Immigration Reform Heats Up; Messer Weighs In

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, S. 744, is currently being debated by the U.S. Senate, with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) seeking final passage prior to the July 4 recess. The comprehensive reform bill has something to like and something to dislike for just about everyone involved, but the primary political battle lines are being drawn between border security first (a Republican priority) and a path toward legalization and citizenship (a Democratic priority).

The so-called “Gang of 8” has labored mightily to keep a fragile coalition of support together in the Senate, but fissures are materializing. What once looked like a very sizable 70 votes in support has dwindled as the debate has progressed. As of Friday morning, June 21, senators were discussing a new compromise border security proposal in an effort to secure more support for the bill.  
 
The best guess at this point is that an amended S. 744 passes the Senate with overwhelming support from Democrats and just enough Republicans to get over 60 votes and send the legislation to the House of Representatives, where Speaker John Boehner’s caucus is even more uneasy and polarized than the Senate GOP. Boehner has publicly stated that any bill that does not have majority support from his caucus will not be heard, so the House may take a “piecemeal” approach addressing specific aspects or issues included in S. 744 (and likely tackling and emphasizing border security first). However, the Speaker has also met with the Hispanic Caucus and the House’s own “Gang of 8” seeking a comprehensive, bipartisan measure.
 
Indiana Congressman Luke Messer (R-6th District) told the Indiana Chamber recently that “if we are able to reach agreement on border security and documented status for workers, then we have an opportunity for further dialogue about what we do about citizenship once those workers are documented.
 
“My sense today is that we don’t yet have a consensus about what to do about citizenship, which makes it difficult if you tie all three together. That’s the challenge. There’s an opportunity to come up with a plan this year to deal with those first two topics. Probably it’s going to take demonstrated success on those to be able to move on to citizenship.” (Look for the full Q&A with Congressman Messer in the next BizVoice® magazine, available online June 28.)
 
We see Speaker Boehner’s leadership at a very serious crossroads on this issue, with many conservative Republicans rebelling against any bipartisan deal that includes a path to legalization or naturalization for illegal immigrants currently in the country. How Boehner squares this circle will be fascinating to watch.
 
The Indiana Chamber believes that now is the time to craft a principled, pragmatic reform that secures the border, strengthens the rule of law AND creates a program for undocumented workers to earn legal status, as it is utterly impractical to seek the mass deportation of an estimated 11 million individuals.

New Woodward Book Chronicles Obama/Boehner Budget Battle

Bob Woodward, set to speak with Carl Bernstein at our Nov. 1 Annual Dinner, has a new book coming out next week that seems to document the cantankerous relationship between President Obama and House Majority Leader Boehner — at least as it pertains to the budget negotiations of 2011. ABC News reports (read the full article as it also includes excerpts about Mitt Romney’s VP choice Paul Ryan):

An explosive mix of dysfunction, miscommunication, and misunderstandings inside and outside the White House led to the collapse of a historic spending and debt deal that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner were on the verge of reaching last summer, according to revelations in author Bob Woodward’s latest book. The book, "The Price of Politics," on sale Sept. 11, 2012, shows how close the president and the House speaker were to defying Washington odds and establishing a spending framework that included both new revenues and major changes to long-sacred entitlement programs. But at a critical juncture, with an agreement tantalizingly close, Obama pressed Boehner for additional taxes as part of a final deal — a miscalculation, in retrospect, given how far the House speaker felt he’d already gone. The president called three times to speak with Boehner about his latest offer, according to Woodward. But the speaker didn’t return the president’s phone call for most of an agonizing day, in what Woodward calls a "monumental communications lapse" between two of the most powerful men in the country. When Boehner finally did call back, he jettisoned the entire deal. Obama lost his famous cool, according to Woodward, with a "flash of pure fury" coming from the president; one staffer in the room said Obama gripped the phone so tightly he thought he would break it.

U.S. House: Technology, Tight Budgets Terminate Page Program

I’m not sure what’s more surprising: the U.S. House of Representatives cutting the more than 200-year-old page program or the fact that the words “joint statement issued” are in the same sentence as the words “House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).”

Okay, that last part was a little dig at the lack of cooperation between our major political parties as witnessed during the recent debt ceiling debacle. It’s a bit of a shock to see Congressional leaders agree on anything nowadays.

But, back to the main issue: The Washington Post is reporting that with a cost of about $5 million per year and technological advances coming in to take the place of many of the duties of the typical House page, the program will be shuttered, at the advice of two consulting firms working with Congress.

High school juniors are hired for a semester and paid about $1,804 a month with a 35% room-and-board fee deducted. Page duties include running errands for House members, delivering correspondence to lawmakers and answering phones in the cloakrooms off the House floor.

The problem is that technology (documents and notes are now delivered electronically and smartphones and text messaging have largely replaced the need for pages to answer phones) has increased to the point where pages are no longer necessary for the House to run smoothly.

While it is a shame to think that students who might never have a chance to see the American political machine up close will no longer have that opportunity – if the program is largely unnecessary and costing $5 million per year, it does make sense in this tight fiscal time to shut it down.

There are still ways for young people to be involved in the political system. Indiana, like most states, has an in-state page program working with the state legislature. Most Congressional leaders also hire college interns to work in their offices and the U.S. Senate will continue its page program.

One commenter on the Post’s story says, “This is shockingly sensible, even if it is a little sad.”

That’s a great way to sum it up.

It seems that to get out of this fiscal trouble, more programs which are good in theory and beneficial to those involved (such as the page program), will be sacrificed. And now there’s just that minor task of cutting several trillion dollars from the rest of the budget.

New Contract with America from GOP?

According to a recently e-mailed article from Congressional Quarterly, GOP leadership is currently pondering a resurrection of the 1994 Contract With America. It appears as though Republicans are looking to define themselves as the 2010 election approaches, and they’re hoping for a mid-term coup following Democratic successes in recent years. Spearheaded by Newt Gingrich & Co., the 1994 version offered specific ideas on how a Republican Congress would govern by lowering taxes, reducing government, promoting entrepreneurship and implementing tort and welfare reforms. CQ writes:

Minority Leader Boehner told the Republican Conference this morning that the idea would be patterned after the original 1994 Contract with America that is widely credited with helping the GOP win majority status for the first time in 40 years.

According to officials who heard this morning’s presentation, Boehner conceded to rank-and-file Republicans during the closed-door meeting that there is a need to define "what we’re for," in addition to opposing President Obama’s agenda.

Boehner pointed to several Republican alternatives to healthcare reform legislation being devised by congressional Democrats as a good example of what could go into such a document. According to an aide, Boehner said:

"The bottom line is, I believe we can beat this bill. The American people are with us."

Whether this document ends up actually being called a "contract" or an agenda, or something else, Boehner is described as saying that its development and promotion should involve House Republicans who are seeking re-election and candidates recruited to run for other House seats.