Berkeleybee
04-14 11:53 AM
Do check the IV in the News link regularly, that link has been there since yesterday.
wallpaper Black Labrador Retriever Mix
Blog Feeds
11-18 03:00 PM
USCIS is reporting that as of November 6th, 54,900 H-1Bs had been issued against the 65,000 annual quota. While this represents a dramatic drop in H-1B applications over previous years. In 2007, nearly 200,000 applications were filed in the first week applications were open and in 2009, the application period is now in its seventh month. Usage seems to be about 1,000 cases a week so we're probably looking at January or February to run out of numbers. Incidentally, yesterday I was the moderator of a panel on the impact of the global recession on national migration policies in Amsterdam....
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2009/11/h1b-numbers-down-to-final-10000.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2009/11/h1b-numbers-down-to-final-10000.html)
Blog Feeds
01-04 08:00 AM
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandates an inclusive mathematical formula for apportioning "Representatives . . . among the Several states". It requires a decennial census count of "the whole number of persons in each State" excluding untaxed Native Americans. As the New York Times reports, a push is on, using Christmas-themed posters in Spanish, to urge Hispanics (citizens, legal residents and the undocumented, especially Evangelical Christians) to cooperate with census-takers and be counted when the tally begins in March, 2010. The effort is targeted beyond the Hispanic community, with posters offered in English ("This is How Jesus Was...
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/angelopaparelli/2009/12/an-immigration-christmas-story-extended-through-march-2010.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/angelopaparelli/2009/12/an-immigration-christmas-story-extended-through-march-2010.html)
2011 short hair black german
munnu77
04-12 11:22 AM
thnk u sgorla..
more...
kaisersose
11-29 01:37 PM
Yes. The old labor is valid for 180 days after July 16th.
If your lawyer can establish that A is still alive in some form, then this is possible. The new avatar of A (B or AB) can apply for 140.
If your lawyer can establish that A is still alive in some form, then this is possible. The new avatar of A (B or AB) can apply for 140.
gcfriend65
03-22 11:57 PM
Don't worry. Arlene Specter is coming up with his bill.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/22/kennedy_mccain_partnership_falters/
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/22/kennedy_mccain_partnership_falters/
more...
Blog Feeds
01-11 10:50 AM
Popular Science recently ran its 8th Annual Brilliant 10 list of the nation's most promising young scientists. And once again, several of them are immigrants helping to keep America in the forefront of innovation. Once is Ting Xu, a China native, who is transforming molecules into mini hard drives with massive storage capacity. Here's how Pop Sci describes her work: Earlier this year she co-authored a paper describing a new technique for coaxing tiny polymer strands to self-assemble into 10 trillion cylinders with precise patterns. The method could lead to discs the size of a quarter that store 175 DVDs��7...
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2010/01/immigrant-of-the-day-ting-xu-materials-scientist.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2010/01/immigrant-of-the-day-ting-xu-materials-scientist.html)
2010 Lucy - lack lab/weimaraner
houston2005
07-02 06:35 PM
To the experts on this forum
I applied for EAD and since last 4 months no action has been taken by TSC on my application. After 90 days, the local office gave me an interim EAD for 3 months. I have also initiated a status enquiry by the customer service at USCIS but haven't rec'd any updates till now. My question here is
1. What other options do I have, since from Oct 1, 06 local office won't issue interim EAD's as a policy change by USCIS.
2. Can I apply concurrently for second application. It seems my first application is lost.
Has anyone earlier been in same boat and has taken any other steps.
Thanks in advance.
I applied for EAD and since last 4 months no action has been taken by TSC on my application. After 90 days, the local office gave me an interim EAD for 3 months. I have also initiated a status enquiry by the customer service at USCIS but haven't rec'd any updates till now. My question here is
1. What other options do I have, since from Oct 1, 06 local office won't issue interim EAD's as a policy change by USCIS.
