By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Less than 24 hours after senators powered their immigration bill through committee, the legislation came under fire in the House, where the former head of immigration enforcement testified that it has too many loopholes that could delay enforcement, let dangerous people in, and hamstring agents from fighting illegal immigration in the future.
President Obama on Tuesday said he'll be the final arbiter of whether an immigration bill can succeed this year, saying it must boost border security and rewrite the legal system, but also must give illegal immigrants a definite path to citizenship.
After months of negotiations, the Gang of Eight senators were poised to file their immigration bill late Tuesday evening, striking a deal to immediately legalize most illegal immigrants and ease the path for future legal immigrants in exchange for promises of much stiffer border security, backed up by verifiable yardsticks.
The government is duplicating some efforts to boost wind energy and sometimes fails to assess whether billions of dollars in grants and loans are really needed, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday.
Despite the Earth being buzzed by a meteor and an asteroid within the space of a single day last month, the U.S. government is still 20 years away from meeting the benchmark set by Congress for tracking deadly objects from outer space, NASA's top official told a House hearing Tuesday.
An assistant attorney general President Obama is considering for labor secretary oversaw a Justice Department section hampered by racially-charged ideological divisions, an inspector general report says.
One of NASA's renowned research centers has been under a four-year FBI investigation for the possible transfer of secret weapon-system technology to foreign countries, including China, two Republican congressmen have disclosed.
From President Clinton's stern 1995 call to stop "the large numbers of illegal aliens" taking American jobs to President Obama's plea last year for legalizing "responsible young people" to work in the U.S. economy, the politics of immigration can be traced through State of the Union addresses.
The House voted Wednesday to grant all ex-presidents lifetime Secret Service protection, arguing that in a world of terrorist threats, such a precaution has become necessary.
Immigration has leapt to the forefront of political discussions after Latinos in key battleground states voted overwhelmingly for President Obama. The Republicans walked away with a clear message about the demographic realities of America and the future kingmaker clout of American Hispanics. This bloc will only become more influential in future elections. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics will account for 40 percent of the growth in the eligible electorate by 2030.
The Obama administration said Wednesday it opposes House Republicans' first postelection immigration effort to entice more high-tech university graduates to stay in the U.S., signaling that this month's election has yet to foster a breakthrough on Capitol Hill on an issue all sides expect to dominate.
Trying to beat Democrats to the punch on the first post-election immigration bill, House Republicans have scheduled a vote later this week on a business-friendly proposal to grant green cards to foreigners who earn high-tech doctoral degrees from U.S. universities.
House Democrats defeated the broadest immigration reform effort yet in this Congress, voting down a bill on Thursday that would have ended the random visa lottery and replaced it with a system rewarding high-tech foreign graduates from U.S. universities.
I read with interest the recent contribution by Andy Semmel, former deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation in the George W. Bush administration ("Nuclear terrorism treaties still incomplete," Commentary, Friday). In the piece Mr. Semmel advocates the swift passage of legislation to implement two critical anti-terrorism treaties.
A big immigration deal is still elusive but Congress is suddenly rushing to take a smaller nibble at the issue, with the House slated to vote on a Republican proposal later this week that would open up tens of thousands of green cards to foreigners who promise to bring their science and technology skills to the U.S.
"I cannot find any deadline by which the border is to be secured," said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, at a hearing called to poke holes in the Senate bill.
"Illegal workers compete with American workers for jobs and drive down their wages. The nationwide use of E-Verify could increase wages and open up millions of jobs for unemployed and underemployed Americans," said Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who sponsored the bill and is working with Mr. Goodlatte to get it passed.
