HLG MEETS WITH REP. CHABOT
Yesterday, HLG partners Mike Hammond, Sherry Neal, and Chris Musillo met with local House Representative Steve Chabot (R-Oh).
Rep. Chabot indicated that while he would not take a leadership position on the immigration issue. However he said that he is willing to keep an open mind about the issue and hinted that he would support an increase to the healthcare visa cap if the GOP leadership signed on.
THEY’RE BACK
The Senate and House are both now back in session, after their Easter Break. The New York Times reports that the President is backing the Senate bill, but leaving himself enough wiggle room to support a House bill if one emerges.
SENATE BILL MAY BE RESCHEDULED AFTER BREAK
Sen. Harry Reid (D- NV), the Senate Minority Leader, has apparently asked Sen. Frist, the Majority Leader, to make the Immigration bill a priority as soon as they get back from their Spring Break. Sen. Reid cites the mounting pressure from the immigrant rallies across the nation as his motivation.
GANNETT’S IMMIGRATION LEGISALTION BLOG
The purpose of this Blog is to inform readers how the Immigration legislation debate may impact the Healthcare profession. For this reason we purposely steer clear of general immigration news items.
Gannett News, the parent company of many major US newspapers, including the USA Today, has blog that covers the Immigration legislation more generally.
Readers who cannot get enough of the Immigration legislation debate should check out the Gannett blog. Prepare for information overload.
SENATE DEAL SHELVED: MAY REVISIT ISSUE AFTER 2 WEEK HOLIDAY
Yesterday’s promising Senate deal is on life support after extremists from both sides dug in their heels and refused to budge, said The New York Times about two minutes ago.
In the event that the Senate doesn’t change its mind at the last minute, as it did yesterday HLG will spend the next two weeks lobbying Congress. We will, of course, rely on you to help us on this important cause.
…OR DOES IT? SENATE DEAL MAY NOT BE FINALIZED
Several news organizations, including the Orlando Sentinel, are reporting that yesterday’s announced deal may have hit some snags last night.
There are two main issues stalling the bill’s passage. One is procedural. The Democrats want assurances that they will have a say in the Conference process with the House of Representatives. Conference is the process whereby leadership in both houses negotiates a compromise between their competing bills.
The second hurdle is substantive. Extremists on both sides of the debate are pushing their leaders to hold out for either more restrictive or less restrictive measures on low-skilled workers.
Healthcare’s position is barely impacted, unless of course the Senate, and ultimately the Congress as a whole, fails to pass a bill.
SENATE STRIKES A DEAL
Several news organizations are reporting that the Senate has struck a deal. The terms are very favorable to Healthcare Immigration and call for much larger green card quotas for many professions, including a “cap-free” quota for Schedule A occupations for the next seven years. It also appears that many non-professonal occuaptions, such as caregivers, may meet the new non-immigrant visa provisions.
NY TIMES: DEAL JUST ABOUT DONE
The New York Times (picking up an AP story) is reporting that a Senate deal is just about done. The time stamp on the NYT’s webpage entry is 1:13 PM ET. The framework of the deal is expected to be very similar to the one that we have outlined in our prior Blog entry. It is unknown whether the GOP House members have signed off on the deal. If they have, this is fantastic news.
SENATE DEAL?
An Associated Press reporter says that holdout GOP Senators have proposed a deal to Sen. Reid. The New York Times has a similar report.
The GOP’s plan would divide illegal immigrants into three categories:
-Those who had been in the country the longest, more than five years, would not be required to return to their home country before gaining legal status. They would be subject to several tests, including the payment of fines and back taxes, and be required to submit to a background check, according to these officials.
-Illegal immigrants in the United States less than five years but more than two would be required to go to a border point of entry, briefly leave and then be readmitted to the United States. As with the longer-term illegal immigrants, other steps would be required for re-entry, after which they could begin seeking citizenship, these officials said.
-Illegal immigrants in the United States less than two years would be required to leave the country and join any other foreign residents seeking legal entry.
None of this would impact Healthcare Immigration. Any of the proposed Comprehensive deals look to be extremely postive for Healthcare’s future. The key is that a bill must be agreed upon by both sides of Congress.
A BIG GAME OF CHICKEN
Senate Democrats, acting like a party in charge, have stifled debate and are pushing the Republicans around by stopping amendments from being brought to the floor of the Senate. Sen. Reid (D-NV) wants a vote by Thursday says the AP. The strategy may be risky because while the Democrats appear to have the requisite 50 votes to pass the bill, the may not have enough votes to end debate. Ending debate requires 60 votes; otherwise the Republicans could filibuster.