2. Can I apply concurrently for second application. It seems my first application is lost.
Has anyone earlier been in same boat and has taken any other steps.
Thanks in advance.
more...
rajesh212
03-26 01:22 PM
Company A filed my PERM in Sep 2008 showing 5 yrs job experience as of April 2005 .
I joined Company B citing 6 yrs job experience as of Dec 2009 due to various reasons.
Joined Company B in Dec 2009 and have H1b valid till April 2011 which is when my 6 year period ends.
My issues are:
1. If Company B files for my 7th year extension using the pending PERM, will the job experience discrepancy pose any problems ?
2. Does Company B have to know all the details in my pending PERM or just the case number to use it?
3. What is the earliest Company B can apply for 7th year extension?
Thank you very much for your help!!
I joined Company B citing 6 yrs job experience as of Dec 2009 due to various reasons.
Joined Company B in Dec 2009 and have H1b valid till April 2011 which is when my 6 year period ends.
My issues are:
1. If Company B files for my 7th year extension using the pending PERM, will the job experience discrepancy pose any problems ?
2. Does Company B have to know all the details in my pending PERM or just the case number to use it?
3. What is the earliest Company B can apply for 7th year extension?
Thank you very much for your help!!
hair We had a lab/golden mix once
ab3
04-14 01:52 PM
I have a question about filling out this section: PART 4, Processing Information. I am the employer and applying for a current H-1B holder (currently with another company) to transfer to my company AND extend his stay. He is currently here in the US.
Some people tell me I don't have to fill this section in, however the instructions say "if beneficiary...is outside the usa OR a requested extension of stay...cannot be granted, state US consulate or inspection facility you want notified".
What address should I put/consulate should I use (H-1B holder is from India).
Questions: 1) do i have to fill in all 1.a,b, c, and d?
2) does it matter if i check off consulate, pre-flight inspection, or port of entry?
3) if beneficiary doesn't have a fixed address in India anymore can I leave it blank?
Thank you for any help.
Some people tell me I don't have to fill this section in, however the instructions say "if beneficiary...is outside the usa OR a requested extension of stay...cannot be granted, state US consulate or inspection facility you want notified".
What address should I put/consulate should I use (H-1B holder is from India).
Questions: 1) do i have to fill in all 1.a,b, c, and d?
2) does it matter if i check off consulate, pre-flight inspection, or port of entry?
3) if beneficiary doesn't have a fixed address in India anymore can I leave it blank?
Thank you for any help.
more...
jbourne411
03-21 01:19 PM
Hi Folks,
I got the following email from USCIS
On March 17, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later. If you move before you get your new card call customer service. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.
Eventhough I did not get notice yet by mail I am little confused and concerended with their message, I have couple of questions
1) Does this really means my AOS application is approved? Is there anything else I should do?
2) what is ADIT processing that they are referening to?
Any thoughts or experiences from the gurus here is really appreciated.
Thanks in Advance
Jason
I got the following email from USCIS
On March 17, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later. If you move before you get your new card call customer service. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.
Eventhough I did not get notice yet by mail I am little confused and concerended with their message, I have couple of questions
1) Does this really means my AOS application is approved? Is there anything else I should do?
2) what is ADIT processing that they are referening to?
Any thoughts or experiences from the gurus here is really appreciated.
Thanks in Advance
Jason
hot 5/8 Black lab amp; 3/8 German
wonderlust
07-10 01:48 PM
Dear All,
Based on the lessons and experience gained from last Saturday demonstration in San Jose, we are organizing another protest this Saturday. A newly established yahoo group is working actively on preparing for this week's event.
We have been impressed with the participation from IV members. Please join the Yahoo group if you are in or near the San Jose area. Every bit of support and help is immensely valuable!
Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/immigration_right_2007
Thank you!
Wonderlust
Based on the lessons and experience gained from last Saturday demonstration in San Jose, we are organizing another protest this Saturday. A newly established yahoo group is working actively on preparing for this week's event.
