay marriage is the civil rights issue of this generation.

“God made gays. And God made gays capable of loving other people,” Latz said.

Sen. Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis, talked to his colleagues about his marriage and why they should vote yes. He is black and his wife, Terri, is white. There was a time their interracial marriage would have been illegal. He said his two children know many same-sex couples well and are better people because ot it.

“It’s going to be OK. Everything is going to be fine in Minnesota,” Hayden said to opponents of gay marriage.

Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, said when voters rejected a constitutional amendment last fall to limit marriage to heterosexuals in Minnesota, opponents of the gay-marriage ban said nothing would change. Same-sex marriage would still be illegal.

“Do Minnesotans feel betrayed today? Absolutely,” Kiffmeyer said.

Heather Vosburgh, a 27-year-old from Minneapolis, came to the Capitol with her wife, Hilary Mathieu, to show her support for same-sex marriage. She held a sign: “Gay people getting married? Next they’ll be allowed to vote and pay taxes.”

Vosburgh and Mathieu have been together since high school and had a commitment ceremony last summer. They just bought a house together and are looking forward to going to the courthouse as soon as they can to legalize their marriage and have a celebration with family and friends in their new backyard.

“It’s unbelievable,” Vosburgh said.

Sen. Branden Petersen, the sole Republican lawmaker who publicly supported the bill before voting, thanked his wife, Jessica, and had some words of advice to his two children, who are just 1 and 2 years old.

“In all things related to your faith, your family, your freedom — be bold, be courageous. You’ll never forget a day in your life,” Petersen said.

6 times politicians voted for a law by mistake

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:05:13 +0000

Ban the box: Should employers ask about criminal history?

Bianca Prieto, Digital First Media — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:00:13 +0000

Immigration reform: Four poison-pill amendments being considered

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:43:21 +0000