Day 3 of S.744 Markup -- LIVE BLOG
The Senate Judiciary Committee enters its third day of marking up the Gang of Eight's amnesty bill, S.744. The Committee is continuing with Title IV, which includes the guest-worker program. Today's focus is on the W visa program - a new guest-worker program that would bring in up to 200,000 new foreign guest-workers each year. They then move to the E-Verify portion of Title III.
For a list of amendments, click here.
You can also watch a live stream of the hearing here.
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12:53 pm -- The Committee finished all consideration of the E-Verify section of the bill and is in recess until Monday.
12:51 pm -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #36. The amendment would require a parent or guardian approve the issuance of a work permit to any foreign citizen under the age of 21. The amendment is approved by voice vote without debate.
12:50 pm -- The amendment fails 8-to-12.
12:39 pm -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #34. This amendment would strengthen the indentity theft provisions in the bill to include the making up of a Social Security number and assisting another person in using a fraudulent SSN.
12:37 pm -- Sen. Whitehouse is offering amendment #3. The intent of the amendment is to prevent an employee having to be re-run through E-Verify if they maintain their job, but their employer changes. He says the language isn't quit there, so he's pulling the amendment for now.
12:35 pm -- The amendment fails 6-to-12 with Sens. Graham and Flake voting with the Democrats.
12:29 pm -- Sen. Lee is offering his amendment #15. This amendment requires there to be proof that an employer intentional discriminated against a potential new hire before they can be charged with discrimination based on national origin or citizenship status.
Sen. Durbin opposes the amendment, but says he understands the motive. Sen. Whitehouse opposes the amendment by likes the idea and says he's willing to work with Sen. Lee to improve the amendment.
12:27 pm -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-Conn.) is offering amendment #18. This amendment prohibits employers withholding employment records of illegal aliens needing the records for their amnesty applications. The amendment is passed by voice vote.
12:25 pm -- The amendment fails 5-to-13. Sens. Flake, Cornyn, and Graham join the Democrats in opposing the amendment. Senators Flake and Graham have just voted to pre-empt state laws in their own home states!
12:20 pm -- Sen. Schumer is opposing the amendment because he believes it would be harder to create a national E-Verify system if there's a patchwork system already in place. He says states could pass laws that prevent anyone holding RPI status (amnestied illegal aliens) from holding a job.
12:15 pm -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #35. This amendment would prevent the pre-emption of state E-Verify laws until all employers are allowed to use E-Verify under the bill. This amendment would protect states like Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi that have passed mandatory E-Verify laws. Sen. Grassley is pointing out that the Supreme Court has upheld these state laws.
12:13 pm -- Sen. Franken is offering amendment #4. This amendment creates the Office of the Small Business of Employee Advocate. The amendment requires DHS to create an office that will help small businesses and its employees with E-Verify. The amendment is passed by voice vote.
12:12 pm -- The amendment is defeated 5-to-13. Sens. Flake, Graham, and Hatch join the Democrats in opposing the amendment.
12:08 pm -- Sen. Durbin also opposes the amendment. He also thinks the timeline isn't realistic.
12:05 pm -- Sen. Schumer is opposing the amendment. He simply thinks the timeline is unrealistic. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is also opposing the amendment. She thinks the rollout of E-Verify is reasonable.
12:00 pm -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #29. The amendment would require all businesses to begin using E-Verify in 18 months. He makes several good points about the bill, including that the bill only requires DHS to submit rules for a new E-Verify system in 18 months. It doesn't set a rule for when the system has to acutally be implemented, and the timelines for all employers to use E-Verify is based on the implementation of the new system.
10:56 am -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #38. This amendment would allow parents to lock their childrens' Social Security Numbers so they can't be stolen. The amendment is quickly approved by voice vote.
10:55 am -- Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is offering amendment #1. This amendment would require USCIS to inform every individual that's verified through E-Verify. The amendment is passed by voice vote.
10:55 am -- The amendment is passed by voice vote.
10:50 am -- Sen. Schumer is speaking out against the amendment. He says he supports the idea of creating a report, but is concerned that the amendment requires ICE to investigate every individual on the report. He proposes splitting the amendment, and Sen. Grassley approves.
Sen. Schumer is concerned that by requiring an investigation for every individual, it would result in an investigation of U.S. citizens that had their identities stolen and used by illegal aliens.