We have been impressed with the participation from IV members. Please join the Yahoo group if you are in or near the San Jose area. Every bit of support and help is immensely valuable!
Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/immigration_right_2007
Thank you!
Wonderlust
more...
house dresses Black Short Curly
i4u
04-28 11:39 AM
with I -140 you don't need your family here......
tattoo 5/8 Black lab amp; 3/8 German
mbartosik
11-21 03:32 PM
Please take a look at this thread
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15540
and suggest some witty ideas for the text.
thanks
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15540
and suggest some witty ideas for the text.
thanks
more...
pictures short hair black german
Macaca
06-02 08:13 PM
Dems have tough time enacting changes (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEMOCRATS_WHATS_DIFFERENT?SITE=VAROA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) By CHARLES BABINGTON Associated Press Writer Jun 2
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under a portrait of George Washington and a sign proclaiming "A New Direction," Democratic lawmakers boasted of their accomplishments their first five months running Congress.
Their press release covered two pages.
Yet most people might be excused for hardly noticing, except maybe those who are paid the minimum wage or who live in hurricane-ravaged areas.
Upon taking control in January, Democrats led efforts to increase the minimum wage for the first time in a decade and to force modest spending increases in hurricane and drought relief, children's health care and a few other areas.
Beyond that, the majority party has found it difficult or impossible to redirect federal policies, thwarted by a veto-wielding Republican president whose congressional allies hold nearly half the Senate seats and a significant portion of the House.
To the frustration of their liberal base, Democrats have been unable to mandate a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Nor have they found a way to boost federal support for embryonic stem cell research, rewrite tax and spending priorities or force the removal of an embattled attorney general.
Their promises to reduce student loan rates, overhaul lobbying practices and put in place recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission are works in progress, at best.
They have largely abandoned their push to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the Medicare program in the face of Bush's opposition.
Democratic voters might be disappointed, but they should not be surprised, say congressional scholars and political strategists. While Democrats can set the legislative agenda and investigate the Bush administration, they "don't have the power" to determine the results, said Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.
Lacking the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto, Democrats must make the most of their abilities to pressure the White House, hold oversight hearings and drive the toughest bargains they can, Walters said.
"Democrats are in a negotiating framework consistently," Walters said. "That's where they will be as long as the president has a veto pen."
Even the Democrats' most clear-cut legislative victory - raising the minimum wage to $7.25 from the current $5.15 over three years - has questionable impact.
Only a small fraction of workers earns the minimum wage, and Democrats had to buy Republican support with $4.84 billion in new tax cuts for small businesses.
Still, raising the minimum wage has value as a fairness issue, some Democrats say. They urge the party's constituents to welcome such symbolic and incremental victories in a divided government.
Having Democrats control the House and Senate "makes a huge difference, given the set of challenges the country faces and given that so little was done in the last Congress," said former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, a member of the Sept. 11 commission.
Democrats have shifted the debate in important ways that may lead to policy changes in this Congress or the next, he said.
On Iraq, Roemer said "it's no longer a question of if" the United States will adopt a withdrawal timeline, only a question of when.
Citing global warming, he said Congress is no longer seriously debating whether the problem exists - as it did last year under Republican control- but considering how to address it.
Veteran Democrats say party supporters must understand that legislative victories often will come at the margins of major issues.
Consider children's health care, a Democratic campaign priority. Congress in May added an immediate $650 million to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Budget bills for 2008 call for an extra $50 billion, but the effort must survive the appropriations process, and Bush has pledged to veto measures he considers too costly.
Democratic leaders hailed the increases for the children's program, even as they acknowledged the proposed new spending would hardly fill the health insurance gaps.
The change in control of Congress is important, "but what it doesn't mean is the Democrats can impose their will," said Florida Democrat Bob Graham, a former senator, governor and presidential candidate. "It does mean the Democrats can set the agenda and force issues" to the forefront, such as a minimum wage raise that Republicans had blocked for years.
