![OMG ! [ Explore #1 ]](http://static.flickr.com/2631/4150305338_5dd4270c04_t.jpg "OMG ! [ Explore #1 ]")
HEALTH: Immigration Issue Might Be Punted Until Conference
Posted by papundits on 11/06/2009
by Kasie Hunt, with Billy House contributing
House leaders are likely to bow to pressure from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and leave tighter restrictions for undocumented immigrants out of the healthcare overhaul, but avoiding conflict in the House could set up a brutal battle with the Senate and possibly President Obama.
“We will have to deal with this. It’s more of a matter of when,” a Democratic leadership aide said of the immigration issue. “The president needs to get involved.”
Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter said leaders were “pretty content with the rule the way it is” when asked if the immigration language would change.
 |
Some House Democrats in vulnerable districts are uncomfortable with how the bill handles immigration because it differs from the Senate. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, undocumented immigrants aren’t required to buy health insurance — and they’re not allowed to use the exchange the bill sets up, even if they use their own money to buy a plan.
The House bill is silent on the issue, effectively requiring undocumented immigrants to carry insurance and letting them use the exchange to buy it.
Obama has expressed support for the Senate’s proposal, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president has not changed his position.
Obama met Thursday with four CHC members — Democratic Reps. Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, Charles Gonzalez of Texas and Nydia Velazquez of New York. They urged him to reconsider his position and threatened to bring down the House bill if it were changed to tighten the restrictions.
“We made it very clear that 20 votes in the Hispanic Caucus will be supportive of the current language in the House version,” said Velazquez, the chairwoman of the CHC. “If the language changes, I guess then you’re going to have 20 votes that will change.”
Velazquez would not say whether Obama agreed to change his position. “”He knows where we stand,” she said.
The CHC also met Thursday with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who had been tasked by Speaker Pelosi to coordinate the immigration negotiations. A Democratic aide said the meeting indicated the CHC would likely prevail. “We’re eventually going to have to reconcile both bills, so we’ve got to band together in the House to be as strong as we can,” was the message from leadership, the aide said.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the Senate’s only CHC member, attended the meeting. He told the group the Senate was unlikely to change its language, a Democratic aide said.
Immigration foes aren’t likely to let up, either, and a lagging economy could help their cause. “The public is going to force this issue onto the agenda whether Obama wants it there or not,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
He said his group was scoring members based on their votes on the rule. “If you vote in favor of [the current rule], then essentially you’re voting to allow illegal immigrants publicly funded health care,” Stein said.
But if politics requires undocumented immigrants to be excluded from the mandate, lawmakers would have to contend with “vexing” policy questions. A Congressional Research Service report from Monday suggested that undocumented workers, free from the requirement to purchase insurance, would be able to accept lower wages than U.S. citizens. The report also questioned whether it would make healthcare providers more likely to discriminate against people they assume are undocumented.
Lawmakers have pointed out that many undocumented immigrants buy health insurance on the individual market. With the exchange implemented, that market will likely wither or become prohibitively expensive — leaving the undocumented no way to buy insurance at all.
Also Thursday, Slaughter said leaders had agreed to include a proposal from Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., to strengthen language preventing federal money from being used to pay for abortion services. The deal brings the House bill closer in line with the Senate, where it has been less of an issue. Sen. Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., was working with the White House to make similar changes.
The Ellsworth language strengthens the accounting rules insurance companies will have to follow to segregate public money from private. It would also require the public plan to use contractors instead of federal employees to process abortion claims.
Read more timely articles at Congress Daily
brittanicus said
Sen. Vitter’s and Bennett had it right in banning illegal aliens from the Census, because SANCTUARY STATES will get a big chunk of Uncle Sam’s funding. Small states will not only lose congressional seats, but federal money for its infrastructure and other desperate needs. But then SANCTUARY STATES AND CITIES need large gouts of cash, to pay for all the government benefits needed to sustain the huge illegal immigrant populations in California, Nevada, Texas and New Mexico.
WITHOUT ANY FEAR OF CONTRADICTION ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE STOPPED. Very few politicians have tried to halt the occupancy by foreign invaders to our country? This is why the E-Verify mechanism was never mandated, owing to the fact that Americans are last to be a priority, specially the 15.3 million jobless workers. Already Hispanic Caucuses have confronted President Obama at the White House, with the chair of the House Rules Committee indicating they are giving the Caucuses what they have adamantly demanded. Rep. Louise Slaughter D-N.Y indicated that the House will have to vote on a bill that allows illegal aliens to use the new health care “exchange”. A loophole that does not require verification to keep illegal aliens out of the other parts of the proposed new federal health care system. Please call all House-Senate Members and urge them to vote against the rule that provides a weak verification mechanism that still allows illegal aliens to purchase insurance from the health care exchange. WE MUST JAM THE SWITCHBOARDS IN WASHINGTON, PUSHING OUR OWN DEMANDS at 202-224-3121 that bars illegal aliens from the health care insurance “exchange” YOUR VOICE IS MAKING AN IMMENSE DIFFERENCE TO HOW THE POLITICIANS VOTE? WARN THEM OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING PUBLIC OPINION.
Other pieces of information contributing to the dilemma of US legal population: Senate Census allows to Count Illegal Aliens for Congressional Districting . CBO Says New Health Care Bill Would Cover 2.5 Million More Illegal Aliens. Sen. Reid Kills E-Verify Amendment to Unemployment extension Bill. Pro-Enforcement Candidates win in Virginia and New Jersey. 68% of Americans Oppose Sanctuary Cities
You can learn about the corruption and incompetence of lawmakers at NUMBERSUSA. Court cases, political sleaze and immigration non-enforcement at JUDICIAL WATCH. How population growth will effect future generations at CAPSWEB. NO BLANKET AMNESTY!
E-Verify is one of the most effective, simple immigration enforcement identifiers, along with the 287 (g) police apprehension applications to deter any illegal foreign national from stealing the 15.3 million American jobs. The usual proponents are out to eliminate these powerful programs, because enforcement of immigration laws that have always been imposed– ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK EFFICIENTLY? HOWEVER I WILL KEEP ON REMINDING VOTERS, TO COMMAND A PERMANENT E-VERIFY SYSTEM FROM THEIR LAWMAKERS. E-Verify on the other hand, has proved its worthiness which the treasonous lawmakers never expected to catch-on with any credibility.
Now they are trapped with E-Verify because the American citizenry are fully perceptive of its use. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on our guard, with pro-illegal immigrant legislators such as Nevada’s Sen. Reid, California’s Speaker Pelosi. Do not believe them when they say that they approve of E-Verify. They are lying through their teeth. Sen. Reid now must pay the “piper” because his accreditation amongst his constituency is at an all time low? He is apt to be canned in 2010, when he comes up for a vote amongst his state voters. Not just him as many more should be booted out. Read all their immigration enforcement grading at NUMBERSUSA. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano has already shown her true colors, by informing us we need a balanced policy where ICE raids are concerned? That’s why ICE confrontations have more or less fizzled out, contrary to what anybody says.
Another piece of rhetoric that White House issued a new report claiming that the Stimulus Bill earlier this year has created or saved approximately 650,000 U.S. jobs? Yet they forgot to inform everybody that the government has imported more than a million working-age foreign nationals this year that nullified every positive impact the stimulus could have had for U.S unemployed workers. Knowing illegal aliens are to be adjudicated for the Decennial census, may be American citizens should boycott the whole deal?