legislation

Senate Immigration Bill – Amendments Submitted Related to English Proficiency

/ The Old Crank / 2 Comments

(Updated Below)

I’ve scanned the amendments submitted thus far to the Senate immigration bill (S.744) and found at least four five that pertain to English proficiency:

S.A. 1204, introduced by Sen. Inhofe (R-OK)
AKA the “English Language Unity Act of 2013’’. Would declare English the official language of the United States government.

S.A. 1205, introduced by Sen. Inhofe (R-OK)
Would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so that it would be legal for an employer to “require employees to speak English while engaged in work.”

S.A. 1206, introduced by Sen. Inhofe (R-OK)
Would require each government agency, within 180 days of enactment, to provide a “Multilingual Services Expenses Report” that provides a summary and analysis of all multilingual services provided.

S.A. 1225, introduced by Sen. Rubio (R-FL)
Would remove the opportunity for immigrants applying for legal residency status to demonstrate that they are “satisfactorily pursuing a course of study, pursuant to standards established by the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary, to achieve an understanding of English and knowledge and understanding of the history and Government of the United States” at the level of proficiency now required for citizenship. Instead it would require that all immigrant achieve that level of proficiency prior to applying for a green card.

S.A. 1348, introduced by Sen. Fischer (R-NE)
Would insert an English language requirement as a prerequisite to registered provisional immigrant status. Essnetially, an undocumented immigrant who could not demonstrate English proficiency would not be allowed to attain legal status of any kind at all. h/t CLASP

Let me know if I missed anything!

 

UDPATE 6/20/13: I’m updating as I go. Just added the Fischer amendment (see above).

Senate Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization Proposal May Tie Funding to GDP

/ The Old Crank

Interesting post from Neil Bomberg of the National League of Cities:

Earlier this week and in a meeting with NLC, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson’s (R-GA) offices announced the framework for the Senate WIA reauthorization bill. NLC welcomed the good news that the bipartisan measure will likely retain the current state and local governance structures, including a strong role for local elected officials and business leaders with local workforce development areas based on local labor markets or economic regions rather than political boundaries. The Senators’ offices also indicated there will be an effort to move forward with “smart consolidation,” which means taking a measured and evidence-based approach to program elimination and consolidation, and to avoid consolidating programs simply for the sake of consolidation. Finally, the offices indicated an interest in basing workforce development funding on a percentage of the overall gross domestic product (GDP) with expenditures increasing during economic downturns expenditures so that unemployed workers are able to receive the assistance they need. (my emphasis)

That last idea (that I bolded) is new to me. Interesting.

A Little Bit of News About WIA Reauthorization in the Senate

/ The Old Crank / 3 Comments

The (very) little I know about any work going on in the Senate on a Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill this session is mostly on background, but what I do know is pretty consistent with what was reported by Neil Bomberg for the National League of Cities (NLC) a couple of weeks ago.

Unlike the House bill passed earlier this year, we know the Senate bill will be a bipartisan effort, and leads on it are Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA). According to NLC’s sources, Senators Murray and Isakson “are using last year’s Senate draft bill as the starting point for this year’s bill.” (I believe that is supposed to read “last session,” as the only recent Senate draft bill I’m aware of was released in 2011.) Although not perfect, most of my colleagues in adult education seemed to be reasonably happy with that older draft bill, while the recent House bill was universally panned.

There’s no timeline for the introduction and consideration of a Senate bill. NLC notes that it is unlikely that it would be introduced before June.

Migration Policy Institute Releases Analysis of Senate Immigration Reform Bill

/ The Old Crank

The Migration Policy Institute has just released a detailed review of S. 744, the immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate last week. It outlines the major provisions of the bill and compares it with the major provisions in immigration bills considered by the Senate in 2006 and 2007 (but not the 2010 Menendez-Leahy bill, S. 3932, that I wrote about here).