Perhaps the most dramatic change in Congress involves the rising number and intensity of hearings into alleged misdoings by the administration.
Subjects of investigations include contracting practices in Iraq; the use of prewar intelligence; the firings of federal prosecutors; the use of warrantless wiretaps; the friendly fire death in Afghanistan of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman; and the use of political e-mail accounts by White House officials.
The "amazing lack of oversight of White House programs and initiatives" that existed under GOP-controlled congresses has ended, Walters said.
Some Democratic activists say it is important to remind voters that Bush and congressional Republicans play a central role in legislative impasses.
"It's hard to see a lot getting done," said lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a former top House Democratic aide. "I don't know if Bush has the juice to deliver the Republican votes he needs" even on issues the president strongly backs, such as a proposed overhaul of immigration laws, he said.
At the end of this Congress, Elmendorf predicted, Democrats will have "a record of fiscal responsibility" and voters will understand that they could not overcome Bush's resistance on matters such as embryonic stem cell research.
As for the Iraq war, he said, even if Democrats can't force a withdrawal deadline, "the message that Americans are getting is: Democrats want change, Republicans don't."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under a portrait of George Washington and a sign proclaiming "A New Direction," Democratic lawmakers boasted of their accomplishments their first five months running Congress.
Their press release covered two pages.
Yet most people might be excused for hardly noticing, except maybe those who are paid the minimum wage or who live in hurricane-ravaged areas.
Upon taking control in January, Democrats led efforts to increase the minimum wage for the first time in a decade and to force modest spending increases in hurricane and drought relief, children's health care and a few other areas.
Beyond that, the majority party has found it difficult or impossible to redirect federal policies, thwarted by a veto-wielding Republican president whose congressional allies hold nearly half the Senate seats and a significant portion of the House.
To the frustration of their liberal base, Democrats have been unable to mandate a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Nor have they found a way to boost federal support for embryonic stem cell research, rewrite tax and spending priorities or force the removal of an embattled attorney general.
Their promises to reduce student loan rates, overhaul lobbying practices and put in place recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission are works in progress, at best.
They have largely abandoned their push to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the Medicare program in the face of Bush's opposition.
Democratic voters might be disappointed, but they should not be surprised, say congressional scholars and political strategists. While Democrats can set the legislative agenda and investigate the Bush administration, they "don't have the power" to determine the results, said Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.
Lacking the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a veto, Democrats must make the most of their abilities to pressure the White House, hold oversight hearings and drive the toughest bargains they can, Walters said.
"Democrats are in a negotiating framework consistently," Walters said. "That's where they will be as long as the president has a veto pen."
Even the Democrats' most clear-cut legislative victory - raising the minimum wage to $7.25 from the current $5.15 over three years - has questionable impact.
Only a small fraction of workers earns the minimum wage, and Democrats had to buy Republican support with $4.84 billion in new tax cuts for small businesses.
Still, raising the minimum wage has value as a fairness issue, some Democrats say. They urge the party's constituents to welcome such symbolic and incremental victories in a divided government.
Having Democrats control the House and Senate "makes a huge difference, given the set of challenges the country faces and given that so little was done in the last Congress," said former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, a member of the Sept. 11 commission.
Democrats have shifted the debate in important ways that may lead to policy changes in this Congress or the next, he said.
On Iraq, Roemer said "it's no longer a question of if" the United States will adopt a withdrawal timeline, only a question of when.
Citing global warming, he said Congress is no longer seriously debating whether the problem exists - as it did last year under Republican control- but considering how to address it.
Veteran Democrats say party supporters must understand that legislative victories often will come at the margins of major issues.
Consider children's health care, a Democratic campaign priority. Congress in May added an immediate $650 million to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Budget bills for 2008 call for an extra $50 billion, but the effort must survive the appropriations process, and Bush has pledged to veto measures he considers too costly.
Democratic leaders hailed the increases for the children's program, even as they acknowledged the proposed new spending would hardly fill the health insurance gaps.
