Response to ROWer antics!
I think Sportsfans' plan to hand deliver letters to Senators/Congressmen in DC is not a bad idea. The main ROWer plan which is crytal clear to everyone is to scuttle HR3012/S1857 by expanding its scope. Some poison-pills that ROWers are cooking to expand the scope to kill these bills:
1) IT from India will swamp everyone else: This is a fallacious argument. There was/is shortage of IT skills in US and since India graduates a lot of Engineering/IT professionals who can communicate in English, there was a perfect match over a period of time to bridge this demand from India. If you look at the number of Nurses that come into US, you will see a lot of them are from Phillipines. There is an acute shortage of Nurses in US at the moment and there are a large number of professionally trained Nurses from Phillipines that are bridging this gap currently. I am quite positive if someone can look at the number of Nurses that are coming out of Phillipines to US the % will be quite high as well.
Our counter argument should be - Making long term laws by focusing on short term trends is inherently flawed.
2) DREAM act provisions attached to HR3012/S1857: I agree with poster 'gcq' that this argument will not fly too much, especially since DREAM bill already had its chance in Congress on its own. The scope of these bills is intentionally narrow so that they can pass. There is not only limited relief for severely backlogged EB professionals but also for backlogged FB families which will benefit Hispanic families.
Our counter argument - Piling on DREAM provisions that were very divisive when it had a chance in Congress will kill the limited relief that these bills will provide to EB and FB backlog victims; affecting Hispanic families that would have some much needed relief with raise in country cap in FB if these bills are not allowed to pass with their current narrow scope.
What exactly is placed in the Union Calendar...readon.
Union Calendar
The rules of the House provide that there shall be:
•A Calendar of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, to which shall be referred public bills and public resolutions raising revenue, involving a tax or charge on the people, directly or indirectly making appropriations of money or property or requiring such appropriations to be made, authorizing payments out of appropriations already made, releasing any liability to the United States for money or property, or referring a claim to the Court of Claims.
The large majority of public bills and resolutions reported to the House are placed on the Union Calendar. For a discussion of the Committee of the Whole House, see Part X.
Read Further
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/How...Union_Calendar
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