July 31, 2015-President Obama signs into law the 35th short-term extension of the surface transportation programs that keeps programs running through October 29, 2015, a measure created to give the U.S. House and Senate time to bring legislation to a joint conference committee in the fall.
Advertisement
Truth be told, the House bill is primarily a symbolic measure that raises the accountability stakes for administration officials in charge of the screening process, who’ve screwed up badly before. The Senate is expected to debate the bill after Thanksgiving.
“The real winners today are 100,000 public schools attended by 50 million children where 3.5 million teachers work”, said Sen.
“The problem is not with refugees”, Reid said.
Let your members of Congress know that you support these principles and urge them to ensure that the final education bill reauthorizing the ESEA includes these four crucial civil rights priorities so that every student can receive a high-quality education. Democratic leadership hopes to block it in the Senate.
President Obama threatened to veto the legislation, but it passed by a veto-proof margin.
Democrats are pressuring Republicans to pass legislation blocking gun and explosives purchases for anyone suspected of being a terrorist, and are threatening to attach that language on a bill imposing new conditions on the entry of Syrian refugees.
Critics say the Legislature’s inability to get a final bill approved could end up jeopardizing proposed solar projects already in the development pipeline that are relying on the net metering benefits.
The Paris attacks also continued to roil the US presidential race. And unlike the No Child law, the new bill would not require that all children reach proficiency in reading and math by a certain date. One would prevent people who have been to Syria or Iraq in the last five years from entering the United States through the visa waiver program.
Rep. Donald Norcross of South Jersey was among Democrats to break with the president and support the measure, despite a last-minute visit and appeals from Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.) and Steve King (Iowa) were the only two Republicans opposing the bill.
But supporting Democrats disagree, arguing that the extra screenings required under the bill are simply a commonsense strategy for bolstering national security in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which left 129 people dead and hundreds more injured.
On Friday, several of those Democrats took to the cable shows or issued statements aimed at explaining their vote.
We need a campaign to make Americans feel that by helping refugees they are doing a kind, generous, even a heroic act – we are after all, supposed to be “the home of the fearless”.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., accused likely 2016 challenger Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., of an “irresponsible and reckless decision” to oppose the “common-sense” House bill.
Advertisement
“It tells the agencies at three places to say”, he says, “‘Hey, we’re going to certify whoever comes into the United States is not a risk to the country'”.
