Sen. Jeff Sessions' amendment to extend E-Verify for another five years has made the cut of amendments that will be voted on before a final vote on the Omnibus Appropriations bill. Yesterday, Sen Harry Reid blocked a vote on Sessions' amendment, but because the Senate was unable to get the 60 votes required to end the debate, he's been forced to open the bill back up.
New state laws and the growing fear of workplace enforcement have led to 1,000 new companies signing up per week for E-Verify. Arizona and Mississippi, who have mandatory E-Verify laws, along with several others that have some sort of E-Verify law in place lead the trend, but states without mandatory laws are also signing up at a fast pace.
A Zogby poll found that it is difficult to locate anybody in Nevada who doesn't support the E-Verify program to keep illegal foreign workers out of jobs. Yet, Nevada Sen. Reid has been blocking a long-term reauthorization of E-Verify for months. Friday, he finally gave in and said the Senate can vote on the program, but insiders say to watch out for a parliamentary trick that will block the vote at the last minute on Tuesday.
The Senate will begin voting on amendments to Omnibus spending bill (HR 1105) this afternoon. Because of your activism, Sen. Sessions' Amendment 604 is on the list of amendments to be debated and voted on. Go to your ActionBuffet for specific actions. Your phone calls to your Senators are especially important today to ensure that E-Verify opponents don't kill the 5-year re-authorization by just "running out of time." Call your Senators now at 202-224-3121.
Another month has passed. Another half-million (or more) jobs have been lost. And our federal leaders continue to do nothing about auto-pilot programs that are flooding our country with foreign workers. Nothing has changed since last year when 138,000 new foreign workers were added to the U.S. each month on average. Here are the latest facts that still cannot soften the hardened hearts of our leaders . . . .
The jobless rate jumped to 8.1% according to numbers released by the Labor Department this morning. It's the highest rate since 1983. Another 651,000 jobs were cut in the month of February.
The Senate was unable to produce enough votes to end debate on the $401 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill on Thursday. Opponents wanted more time to debate and vote on amendments, which could include an E-Verify amendment.
