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| Kiss goodbye to bill H.R. 5882 for FY 2009 |
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The visa recapture and nursing emergency relief bills mark-up hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on 09/17/2008 were marred by the apparent anti-immigration member of the Committee using a high level practical filiburster tactics blocking take-up of these immigration bills by bombarding amendments to another bill, H.R. 6020.
The House's targeted recess is September 26, 2008!
Having in mind this (quoted from Iseegreen **http://www.trackitt.com/member/IseeGreen/ **:
First of all the bill is scheduled for mark-up and not for house vote.
This is how laws happen in USA
1. Bill is presented by a Rep or Senator in their respective houses (like HR 5882 by Zoe Lofgren in the house of reps)
2. It is assigned to an appropriate committee for mark-up. Mark-up means whether the bill deserves to be presented in the house / senate or not. (HR 5882 is assigned to house judiciary committee)
3. Committee votes on the mark-up (thats what scheduled today).
If approved:
4. Bill goes to the floor of the house for discussion and vote. Many modifications can happen this time before it is voted.
If approved:
5. Bill goes to the other half of the congress (senate in case of HR 5882) for discussion and vote. Many modifications can happen this time before it is voted.
If approved:
6. Bill is published in Federal register for any objections from public, usually 60 -90 days. Some bills bypass this but not immigration bills most of the time.
If no objections:
7. President signs the bill and it becomes 'law'.
This bill has to pass point 4, 5, 6 and 7 to become effective. There are only 2 business days after the recess and before the new fiscal year.
The text on this bill states:
"(c) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the first day of the first fiscal year that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act."
The first day of the fiscal year that begins next is 10/1/2008. It's impossible that this bill H.R. 5882 could make it before that.
Next Friday 26, the session could be watched from the committee website.
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/calendar.html
Perhaps this time instead of horses they will be talking about donkeys and we'll be watching them. |
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