Earlier Today, House Appropriators Rejected E-Verify Amendments; Reps. Price,
Obey, and Wasserman-Schultz Spoke Against These Provisions
Earlier this morning, the House Appropriations Committee met to write
the annual Homeland Security spending bill and the annual bill that
funds Congress for the coming year. At the "mark-up," the
Committee rejected two E-Verify related amendments to the Homeland
Security bill and another related to the Legislative Branch spending
bill. E-Verify is an electronically operated system that ensures
American jobs go to American workers by allowing employers to quickly
check the work authorization status of their new hires.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) -- a true immigration reformer --
offered an amendment to the Homeland Security bill to extend
E-Verify. While that bill already contains a short, two-year
reauthorization of E-Verify, Congressman Calvert knows the true value
of the program and sought a longer extension of E-Verify. After
Calvert spoke in support of his amendment, Appropriations Homeland
Security Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. David Price (D-NC), spoke against the
amendment. Rep. Price urged the entire Committee to vote
against the amendment. Then, the Committee Chairman, Rep. David
Obey (D-WI), spoke against the amendment, as well. Obey argued
that the Homeland Security spending bill shouldn't contain an E-Verify
authorization at all!
Immediately following the rejection of the Calvert Amendment, another
true immigration reformer -- Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA)
-- offered an amendment to the Homeland Security bill to require
companies who contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use
E-Verify. This common sense amendment would have ensured that contractors who
do business with DHS -- the same agency
tasked with enforcing our immigration laws -- do not hire illegal
aliens. Congressman Price AGAIN spoke in opposition to the
Kingston amendment, erroneously claiming that E-Verify is inaccurate
and that the program would be unable to handle the expansion to DHS
contractors. Even though Congressman Kingston pointed out that
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano stated last month that the program
could indeed handle a large-scale expansion, and that the program has
an incredible accuracy rate of 99.6%, the House Appropriations
Committee still rejected the amendment!
Later in the morning, Congressman Kingston attempted to attach a
similar E-Verify amendment to the Legislative Branch spending
bill. This provision would have required contractors who do
business with the U.S. Congress to use E-Verify. This time,
Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee Chairwoman Debbie
Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) urged the Committee to reject the Kingston
Amendment.
In speaking out against these amendments, Reps. Price, Obey, and
Wasserman-Schultz effectively urged their colleagues to not only put
the E-Verify program in jeopardy, but also ensure that illegal aliens
can continue to work on federal contracts with DHS and the U.S.
Congress!
Comments (0)