It’s a busy week in the Senate this week with the budget resolution being debated on the floor and work continuing on the immigration bill in the Judiciary Committee. We need your help to keep the pressure on for a just budget and comprehensive immigration reform!

BUDGET CALL-IN DAYS – Support Increased Funding for Social Services!

Last week, the Senate Budget Committee passed, along party lines, the budget resolution for FY2007.  The resolution closely follows the President’s budget and would cut discretionary programs such as the Social Services Block Grant, child care assistance, and other human services deeply. 

The budget resolution is being debated on the floor of the Senate this week and many amendments will be offered.  One of the most important of these amendments is the one being offered by Senators Specter(R-PA) and Harkin(D-IA) to add $7 billion to health, education and training services – this would bring funding for discretionary programs back to their FY2005 levels and avoid the deep cuts proposed by the President. Another amendment will be offered by Senators Feingold (D-WI) and Conrad (D-ND) to restore the PAY-GO budget rules that helped bring the budget into balance during the last years of the Clinton Administration. These amendments could be voted on as early as today, so we need to get the message to Senators to support them!

          ACTION NEEDED:           

1. Call your Senators today, using the toll-free number provided by a number of our coalition partners – 1-800-459-1887 – and urge them to:

a) Vote Yes on the Specter-Harkin Amendment to restore $7 billion in Labor-HHS-Education Funding: This amendment is modest but extremely important in restoring funding to the FY 2005 level (not taking inflation into account). Failure to enact this amendment will result in serious cuts to education, nutrition, social services, energy assistance, Head Start, child care, Meals on Wheels, and many other vital services.

b) Vote against any budget resolution that will force deep cuts in critical services and provide additional tax breaks that take additional funds away from needed services and deepen the deficit.

 2. Have your agency/community sign-on to an interfaith budget reflection stating the values we would like to see represented in the budget.  Click here to read the letter and sign-on.

For more information on the budget, please read NAC’s analysis of the President’s budget or the analysis (PDF) done by the Coalition on Human Needs.

     FINAL COMMITTEE VOTES ON IMMIGRATION EXPECTED THIS WEEK     

The debate on immigration reform continues this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Serious changes are still needed for the bill to embody the comprehensive and compassionate immigration reforms we have been calling for.

It is anticipated that this week Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Kennedy will offer important amendments - both of which the National Advocacy Center supports - to the current Judiciary Committee bill. 

The Durbin Amendment would attach the DREAM act to the committee bill.  The DREAM Act would allow youth who are undocumented to become citizens either by attending two years of college or serving for two years in the military. The Kennedy amendment would substitute the McCain-Kennedy bill for aspects of the committee's bill and would provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people working and contributing to the United States today. 

          ACTION NEEDED:           

Call your Senators with the following message – “I am calling regarding Senator Specter’s immigration bill.  I am urging Senator ______ to:

1. Support an earned path to citizenship for the undocumented

2. Support the efforts to include the DREAM Act and the McCain-Kennedy immigration provisions in the Senate's immigration bill; and,

3. Vote against the criminalization of those who are undocumented or those who help the undocumented"

The Capitol Hill Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Calling is especially important if your Senator is on the Judiciary Committee (see below) but Senators not on the Judiciary Committee should be called as well. 

**Senators on Judiciary Committee:

Arlen Specter (R-PA)                  Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Charles Grassley (R-IA)              Mike DeWine (R-OH)

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)              John Cornyn (R-TX)

Sam Brownback (R-KS)              Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)        Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE)

Herbert H. Kohl (D-WI)                Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Russ Feingold (D-WI)                 Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)

Note: An immigration update will soon be up on our website.