Free Republic

ATLANTA — Legislation clamping down on illegal immigrants in Georgia and the businesses that hire them cleared a Senate committee Tuesday in a vote primarily along party lines. Voting 6-2, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee sent one of the Republican legislative leadership's top priorities for the 2006 session to the full Senate, which could take it up later this week. The comprehensive measure would require adults seeking certain taxpayer-funded services to prove that they are U.S. citizens or are in the country legally. On the employment side, it would prohibit government agencies from entering into contracts with businesses...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gun control activists, health care advocates and law enforcement groups geared up on Tuesday for a last-ditch effort to prevent a 1994 ban on assault weapons from expiring next week, but even its most ardent backers acknowledge the drive is all but futile. But the influential National Rifle Association gun lobby, meanwhile, said it would "not take anything for granted" as it works to send the ban into oblivion. Ban advocates called on President Bush (news - web sites) to intervene and get Congress to act. But Bush, who in his 2000 campaign promised to sign legislation,...