THE DAILY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2018

Daily Leader

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HOUSE MEETS AT:	FIRST VOTE PREDICTED:	LAST VOTE PREDICTED:
10:00 a.m.: Morning Hour 12:00 p.m.: Legislative Business Fifteen “One Minutes”	1:15 – 2:15 p.m.	9:00 – 10:00 p.m.

H.Res. 964– Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 6157– Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019 (Rep. Granger – Appropriations)(One hour of debate). The Rules Committee has recommended a structured Rule for additional amendments. The Rule provides for consideration of 29 amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes, equally controlled by the proponent and opponent of the amendment.

The Rule allows one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, and waives all points of order against the legislation.

The Rules Committee rejected a motion by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts to make in order and provide the appropriate waivers to amendment #75 offered by several Democratic Members which prohibits DOD from using funds to provide housing for children who are unaccompanied, including those separated from their parents at the border.

The Rules Committee rejected a motion by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts to make in order and provide the appropriate waivers to amendment #72 offered by several Democratic Members which prohibits DOD from fulfilling any requests from HHS in regards to the care of custody of an unaccompanied child, including those separated from their parents at the border. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

Complete Consideration of H.R. 6136 – Border Security and Immigration Reform Act (Rep. Goodlatte – Judiciary/Homeland Security). Republican Leadership is parading H.R. 6136 around as a moderate “compromise” bill, but that could not be further from the truth. This bill still leaves DREAMers twisting in the wind, shrinks legal immigration, and fails to address the family separation crisis at our southern border. This bill:

Fails to provide a permanent path to citizenship for DREAMers: This bill establishes a new immigration status called “contingent non-immigration status,” which is a six year indefinitely renewable status for DACA recipients that would put them on the pathway to citizenship. However, under this system, DREAMers would need to potentially wait up to twenty-three years to obtain their green cards and legally live in the only country most of them have ever known.

Additionally, there is a funding trigger in the bill which allows DREAMers to be held hostage in future negotiations. The President is allowed to cancel the program if any amount of money allocated for a border wall is ever transferred to be used for other purposes. This is unacceptable and would bring lawmakers right back to the same issue in future immigration discussions.

Does nothing to solve family separations at the border and exacerbates the jailing of families and children at the border: It requires DHS to incarcerate families when charges are filed against a parent for crossing the border without authorization, while such charges remain pending. This does nothing to reverse the Trump Administration’s zero tolerance policy and means children will still be detained for the actions of their parents. This bill removes protections for families who are not separated at ports of entry. It expands the jailing of families and removes basic protections of their confinement. And it allows for children to be detained for longer periods of time than is permissible under current law.
Makes family reunification much more difficult: The bill eliminates the ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor their married children and siblings, thus potentially permanently separating lawful American citizens from their families.
Provides $25 billion for Trump’s border wall: Despite President Trump’s repeated claims that he would convince Mexico to pay for a wall, Speaker Ryan’s bill allocates billions of taxpayer dollars toward that aim.
Ends the diversity visa lottery program: This program allows people from countries with very low immigration rates to the U.S. to apply for the opportunity to enter a lottery for a visa. Every year an estimated 10-20 million applications are received by the Federal government. Ultimately, approximately 50,000 green cards are given to those that win the lottery program, after being carefully vetted by the Federal government. The visa lottery program is an essential program that helps to diversify and enrich the population of the United States and helps to cut down on illegal immigration.
Revokes over 3 million previously approved citizenship petitions: For years some family members of U.S. citizens have tried to follow the law and go through the proper process for citizenship, but in one swift move House Republicans are trying to eliminate approved petitions for over 3 million people whose families already live in the United States.
Fails to reassign 78,000 legal visa applications: This bill closes certain visa categories while doing nothing to the nearly 80,000 pending applications that have sat idle due to visa backlogs. In one swift move, Republicans will simply nullify those pending applications. This action further frustrates and disappoints people who have attempted to legally enter the United States.
Diminishes protections for those seeking asylum: This bill raises the “credible fear” test, therefore making it more difficult for those fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S. It also reduces protections for unaccompanied children.

This Speaker Ryan anti-family values bill should be seen as what it is: an anti-immigrant, hastily-constructed attempt to appease various factions of the Republican Conference in order to avoid another embarrassing defeat on the House Floor. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

Complete Consideration ofH.R. 6157 – Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019 (Rep. Granger – Appropriations). H.R. 6157 appropriates $606.5 billion in FY2019 base discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense – plus an additional $68.1 billion in discretionary budget authority designated for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). These funding levels are consistent with the recent budget agreement that raised the Budget Control Act (BCA) spending caps, which increased the FY2019 defense cap by $85 billion, and allowed an additional $69 billion in OCO.

The measure includes a military pay raise of 2.6%. Also, the bill continues provisions prohibiting the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S or closure of the facility. It also includes funding for sexual assault prevention and response programs in the military and suicide prevention and outreach programs.

The Rule provides for no further general debate and makes in order the first 29 amendments. A full list of amendments can be found HERE.

Postponed Amendment Votes (2):

Langevin Amendment
Poe Amendment

Bill Text for H.R. 6157:
PDF Version

Background for H.R. 6157:
House Report (HTML Version)
House Report (PDF Version)

Suspension (5 bills)

H.R. 5345 – ALSTAR Act (Rep. Brooks (AL) – Science, Space, and Technology)
H.R. 5346– Commercial Space Support Vehicle Act (Rep. Posey – Science, Space, and Technology)
H.R. 5905– Department of Energy Science and Innovation Act of 2018, as amended (Rep. Weber – Science, Space, and Technology)
H.R. 5906– ARPA-E Act of 2018 (Rep. Lucas – Science, Space, and Technology)
H.R. 5907 – NIMBLE Act (Rep. Hultgren – Science, Space, and Technology)

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK

The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Thursday, June 28: The House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. Members are advised that additional legislative items are expected.

THE DAILY QUOTE
“A last-minute effort to salvage a House GOP immigration bill appeared to flounder, amid unyielding opposition from the far right… The House is still set to vote on the bill Wednesday — and it’s increasingly expected to fail in a landslide, with many Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition.” - Politico, 6/26/2018