Democrats’ $3.5 trillion Budget Resolution Package includes pathway to citizenship, green cards for millions
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — Senate Democrats finally released their $3.5 trillion Budget Resolution Package on Monday, and as expected, it includes a laundry-list of the party’s non-budget related priorities. Its the latest step in clearing the way for President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrat’s far-left policy agenda, and is designed to be passed without Republican support.
In the budget resolution package's summary, Democrats propose to:- Create a pathway to citizenship or residency for “millions of immigrant workers and families.”
- The package does not specify how many people, or which groups would be covered, but instead directs the appropriate Senate Committees with jurisdiction to provide “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants” – such as those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program.
- The plan would provide green cards “to millions of immigrant workers and families.
- House Democrats earlier this year floated an immigration reform plan that would cover not only Dreamers brought into the United States as children, but also migrant farmworkers, workers deemed essential during the pandemic, and those who already hold Temporary Protected Status for being unable to return to their home countries.
- Create the first-ever Federal Paid Family & Medical Leave Benefit.
- Add new Dental, Vision & Hearing Benefits to Medicare.
- Create new Clean Energy Tax Incentives.
- Electrify the Federal Automobile & Vehicle Fleet.
- Tackle many of the "Green New Deal" climate change and infrastructure provisions that failed to gain the necessary consensus or support needed to be included in the separate, $1.2 trillion "Infrastructure bill."
- Create a first-ever "Tuition-Free Community College" program for two years of student funding.
- Heighten investments in Historically Black Colleges & Universities.
- Increase the amount of Pell Grants (from its current level of $6,495) that are awarded to undergraduate students with financial need, and
- Make the “largest ever one-time investment” in Native American Infrastructure Projects.
“At its core this legislation is about restoring the middle class in the 21st Century, and giving more Americans the opportunity to get there,” said Schumer, adding that the legislation would “make the wealthy pay their fair share.”
As long speculated, and more recently acknowledged by Congressional Democrat leadership, because of the breadth in the Democrat's proposals and their rush to "remake America" with virtually no Republican support, the budget resolution would use the Senate’s special "reconciliation" process in order to allow Democrats to sidestep the previously promised transparency and bi-partisanship effort to work with Congressional Republicans to pass the spending bill.The legislative process known as "Reconciliation" came into being as part of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, and provides rare exceptions to work around the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule and enable lawmakers to adjust spending or tax revenue levels to comply with their seperately passed budget blueprint. When considered under "reconciliation," just 50 Senator's votes can used to bring up legislation in the Senate, instead of the typical 60 vote hurdle required for legislation to be consider and debated on the Senate floor.
"Reconciliation" has become a frequently used, though oftentimes controversial process for presidents to pass legislation through the Senate by simple majority-line vote – instead of garnering the 60 votes required by Senate Rules to overcome the debate tactic known as a "filibuster."
Because it allows normal Senate operating procedures to be side-steped, it is often viewed as being an instrument for the majority party to ram through its more controversial priorities – usually over a vocal minority opposition.
But the majority party in the Senate can only use the reconciliation process when considering legislation that involves the Federal Budget, or having a direct budgetary impact. And, Senate precedent requires that "reconciliation" generally can be utilized no more than once a year.
Because President Biden and Senate Democrats were already forced to use reconciliation connected to the fiscal 2021 budget in order to pass their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 Aid Package earlier this year, Democrats are now atempting to use it again this calendar year by switching to legislation preparing for the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget.
- Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, used "reconciliation" to raise taxes.
- Republicans George W. Bush & Donald Trump used it to cut them.
Barack Obama, a Democrat, used it to help create "Obamacare," formally called the Affordable Care Act.
Should all 50 Senate Democrats agree to the procedural manuver – including reconciliation critics like Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.VA) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) – a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Harris would push the bill to passage, and toward an even more difficult consideration by the House of Representative.
The Senate's new proposal sets the stage for weeks of negotiations in Congress, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Schumer attempt to pursuade both the far-left wing within the party, as well as independent Americans who have expressed increasing concerns over the explosion in federal spending.
The bill's text gives lawmakers a soft deadline of Wednesday, September 15th to complete their work and pass the bill.
The Senate's new proposal sets the stage for weeks of negotiations in Congress, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Schumer attempt to pursuade both the far-left wing within the party, as well as independent Americans who have expressed increasing concerns over the explosion in federal spending.
The bill's text gives lawmakers a soft deadline of Wednesday, September 15th to complete their work and pass the bill.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has consistantly, and recently, said she would only support “beginning this process,” but would “not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion.”
Senator Manchin from West Virginia said as recently as last week that he voted in support of initiating the reconciliation resolution “out of respect” for his colleagues, but wasn’t “making any promises” about his final vote for passage of the package.
In all, Democrat's inclusion of the controversial and non-budgetary issues surrounding immigration could make as many as 10 million people eligible for a path to citizenship – which is just shy of the 11 million border-crossers who would have been affected under a bill from President Biden that has been stalled for lack of support in Congress.
The inclusion of the immigration issues in the Budget Reconciliation Package comes after President Biden backed the idea last month.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL, at left with Majority Leader Check Schumer,) has previously slammed the exclusion of a larger number, or broader population of immigrants, writing recently that “seeking to compel the deportation of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who are helping our nation’s economy recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic makes little sense.”
The inclusion of the immigration issues in the Budget Reconciliation Package comes after President Biden backed the idea last month.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL, at left with Majority Leader Check Schumer,) has previously slammed the exclusion of a larger number, or broader population of immigrants, writing recently that “seeking to compel the deportation of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who are helping our nation’s economy recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic makes little sense.”Senate Judiciary members, however, have thus far made little progress when it comes to advancing any form of immigration-related legislation.
Since 1980, "Reconciliation" has been used over 20 times.
