Dream Act Amendment Was Main Stumbling Block To Defense Bill, Not DADT

From Numbers USA:

DREAM Amnesty Seemed to Be at Heart of Defense Bill Defeat






By Roy Beck, Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 11:28 AM EDT - posted on NumbersUSA



No question that the successful filibuster of the Senate Defense bill yesterday was a complicated tangle of controversial issues and personal pique. Many of the news media tried to simplify the blocking of the bill as being mainly about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell issue.



But here are a few reasons why I think the DREAM amnesty issue was the key one behind the Defense defeat.







REPUBLICANS WERE WILLING TO MOVE FORWARD IF AMNESTY ISSUE DELAYED



Senate Republican Leader McConnell's office explains to us that McConnell offered Senate Majority Leader Reid a deal just before the vote. That deal would have allowed the debate to begin on the Defense bill IF . . .



•. . . if the first 20 amendments taken up on the floor were actually related directly to Defense issues



•. . . if immigration issues were not part of the first 20 amendments



Did you get that?



The Republicans -- who unanimously voted yesterday to block any debate on the Defense bill -- were willing to allow full debate. If Sen. Reid (D-Nevada) had been willing to put the DREAM amnesty off until after the first 20 amendments, the Senate would be debating the Defense bill right now -- and presumably the next two weeks or so.



The Republicans were willing to go on with debate of the bill even though it included repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and a number of other provisions that many Republicans opposed. They were willing to wait until later in the debate to fight the provisions they opposed.



But the Republicans were not willing to have the DREAM amnesty for up to 2 million illegal aliens be part of the first weeks of debate.



Thus, immigration appears to have been the key issue for the Republican leadership.



REID REFUSED TO DELAY AMNESTY DEBATE



Apparently, immigration was also the key issue for Sen. Reid.



If he had been willing to put off the amnesty issue for awhile, he would have been able to move forward on his Defense bill.



But Reid absolutely objected to Republican McConnell's offer.



Reid wanted to bring up the DREAM Act amnesty on the first day of debate. He apparently wasn't about to wait two weeks and definitely not until after the November elections.



It looks to me that the only reason the Defense bill was blocked was because McConnell insisted on de-prioritizing the amnesty vote and because Reid insisted on the amnesty debate happening immediately.



AMNESTY DOMINATED SENATE LEADERSHIP'S POST-DEFEAT COMMENTS



If you were watching the Defense vote on C-SPAN, you would have noticed that immediately after the Defense bill was declared blocked, Senate leaders launched into emotional speeches about the loss of ability to pass the DREAM amnesty.



The amnesty wasn't even in the Defense bill. But it was clear that the top two leaders of the Senate -- Reid and Sen. Durbin (D-Illinois) -- were most looking forward to bringing up an amendment to attach the DREAM amnesty. After the vote, they and others made some of the speeches in favor of the amnesty that they had prepared for the amendment debate that didn't get to happen.



The Senate leaders clearly were most distraught that the failure to bring the Defense bill to the floor meant they couldn't try to attach the amnesty to it.



As long as I can stand behind this desk and grab this microphone and use my power as a United States senator, I will be pushing for this DREAM Act,” Durbin said. “It is my highest priority. It is a matter of simple American justice, and I would hope that 11 Republicans who joined us last time will stop cowering in the shadows and come forward and join us in a bipartisan effort.



-- Sen. Durbin on the floor of the Senate after the Defense vote



The 11 Republicans were the ones who voted FOR the DREAM Act amnesty in autumn of 2007 when NumbersUSA activists flooded the Senate with phone calls and faxes in opposition. The amnesty failed then, too. Of the 11 still in the Senate, all voted against Reid's plan to bring the Defense bill to the floor for an immediate amnesty debate.



It is interesting that although there were all kinds of controversial reasons for the votes against the Defense bill yesterday -- and even though the amnesty was not even in the bill as it was introduced -- Durbin and other leaders focused primarily on the opposition of Republicans against the DREAM amnesty.



So, why didn't Reid and Durbin just bring the DREAM amnesty up by itself for a straight vote at any time in the last two years?



That is the question that all kinds of pro-amnesty groups have been asking since yesterday. There is great disarray among these groups which feel that Reid and House Speaker Pelosi have "played them" the last two years by constantly promising to push amnesties through their chambers but never bringing them up for a vote.



I think the answer for the behavior is that Reid and Pelosi want to energize pro-amnesty voters without having to have a real vote.



Why don't they want a real vote? Because they believe they would lose? Most amnesties and immigration increases through the years have passed only because they were attached to and buried in much larger bills that have nothing to do with immigration.



ANOTHER CLEAR DEFEAT FOR AN AMNESTY



So, fellow citizens, there is no question that you can count yesterday as another great defeat of an amnesty.



We can remember September 2010 along with our great anti-amnesty roll-call victories of November 2007, June 2007 and May 2007.



As the November elections approach, let yesterday abolish any cynicism about participating in the political system and strengthen your resolve to act as if "here, sir, the people rule." It doesn't happen easily, but the people can win when the people show up to fight for what they want.



ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA



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