If the House and Senate produce an immigration bill can a signing statement be far behind? Which begs the question, what the heck does it matter what this quasi-congress does? Except that President Bush has to keep up the appearance of democracy.
from the CQ Today Midday Update:
President Bush urged House and Senate leaders on Thursday to put aside their differences and work together on comprehensive immigration overhaul legislation that he can sign into law.
“It’s a difficult task. Yet the difficulty of this task is no excuse for avoiding it,” Bush said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“The American people expect us to meet our responsibility and deliver immigration reform that fixes the problems in the current system, that upholds our ideals and provides a fair and practical way forward.”
So far lawmakers facing a tough House-Senate conference to resolve differences in the bills passed by each chamber have shown little interest in compromise.
The Senate bill (S 2611), passed 62-36 on May 25, would beef up border security but also offer a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. It would create a guest worker program to accommodate 200,000 immigrants a year.
The House passed a bill (HR 4437) in December that takes the opposite approach, treating anyone in the country without a valid visa as a felon and severely punishing those caught helping them. The bill has neither guest worker provisions nor a path to citizenship.
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from the San Francisco Chronicle Bush urges compromise on immigration bill he backs Senate on legalization but not on temporary work
Does it even make sense that an illegal immigrant can give birth to a legal citizen? There ought to be some refinement to that law, like when the illegal immigrant becomes a naturalized citizen, their child born in the USA, will be granted citizenship. Can President Bush change that statute with a retroactive signing statement?
Anyone keeping score? 125 bills and 750 statutes reviewed and parsed by the Cheney first, then Bush team. According to the Boston Globe $earch re$ults $ Cheney reviews the bills Congress sends to the WH and Cheney defines the infringement of WH power.
Do I have to tell you who is Yang and who is Yin?
