The conclusions to date:
Call everyday, especially Monday!
Sen. McCONNELL
Sen Specter
Sen Brownback, Sam [KS]
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC]
Sen Hagel, Chuck [NE]
Sen Kennedy, Edward M. [MA]
Sen Martinez, Mel [FL]
Sen McCain, John
Frist and Reid
Orrin G. Hatch
Patrick J. Leahy RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER
Charles E. Grassley IOWA
Jon Kyl
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. DELAWARE
Mike DeWine OHIO
Herbert Kohl WISCONSIN
Jeff Sessions ALABAMA
Dianne Feinstein CALIFORNIA
Russell D. Feingold WISCONSIN
John Cornyn TEXAS
Charles E. Schumer NEW YORK
Sam Brownback KANSAS
Richard J. Durbin ILLINOIS
Tom Coburn OKLAHOMA
We will know Monday:
There will be 26 Senate conferees, an unusually large group. The top seven Republicans and five Democrats from the Judiciary Committee will serve, along with seven additional senators from each party to be named by Frist and Reid.
Tell them to live off their $15,000 a month pension they will be FIRED!
Don't forget about Hastert and the Conference Committee. IMO we need HR 4313. I don't think that 4437 goes far enough but nevertheless. Contact Hastert early and often. We need strong appointees on that Committee. Throughout the Senate debate on immigration reform, members of the Senate have tried to develop strategy around the Conference Committee. The Conference Committee will be made up of Members from both the House of Representatives and the Senate appointed by the Leadership of each chamber. The Conference Committee is responsible for hammering out the differences of the enforcement/border security bill the House passed in December (H.R. 4437) and whatever legislation the Senate can pass.
As we explained above, the Senate will bring up the Hagel-Martinez guest worker amnesty legislation as they try to address immigration reform once again. If the Senate manages to pass a guest worker amnesty, which we will fight every step of the way, the guest worker amnesty will be “conferenced” with the House’s H.R. 4437. Speaker Dennis Hastert will help decide which Members of the House he will send to work with the Senate on a final immigration reform package. Speaker Hastert is indicating that he favors appointing members who support amnesty to the Conference Committee. Both President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist are pressuring Hastert to secure a guest worker amnesty for which the President can claim credit by stacking the Conference Committee with amnesty backers!
Why President Bush, Majority Leader Frist and Speaker Hastert are more than willing to give this country away is anyone’s guess, but we need you to help. We urge you to contact all four of Speaker Hastert’s offices. He needs to know that he should be siding with the American public and not with the corporate special interests Bush and Frist want to please.
Please call all four telephone numbers to tell Speaker Hastert that backers of H.R. 4437 should be in any Conference Committee! Strong enforcement-only Members of the House to represent the American people!
Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) Office Phone Numbers Speaker’s Office (202) 225-0600 Hastert’s Personal DC Office (202) 225-2976 Batavia District Office (630) 406-1114 Dixon District Office (815) 288-0680