ABOUT:
Defense policy analysis, commentary and discussion.David Harrison covers immigration, labor, retirement security and other social policy beats. Before joining CQ Roll Call in April 2011, he worked at Stateline and at the Roanoke Times in Virginia, where he contributed to the newspaper's coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. He is a graduate of Carleton College and George Washington University, where he earned a master's degree in public policy.
The Senate immigration bill got a boost Thursday, when a bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed to a “border surge” amendment that would double the number of border agents and spend $3.2 billion on equipment to seal off the southern border.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus emerged from a meeting with Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday afternoon sticking to their hope that the House could pass a comprehensive immigration bill.
Republicans are preparing a border security amendment to the bipartisan Senate immigration bill and plan to release it as early as next week.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy and ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley sparred at the opening of Monday’s hearing on immigration changes over how the Boston Marathon bombings might affect the legislation.
In a jovial, almost giddy news conference Thursday, the bipartisan group of eight senators behind a comprehensive immigration bill formally introduced their proposal and expressed great confidence that they would succeed in steering it to the president’s desk.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday pushed back a hearing on immigration until later this week and added another one for early next week, bowing to Republican requests.
Bipartisan immigration overhaul legislation may not be released until at least Wednesday out of respect for the tragic events that took place during the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Sen. Marco Rubio sought to reassure conservatives Sunday that the bipartisan immigration bill he and seven other senators are expecting to unveil on Tuesday would not provide “amnesty” for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants thought to be living in the United States.
The bipartisan Senate group working on immigration legislation blew yet another deadline Wednesday when Republican members did not deliver an anticipated briefing to their colleagues during a GOP Steering Committee lunch meeting. Members of the group insisted afterward that they are on track to deliver a bill this week or next.
Members of the bipartisan Senate group working on a sweeping immigration bill said they were rushing to introduce a bill as early as possible, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggesting that the measure could be wrapped up by the end of this week.
President Barack Obama on Monday renewed pressure on congressional negotiators to deliver on an immigration overhaul.
Talks led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO over a new guest-worker program for lower-skilled immigrants are stalled, prompting members of the bipartisan group of eight senators to get personally involved to try to nudge the negotiations toward a resolution.
Since his retirement savings bill passed the California Legislature last fall, state Sen. Kevin de León has found himself the darling of the think tank crowd. He’s also been jetting back and forth to Washington, D.C., raising his national profile and prompting speculation about a run for higher office.
Kevin de León, a California state senator, likes to tell the story of a 74-year-old San Diego woman who takes two buses to the wealthy enclave of Coronado to clean houses several days a week. Despite a lifetime of hard work, her Social Security check does not cover her living expenses, he says, forcing her to put off retirement.
House immigration negotiators are discussing a proposal that would allow illegal immigrants to eventually earn citizenship without creating a special process that Republicans surely would oppose.
By calling for an increase in the minimum wage during this month’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama waded into a long-running debate among labor economists, with some saying the proposal would raise incomes and others countering that it would lead to decreases in employment.
Few members of Congress were more pleased to hear President Barack Obama call for an increase in the minimum wage than Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. The two have been working on increasing the minimum wage for years, routinely introducing legislation that would raise it over several years and peg it to inflation.
Republicans in the House and Senate blasted the Obama administration Tuesday after reports surfaced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had quietly released hundreds of illegal immigrants from detention centers and into supervised release in advance of steep budget cuts.
Business and labor groups working on a new foreign guest-worker program have agreed on a few points of their proposal but remain far apart on some key provisions.
Senate Democrats and a top Obama administration official sought Wednesday to decouple border security from a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a centerpiece of the principles laid out last month by a bipartisan Senate working group.
President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to once again prod Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul, a goal that could be within reach this year.
House Republicans cast doubt on efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul Tuesday and indicated that Congress should look for a middle ground that would legalize the status of illegal immigrants but stop short of granting them citizenship.
The short-term debt limit suspension detailed Monday by House Republicans appears likely to delay one fiscal confrontation, but opinions are divided on whether it could lay the groundwork for something much bigger.
House Republican leaders put forward a measure they’ve pushed out before, a bill to replace the sequester with new spending reductions, as a way to offset part of the cost of the fiscal deal that the Senate sent to the House early Tuesday morning.
Negotiations aimed at a last-ditch budget deal were at a standoff over the weekend, in part because of attempts by Democrats to address the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts slated to take effect in the current fiscal year.
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