The change in control of Congress is important, "but what it doesn't mean is the Democrats can impose their will," said Florida Democrat Bob Graham, a former senator, governor and presidential candidate. "It does mean the Democrats can set the agenda and force issues" to the forefront, such as a minimum wage raise that Republicans had blocked for years.
Perhaps the most dramatic change in Congress involves the rising number and intensity of hearings into alleged misdoings by the administration.
Subjects of investigations include contracting practices in Iraq; the use of prewar intelligence; the firings of federal prosecutors; the use of warrantless wiretaps; the friendly fire death in Afghanistan of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman; and the use of political e-mail accounts by White House officials.
The "amazing lack of oversight of White House programs and initiatives" that existed under GOP-controlled congresses has ended, Walters said.
Some Democratic activists say it is important to remind voters that Bush and congressional Republicans play a central role in legislative impasses.
"It's hard to see a lot getting done," said lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a former top House Democratic aide. "I don't know if Bush has the juice to deliver the Republican votes he needs" even on issues the president strongly backs, such as a proposed overhaul of immigration laws, he said.
At the end of this Congress, Elmendorf predicted, Democrats will have "a record of fiscal responsibility" and voters will understand that they could not overcome Bush's resistance on matters such as embryonic stem cell research.
As for the Iraq war, he said, even if Democrats can't force a withdrawal deadline, "the message that Americans are getting is: Democrats want change, Republicans don't."
dresses Black/White (Short Hair)
coollife
03-03 09:18 PM
I have my H1 filed in 2008. Due to the market situation, I didn't go for H1 stamping and entered US in March 2009 on H4.
I would like to know the steps/process for H4 -> H1 COS.
I know my employer is the best person to answer this. But, the problem is whenever I ask any details, he always tries to abstract the info.
If there are sequence of steps, after which step one is authorized to work? I tried getting the info online, but couldn't . If any of you can give me a pointer or explain the process in detail, it would be very great and helpful.
As per my employer, I can start working in 2 weeks after he initiates the process. I want to make sure that I don't run into any legal issues. Once the employer has initiated the COS process, is there a way one can track the status and also to verify the status after the completion of the process.
Sorry for too many questions. But, please please do help!!!
Thanks a ton in advance!!
I would like to know the steps/process for H4 -> H1 COS.
I know my employer is the best person to answer this. But, the problem is whenever I ask any details, he always tries to abstract the info.
If there are sequence of steps, after which step one is authorized to work? I tried getting the info online, but couldn't . If any of you can give me a pointer or explain the process in detail, it would be very great and helpful.
As per my employer, I can start working in 2 weeks after he initiates the process. I want to make sure that I don't run into any legal issues. Once the employer has initiated the COS process, is there a way one can track the status and also to verify the status after the completion of the process.
Sorry for too many questions. But, please please do help!!!
Thanks a ton in advance!!
more...
makeup 2011 celebrity short hair
anilcisco@hotmail.com
12-15 11:25 AM
I was on H1 with my previous company but laid off last week. I have !485 AOS and EAD.
I believe I can straight away join any company (consultancy or any enterprise company) on EAD , right pls ?
if get a job offer from Comapny "A" and join them today and file AC-21 today and meanwhile say I get another job from another Company "B" after two days and join them, can I file another AC-21 without waiting to hear back from USCIS. I believe AC 21 is just informational for USCIS that I have switched the jobs.
Thanks for your help.
-Aru
I believe I can straight away join any company (consultancy or any enterprise company) on EAD , right pls ?
if get a job offer from Comapny "A" and join them today and file AC-21 today and meanwhile say I get another job from another Company "B" after two days and join them, can I file another AC-21 without waiting to hear back from USCIS. I believe AC 21 is just informational for USCIS that I have switched the jobs.
Thanks for your help.
