House GOP tries forcing Democrats' hands on SAVE Act (Heath Shuler)

From this:

House Republican leaders will introduce a petition drive today to force Democrats to debate immigration this year, using a Democrat-sponsored bill to box them into taking a stand on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Republican leaders reached the decision yesterday evening to initiate a "discharge petition," a parliamentary move minority parties can use to force issues onto the House floor over objections of the majority. The last successful use was on campaign finance in 2002...

Republicans are using a bill [the "SAVE Act", HR 4088, link] sponsored by a conservative Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, to try to force the issue. The bill would boost the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents and require businesses to check employees' Social Security numbers against a federal database, known as E-Verify. The system is currently voluntary...

The rest of the article concerns the low-level politics of the issue, and whether something like this will discomfort John McCain. I haven't read the SAVE Act, and, despite the fact that the other side's against it (immigrantslist.org/page/speakout/Save), there might be something in there that could lead to a national ID card or other issues. I won't comment on the bill itself until I've actually read it.

And, more "comprehensive" change would result from publicly embarrassing those, like McCain, who support illegal immigration by asking them tough questions and uploading their responses to video sharing sites.

Immigration2008a · Tue, 03/11/2008 - 11:37 · · Importance: 1