Sen. Sessions is using the opportunity to discuss the lack of real interior enforcement provisions in the bill.
10:48 am -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #31. This amendment would require USCIS to produce a weekly report that contains infomration about individuals for whom a nonconfimation was received through E-Verify and submit that report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is a great amendment ensuring that E-Verify would actually work.
11:45 am -- The amendment passed by voice vote.
11:21 am -- Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is offering his amendment #2. This amendment would require the Inspector General to review the error rate of the E-Verify system each year. Sen. Franken is using a few anectodates to magnify the error rate in E-Verify, but independent audits say 96.9% of individuals run through E-Verify receive instant authorization. Of the rest, that are not instantly reauthorized, but are legal workers, the error is quickly fixed.
Sen. Franken is amending his amendment to connect funding of E-Verify to the error rate. His proposal would block some funding to DHS if the E-Verify error rate doesn't improve.
11:19 am -- The Commitee has wrapped up its review of Title IV and is moving to Title III's E-Verify section.
11:14 am -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is offering his amendment #1. This amendment would simply change the language of the INVEST visa, which allows foreign citizens that make $100,000 investment in a U.S. business to obtain a temporary visa. Sen. Whitehouse's amendment alows for the visas to be issued to an individual that was part of a group that made the investment. The amendment passes by voice vote.
11:08 am -- Sen. Schumer offers his amendment #5, which simply makes some technical corrections to the W visa language. It's approved by voice vote without debate.
11:08 am -- Sen. Flake explains to Sen. Coryn the trigger process. He says that if the Department of Homeland Security doesn't secure the border, they lose control to the Border Commission. Sen. Cornyn properly calls out Sen. Flake's misleading statement. DHS does not lose control of securing the border to the Commission. Sen. Cornyn correctly points out that all the Commission does is submits a recommendation to DHS.
10:57 am -- Gang of Eight members, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), express their support for a biometric entry/exit system, but not necessarily in this effort.
Sen. Cornyn is expressing his concern that the bill's entry/exit system does not cover the 106 land ports. He says he doesn't want the system to slow down the movement of goods, but still says there needs to be a system at land ports.
10:35 am -- Sen. Grassley is offering amendment #76. This amendment would require the use of an electronic monitoring system for W visa holders.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is using the topic to bring back up the issue of a biometric entry-exit system. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) expresses his support for a biometric system, while Sen. Schumer is again expressing his opposition to the idea.
Sen. Grassley says the purpose of his amendment is to ensure that a monitoring system is created before the W visa program can begin. He ultimately decides to withdraw his amendment, but not before bringing the issue of visa overstayers and a biometric exit/entry system to the forefront of the debate.
After Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) again states her support for a biometric exit/entry system, Sen. Sessions notes that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has stated that he's concerned with the exit/entry provisions in the bill. The Washington Times got their hands on an internal report from Rubio's office listing concerns with the bill and possible solutions.
10:25 am -- Sen. Leahy is offering amendment #2. This amendment would permanently reauthorize the EB-5 Regional Center Program. The Regional Center Program, according to the USCIS website, is defined as any economic entity, public or private, which is involved with the promotion of economic growth, improved regional productivity, job creation and increased domestic capital investment. The amendment was passed by voice vote.
The Committee is moving to the W visa program - a new visa program that would issue up to 200,00 low-skilled, guest-worker visas each year. Visas would last for 3 years, meaning that there could be up to 600,000 guest workers in the country at any given time.
10:23 am -- Sen. Grassley withdraws his amendment. Basically, he was simply trying to call attention the fact that the United States has a special visa program just for Irish nationals and was forcing Sen. Schumer to defend it.
10:13 am -- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is offering amendment #71. This amendment modifies the E visa program, which is a special program established solely for Irish nationals. The visa allows the issuance of temporary work permits for Irish citizens to gain work experience in the United States. Sen. Grassley's amendment doesn't eliminate the program, but increases the requirements that Irish nationals would have to satisfy in order to be eligible for the visa. It also adds a provision that ends the program after two years.
This provision is special to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) because it was a special carve out for Irish nationals created by Schumer's mentor, Sen. Ted Kennedy. Schumer is strongly defending the program and alludes to Sen. Kennedy's work on the amendment. Irish Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) is also endorsing the programming and opposing the Grassley amendment.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI is the Director of Content & Activism for NumbersUSA