-Aru
girlfriend Black Women Haircuts For Short
Macaca
07-23 07:32 PM
Reid's Anti-Reform Maneuvers (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200881.html?nav=hcmodule) By Robert D. Novak (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/robert+d.+novak/) Washington Post, July 23, 2007
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid picked up his ball and went home after his staged all-night session last week, he saved from possible embarrassment one of the least regular members of his Democratic caucus: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Reform Republican Tom Coburn had ready an amendment to the defense authorization bill removing Nelson's earmark funding a Nebraska-based company whose officials include Nelson's son. Such an effort became impossible when Reid pulled the bill.
That Reid's action had this effect was mere coincidence. He knew that Sen. Carl Levin's amendment to the defense bill mandating a troop withdrawal from Iraq would fall short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, and Reid planned from the start to pull the bill after the all-night session, designed to satisfy antiwar zealots, was completed. But Reid is also working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine earmark transparency and prevent open debate on spending proposals such as Nelson's.
These antics fit the continuing decline of the Senate, including an unwritten rules change requiring 60 votes to pass any meaningful bill. When I arrived on Capitol Hill 50 years ago, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson (like Reid today) had a slim Democratic majority and faced a Republican president, but he was not burdened with the 60-vote rule. While Johnson did use chicanery, Reid resorts to brute force that shatters the Senate's facade of civilized discourse. Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House, with tacit support from Republican senators and the GOP leadership.
At stake is the fate of Coburn's "Reid amendment," previously passed by the Senate and so called because it would bar earmarks benefiting a senator's family members such as Reid's four lobbyist sons and son-in-law. Nelson's current $7.5 million earmark for software helps 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), which employs the senator's son, Patrick Nelson, as its marketing director. The company gets 80 percent of its funds from federal grants, mostly through earmarks. With nine offices scattered among states represented by appropriators in Congress, the company has in recent years spent $1.1 million to lobby Congress and $160,000 in congressional campaign contributions. "As of April," the Omaha World-Herald reported, "only one piece of [the company's] software has been used -- to help guard a single Marine camp in Iraq -- and it was no longer in use."
In requesting the 21CSI earmark, Nelson did not disclose his son's employment. "There's no requirement that he disclose that," a Nelson spokesman told this column. "But frankly, in this case, we didn't disclose it because it's so public." An April 24 letter from Levin giving senators instructions on how to request an earmark made no mention of the "Reid amendment" that had been passed by the Senate three months earlier but that required only certification that no senator's spouse would benefit from an earmark. Inclusion of Nelson's son, however, would be required if the ethics bill provision passes.
When the defense authorization bill came up last week, Coburn prepared amendments to eliminate the Nelson earmark and the most notorious earmark pending in Congress: Democratic Rep. John Murtha's proposed $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in his Pennsylvania district. Reid's plan to satisfy antiwar activists with an all-night debate averted debate, for now, on those two earmarks.
Reid, the soft-spoken trial lawyer from Searchlight, Nev., has tended to suppress free expression in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body in his tumultuous 6 1/2 months as majority leader. Last week, he cut off an attempt by Sen. Arlen Specter, the veteran moderate Republican, to respond to him with an abruptness that I had not witnessed in a half-century of Senate watching. When Specter finally got the floor, he declared: "Nothing is done here until the majority leader decides to exercise his power to keep the Senate in all night on a meaningless, insulting session. . . . Last night's performance made us the laughingstock of the world." It may get worse if plans to eviscerate ethics legislation are pursued.
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid picked up his ball and went home after his staged all-night session last week, he saved from possible embarrassment one of the least regular members of his Democratic caucus: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Reform Republican Tom Coburn had ready an amendment to the defense authorization bill removing Nelson's earmark funding a Nebraska-based company whose officials include Nelson's son. Such an effort became impossible when Reid pulled the bill.
That Reid's action had this effect was mere coincidence. He knew that Sen. Carl Levin's amendment to the defense bill mandating a troop withdrawal from Iraq would fall short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, and Reid planned from the start to pull the bill after the all-night session, designed to satisfy antiwar zealots, was completed. But Reid is also working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine earmark transparency and prevent open debate on spending proposals such as Nelson's.
