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Category: 115th Congress

Senators Cotton and Perdue Unveil RAISE Act

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Senators Tom Cotton (R-AK) and David Perdue (R-GA) have introduced the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act. The legislative text has not yet been posted.

The measure would lower overall immigration to 637,960 in its first year and to 539,958 by its tenth year-a 50 percent reduction from the 1,051,031 immigrants who arrived in 2015.

According to Senator Cotton’s website, the measure would:

  • Prioritize Immediate Family Households. The RAISE Act would retain immigration preferences for the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents while eliminating preferences for certain categories of extended and adult family members.
  • Eliminate Outdated Diversity Visa Lottery. The Diversity Lottery is plagued with fraud, advances no economic or humanitarian interest, and does not even deliver the diversity of its namesake. The RAISE Act would eliminate the 50,000 visas arbitrarily allocated to this lottery.
  • Place Responsible Limit on Permanent Residency for Refugees. The RAISE Act would limit refugees offered permanent residency to 50,000 per year, in line with a 13-year average.

Legislative text is not yet available. Federal Relations will continue to update on this legislation and other immigration developments.

Another Tough Night in the Senate, Confirmations Roll On

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During the second long night of debate (Democrats having debated the DeVos vote all night long), the Senate, which is normally very collegial and staid, voted to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday evening during her her speech on Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)’s nomination for Attorney General. Senator Warren was reading a letter from Mrs. Corretta Scott King, late wife of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote in the 1980s in opposition to then Senator Session’s nomination to a federal judgeship. 

The Senate voted 49-43 that Warren violated chamber rules against impugning a fellow Senator after during her speech in opposition to the Sessions nomination.

Sessions is expected to be confirmed as the next attorney general at some point today but the vote could come as late as this evening if Democrats use all of the debate time.

Senate Democrats are expected to continue their tactics of using all the debate time, which results in grueling all night debates, with the remaining Cabinet appointees.

DeVos Nomination Heads to Full Senate Vote

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Late Thursday/early Friday, the Senate cleared procedural hurdles that would bring the nomination of Betsy DeVos to the floor for a vote by the full Senate next week. A number of groups have argued against her nomination to become the Secretary of Education and two Republicans have recently stated that they will oppose her. With the current make-up of the Senate 52 to 48 in the Republicans’ favor, and with no Democrats expected to vote for DeVos, Vice President Mike Pence may be forced to cast the tie-breaking vote.

More Nominations Move Forward

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The Senate continues to make progress on more Trump Cabinet nominees. Both the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget committees voted to move forward the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to head the Office of Management and Budget on party-line votes.

In the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the majority used the same procedures employed by the Finance Committee Republicans to address a Democratic boycott of a vote on a nominee: the committee rules, which require at least two members from the minority party for a vote, were suspended and the nomination of Scott Pruitt as Director of the Environmental Protection Agency was approved by the majority. Thursday was the second day of a Democratic boycott of the committee.

Both nominations now head to the floor for consideration by the full Senate.

More Drama on the Nominations Front

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Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Democrats continued their boycott of committee votes to confirm Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Steve Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary. The committee rules require at least one member of each party to be present to hold votes. During the committee meeting, in order to get around the boycott, the committee rules were suspended and the nominations of Price and Mnuchin were reported out favorably.

Meanwhile, a vote by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has also been delayed by a boycott by the committee Democrats. The committee is expected to reconvene at a future date.

During a sometimes-heated session, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out favorably the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for the post of Attorney General along a party line vote of 11 to 9.

In separate speeches on the Senate floor, both Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced their intention to vote against the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. Both Senators, who are members of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has jurisdiction over the nomination, had voted in favor of moving DeVos’s nomination forward in committee while expressing reservations about some of the views of the nominee. Given the current make-up of the Senate, and if the other Senators vote along party lines, it is very possible that Vice President Mike Pence may cast the tie-breaking vote in her favor.

Also on Wednesday, the full Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State by a vote of 56 to 43.