By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:59am
After two more long days last week of largely unsuccessful attempts to scuttle the immigration reform bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee now is looking at the gargantuan task of wrapping up consideration – somehow, some way – before the end of this week. On Tuesday, the Committee completed work on the border security section of the bill and then began consideration of the section dealing with non-immigrant visas – addressing labor needs. Work on those issues continued on Thursday and then transitioned to enforcement, including the E-Verify employment verification system. All told, the Committee was busy this week – considering 64 amendments and adopting 40 of them. All but two of the amendments were adopted on a bipartisan basis. Ninety-nine amendments have now been considered (including modifications), and quite a few more have been withdrawn, out of the 300 amendments originally filed. Despite the accomplishments, the Committee still must figure out a way to deal with perhaps 150 amendments before Senators return to their home states at the end of the week for the Memorial Day recess.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:31am
Only a few short weeks ago, the so-called Senate Gang of Eight – four Republicans and four Democrats committed to producing a bipartisan immigration reform bill – released a bill exceeding 800 pages representing work dating back to November. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened for the first day of mark-up – a process whereby all committee members have the chance to offer amendments to the bill before it proceeds to consideration by the full Senate.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 9:58am
The extraordinary revelation this week that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups for more aggressive enforcement highlights exactly why caution is needed in any response to the much-vilified Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 7:31pm
The first spending bill for the new fiscal year that starts in October was adopted by the House of Representatives today after a week of wrangling. H.R. 5326 will provide funding for the Departments of Justice and Commerce as well as several science agencies – the so-called Commerce Justice Science (CJS) bill. If you listened to some in the majority, you would have thought the floor debate – which under an open rule allowed for unlimited amendments – provided a ripe opportunity for adding measures to cut spending, presumably the mantra in this time of fiscal austerity and Tea Party dominance. But some conservative writers, like those at Red State, note that cutting spending falls way down on the list of political priorities.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:52am
Votes on two anti-piracy bills in the House and Senate have been delayed indefinitely until there is wider agreement in Congress about the legislation.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:05pm
As of Thursday afternoon, 26 senators have withdrawn their support for PIPA (SOPA’s sister bill in the Senate), including six of the bill’s former cosponsors.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:53am
Today, major tech advocates are protesting a proposed law that would result in our government blocking access to websites that contain copyright-infringing material.
By Michael Macleod-Ball, Chief of Staff, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:20pm
The Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261), known as “SOPA,” is scheduled for consideration at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow. The bill is aimed at taking down sites that allow Internet users to acquire pirated versions of original artistic content online. At a recent hearing, the ACLU expressed opposition to the bill because it would allow for the takedown of non-infringing content along with infringing content, in violation of the First Amendment.