These antics fit the continuing decline of the Senate, including an unwritten rules change requiring 60 votes to pass any meaningful bill. When I arrived on Capitol Hill 50 years ago, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson (like Reid today) had a slim Democratic majority and faced a Republican president, but he was not burdened with the 60-vote rule. While Johnson did use chicanery, Reid resorts to brute force that shatters the Senate's facade of civilized discourse. Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House, with tacit support from Republican senators and the GOP leadership.
At stake is the fate of Coburn's "Reid amendment," previously passed by the Senate and so called because it would bar earmarks benefiting a senator's family members such as Reid's four lobbyist sons and son-in-law. Nelson's current $7.5 million earmark for software helps 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), which employs the senator's son, Patrick Nelson, as its marketing director. The company gets 80 percent of its funds from federal grants, mostly through earmarks. With nine offices scattered among states represented by appropriators in Congress, the company has in recent years spent $1.1 million to lobby Congress and $160,000 in congressional campaign contributions. "As of April," the Omaha World-Herald reported, "only one piece of [the company's] software has been used -- to help guard a single Marine camp in Iraq -- and it was no longer in use."
In requesting the 21CSI earmark, Nelson did not disclose his son's employment. "There's no requirement that he disclose that," a Nelson spokesman told this column. "But frankly, in this case, we didn't disclose it because it's so public." An April 24 letter from Levin giving senators instructions on how to request an earmark made no mention of the "Reid amendment" that had been passed by the Senate three months earlier but that required only certification that no senator's spouse would benefit from an earmark. Inclusion of Nelson's son, however, would be required if the ethics bill provision passes.
When the defense authorization bill came up last week, Coburn prepared amendments to eliminate the Nelson earmark and the most notorious earmark pending in Congress: Democratic Rep. John Murtha's proposed $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in his Pennsylvania district. Reid's plan to satisfy antiwar activists with an all-night debate averted debate, for now, on those two earmarks.
Reid, the soft-spoken trial lawyer from Searchlight, Nev., has tended to suppress free expression in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body in his tumultuous 6 1/2 months as majority leader. Last week, he cut off an attempt by Sen. Arlen Specter, the veteran moderate Republican, to respond to him with an abruptness that I had not witnessed in a half-century of Senate watching. When Specter finally got the floor, he declared: "Nothing is done here until the majority leader decides to exercise his power to keep the Senate in all night on a meaningless, insulting session. . . . Last night's performance made us the laughingstock of the world." It may get worse if plans to eviscerate ethics legislation are pursued.
hairstyles domestic short hair,
GKBest
10-25 03:09 PM
Which comes first.....card production ordered or approval sent? Are there cases when they don't update the status online with "approval sent" yet you have physically received the EAD cards. How long does it take to physically receive the cards from the date the status changed to card production ordered?
dassumi
10-08 03:25 PM
I am one of those unfortunate guys who missed the July 2007 boat.
Is there any chance of the priority date getting current again (soon) like in July 2007 even for a month?
What do you guys think??
You have not given any details on your current status - EB2 or EB3 - PD etc.
Is there any chance of the priority date getting current again (soon) like in July 2007 even for a month?
What do you guys think??
You have not given any details on your current status - EB2 or EB3 - PD etc.
arnet
10-19 02:03 PM
Two weeks ago, I went to Infopass appointment and Immigration officer said they scheduled my fingerprinting next week and will get the notice in mail. This fingerprinting was due long time so they scheduled one now.
IO asked me whether the date and time is ok for me and I said yes i.e. next friday.
But so far I havent received any notice regarding this.
What to do now? any one had this problem, please share your experience....
IO asked me whether the date and time is ok for me and I said yes i.e. next friday.
But so far I havent received any notice regarding this.
What to do now? any one had this problem, please share your experience....
No comments:
Post a Comment