Senate Democrats Look To Beef Up Border Security

Senate Democrats introduced new legislation Thursday that is aimed at beefing up security along the country’s Southwest border.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), alongside Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), unveiled a $600 million emergency measure in an effort to fully secure the U.S.-Mexican border.  The proposal would deploy 1,500 new enforcement agents and fund unmanned aerial vehicles to boost border surveillance.

“This package shows a serious commitment to securing the border, even though we know it will take comprehensive immigration reform to fully address the problem,” Schumer said. “We plan to push this measure immediately in the Senate, and it will send the personnel and equipment we need along the border.”

Sens. Schumer and McCaskill touted the new bill by distinguishing it from a similar bill introduced by Senate Republicans. Under the GOP’s version, funding would originate from surplus Recovery Act funding, a measure Democrats said would eliminate jobs.

Democrats plan to fuel this measure without increasing the nation’s debt while simultaneously creating jobs.

“[The bill] would avoid adding to the deficit by raising fees on a handful of foreign corporations that exploit U.S. visa programs to import workers from India,” the Sens. said in a statement. “The Senate Democrats’ proposal is paid for by raising fees on companies that take jobs away from U.S. workers.”

The Senate duo are hopeful this measure hits the floor running and comes up before the Senate breaks for recess.

Sen. Schumer Shoots Down Proposed Iranian Missile Shield

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended the scrapping of a missle shield aimed at preventing an attack from Iran Thursday morning after a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"The missile shield is an ineffective and expensive way to deal with missiles," said Schumer.

The initial plan, which would have established a missle defense sysytem in Poland and the Czech Republic, was recently halted by President Barack Obama.

Schumer went on to say that the missle shield would only antagnonize the Russians and suggested an economic deterrent to Iran's alleged nuclear pursuit.

"We need to squeeze them economically," said Schumer.

Secretary Clinton left without comment.

Lower Costs, Republican Support Key To Passing Healthcare Reform

Tasked with finding bipartisan support for healthcare reform, the Senate will use this week, as well as its month-long recess, to explore ways to lower the price tag on the current legislation, said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY.) during a conference call with reporters Monday.

“Many are asking, ‘how are you gonna pay for it?’ The number one way we’re gonna pay for it is by cutting costs," said Schumer, a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

Schumer disclosed that his committee, led by Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), wants the bill to include provisions such as care bundling and value-based purchasing, items he believes will lower the bill’s cost to under $900 billion and will ensure that the system it creates will not be based on a ‘fee for service’ model.

“We’re gonna make sure that doctors and hospitals are awarded based on [patient] outcomes,” pledged Schumer.

Baucus, said Schumer, has told the committee that he wants a bipartisan compromise on the legislation reached by no later then September 15th, a timeline that Schumer called “more than fair.”

“Six weeks should be enough to sort things out,” said Schumer, who added that the Senate’s goal is to “have the bill passed and signed by the President by the end of the year.”

However, Schumer and his Democratic colleagues will face fierce opposition to reform efforts in the coming weeks from Republicans who argue that a government-run healthcare system will ration care to patients and ultimately, will lead to a system of ‘socialized’ medicine. In addition, certain conservative Democrats are worried that the high cost of reform will lead to tax increases on most Americans, a concern that certainly was not put to rest over the weekend when Larry Summers, the Chairman of President Obama’s National Economic Council, told a cable news program that "It's never a good idea to absolutely...rule things out no matter what."

To that end, Schumer explained that Democrats in the Senate are working on contingency plans to move the legislation forward in the event that a bipartisan consensus can't be reached. Yet aside from suggesting that Democrats might consider using budget reconciliation as a means of lowering the number of votes required to block a filibuster on the floor, Schumer declined to reveal specifics on what such plans would involve, insisting that “no matter what happens, we’re gonna enact healthcare reform by the end of the year.”

Schumer explained that the bill’s public option provision, a key item in President Obama’s reform wish-list, could be scrapped in the quest for bipartisanship.

“I believe very strongly in the public option, I’m gonna fight for it.....but no one’s drawing any lines in the sand yet,” said Schumer.

The Senator was also asked to address concerns that Congress’s failure to plan accordingly for it’s “Cash For Clunkers” program, which will require a Senate vote to supply $2 billion in additional funds after the program ran out of money, meant that it wouldn’t be able to handle healthcare reform effectively.

Replied Schumer, “there were some computer problems....those problems will be straightened out,” adding that the car rebate program and healthcare reform are “apples and oranges.”

“Healthcare [reform] is totally different,” said Schumer. “Yes, it’s hard to do, we know that...but the two are not analogous at all.”

Senate Democrats Put Family Focus On Health Care

By Courtney Ann Jackson - Talk Radio News Service

The health care debate has taken on many angles, but today the focus of Democratic leaders in the Senate was on uninsured families. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) welcomed two families directly affected by health care issues to a press conference Thursday to represent the many families being affected everyday.

“Our opponents aren’t talking about the real families and the real problems these families have,” said Reid. “Reforming health care is not abstract because health care is not theoretical...It’s about people, real people.”

Reid was joined by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Senators noted that the families in attendance know the real costs of health care due to personal experiences. Reid repeated the phrase, “we’re talking about people,” multiple times in his opening statement.

Murray said she's asked constituents in her home state to share their personal stories about health care and why they feel health care reform is needed. So far, she said she's received over 5,000 e-mails in two weeks.

Murray highlighted the need to control the costs for family health insurance, noting that people with quality health insurance are paying more in premiums because the system as a whole does not cover everyone.

“Overcome the obstacles and get something done. We have to get something done,” said Schumer. “The system just isn’t working or it’s getting to the point that it won’t work in the next decade.”

Durbin said stories about ordinary Americans losing health insurance are not uncommon because 14,000 people lose health care everyday. He said that if nothing is done now, the problem won’t just go away, and that’s why health reform must happen this year.

The Senators said they will give the legislation more time so that Republicans who oppose the plan can review what Reid described as a “complex difficult issue." They said they would continue to work on the bill when they return from recess in the fall.

“I’ve had conversations with them [Republicans] and I’ll have future conversations to give them assurances that we’ll take everything they do and we’ll do what we can to make sure their issues aren’t buried,” said Reid.

Reid expressed confidence that all 60 Democrats in the Senate are prepared to vote for the legislation.

Revamping Employment Verification System Necessary, Says Schumer

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

The current system used to verify an employee's citizenship status is severely flawed and must be changed or replaced, said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) during a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security. Keeping illegal immigrants from finding work in the U.S. would drastically decrease their presence in the U.S., he said.

E-Verify, the system now in place, relies on a name, date of birth, and social security number in order to determine whether an employee is a legal citizen. An employer checks the information provided by an employee against a government database. As long as an illegal alien can retrieve a legal citizen’s information, either by stealing it or receiving it from a legal friend, he or she can game the system.

In addition, ten percent of all workers that E-Verify claims are illegal aliens are actually legal citizens, said Michael Aytes, Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Schumer called for a system that would be flawless. “The only way the American people will have faith that our comprehensive immigration reform bill will stop illegal workers from obtaining jobs is if we implement an employment verification system that is tough, fair, easy to use, and effective and which relies upon a non-forgeable biometric identifier,” he said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pointed out that some unemployment issues could be solved by replacing employed illegal aliens with actual U.S. citizens. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) was more concerned with the fact that oftentimes illegal aliens are grossly mistreated by corrupt employers.

Gutierrez said, “incorporating an effective employment verification system is our only hope for truly ending illegal immigration. We can do this, and we must do it this year. In the the end, this is not a question of whether or not we can craft an effective system; rather, it is a question of political will.”