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Wednesday 3DEC04 1:15 a.m.
Phone White House (& others)...... Urge to protect driver's license safeguards in 9/11 Response Bill
Dear friends,
What a two weeks since you helped pull off the huge shock of the House failing to bring up and pass the gutted 9/11 Response Bill!
I suppose you have seen some of the intense media coverage of this bill and the fight between our side and the pro-illegal-immigration side.
But the White House is reported to be twisting arms to get a vote next Tuesday when Congress is being brought back for yet another lame duck session.
At the bottom of this Alert, I give you a lot more details about what is happening (and what has happened).
Let me just say here that the White House doesn't seem to be entirely convinced that this gutted compromise bill is worth going to the mat over. YOUR PHONE CALLS TO THE WHITE HOUSE TRULY CAN HELP TIP THE BALANCE.
Your calls to other key problem Senators and Representatives can also increase the sense of the radioactivity of the bill as it now stands and give us a chance of killing it this session so a better bill can pass in the new Congress.
1. RADIO ADS......Ads around the country urge opposition to any bill without immigration safeguards
Our coalitions of 9/11 families and immigration-reform groups are running saturation radio ads this week in the home areas of many congressional leaders and of the four House negotiators who have been refusing to sign the gutted bill.
Your fellow NumbersUSA members in all of those areas are participating in massive phoning and faxing campaigns to their own Representatives..
2. ACTION........Phone the White House and urge the Administration to NOT press conferees to sign the neutered 9/11 bill
Here is the number:
(202) 456-1111
The White House needs to understand that this is not some arcane issue of national significance to which Americans aren't paying much attention or can't figure out when they are being bamboozled.
Pres. Bush needs to hear from thousands of you immediately to keep the pressure on.
Last night, one of the 9/11 families was at a function that Karl Rove attended. Our 9/11 family ally introduced herself and told Rove that the victim families were very opposed to the 9/11 compromise bill. Rove said, "Yes, I know." That's what constant pressure and complaint can do -- at least make sure they start realizing inside the White House that pro-illegal-immigration actions are always going to be costly to them with the public.
ALSO PHONE THESE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO HAVE BEEN SO IMPORTANT IN DERAILING IMMIGRATION SAFEGUARDS
Look for somebody in your part of the country and give them a call. The National Council of La Raza and other open borders groups have their own phone campaign going, so it is important that you make the calls to make sure these offices can see the sign of majority opinion about the insistence of the following Members to allow illegal aliens to continue to obtain drivers licenses in 15 states.
Reps offices in D.C. can be reached during business hours (Eastern time) using one of these toll free numbers: (877) 762-8762
(800) 839-5276
(800 ) 355-3588Click here for
other important
contact information....Note that the driver's license safeguards were recommended by the 9/11 Commission itself. The commission stated that giving terrorists these kind of ID documents is like putting weapons in the hands of the terrorists.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
He has been the most powerful advocate for protecting driver's licenses for illegal aliens. He has virtually run all of the negotiating sessions involving immigration.202-224-4041 SH-706 Washington, DC 20510
860-549-8463 1 State Street - Suite 1420 Hartford, CT 06103
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
She is the official head of the Senate conferees but essentially turned power over immigration decisions to Lieberman. So far, she would rather have no 9/11 bill at all than have one that takes licenses away from illegal aliens.202-224-2523 SR-172 Washington, DC 20510
207-780-3575 1 City Center - Suite 100 Portland, ME 04101
207-945-0417 202 Harlow Street - Room 204 Bangor, ME 04401
207-622-8414 168 Capitol Street Augusta, ME 04330207-493-7873 25 Sweden Street - Suite A Caribou, ME 04736
207-784-6969 11 Lisbon Street Lewiston, ME 04240
207-283-1101 109 Alfred Street Biddeford, ME 04005
Rep. Menendez (D-NJ)
A conferee who has been said to be the one Senate Democrats look to for whether they dare agree to anything that would inconvencience an illegal alien.202-225-7919 2238 RHOB Washington, DC 20515
732-324-6212 263 Hobart Street Perth Amboy, NJ 088614310
201-558-0800 3109 Bergenline Avenue, 2nd Floor Union City, NJ 07087
201-823-2900 654 Avenue C Bayonne, NJ 07002
201-222-2828 911 Bergen Avenue Jersey City, NJ
Rep. Jane Harmon (R-CA)
Headed up the Democratic conferees and has made sure that the 9/11 Commission's recommendations on immigration don't get considered.310-549-8282 544 N. Avalon Boulevard Wilmington, CA 90744
310-643-3636 2321 Rosecrans Boulevard El Segundo, CA 90245
202-225-8220 229 CHOB Washington, DC 20515
The National Council of La Raza says these Members are getting calls about the 9/11 bill and that the calls are running 5-1 against the compromise without immigration.
3. THE AD......Read the script of the radio ad
This is a version of the ad that is running across the country with different Members of Congress named:On nine eleven, nineteen foreign terrorists used more than sixty U.S. driver's licenses to help them murder thousands of Americans, including my son Jamie.
Hi, I'm Peter Gadiel on behalf of hundreds of nine eleven families. Since then, we've turned our grief into action to prevent future attacks. That's what Congress' Nine Eleven Bill could do.
But open-borders advocate Senator Joe Lieberman wants to greatly weaken the Nine Eleven Bill. He opposes fixing driver's license loopholes and inconveniencing illegal aliens, even though it could cost American lives.
Isn't it common sense that we can't be safe without fixing our immigration system? Congressman David Dreier. But Senator Joe Lieberman wants him to leave immigration safeguards out of the Nine Eleven Bill next week.
Call Congressman Dreier now at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Ask him to only support a bill that includes immigration safeguards. So more Americans don't end up like my son, Jamie.
Paid for by Nine Eleven Families for a Secure America and United to Secure America.
4. BACKGROUND......Where the battle stands at this moment
Battle 1--You WON: You phoned and faxed for weeks to fill the House 9/11 bill (H.R. 10) with immigration safeguards.
Battle 2--You LOST: The negotiations between Senate Conferees and House Conferees went badly. The Senators insisted on cutting nearly all immigration safeguards out of the compromise bill (called a Conference Report).
Battle 3--You WON: You helped fan a rebellion among House Republicans a week ago last Saturday in which an expected clear victory for the neutered 9/11 bill was stopped when Speaker Hastert declined to bring it to the floor for a vote before adjourning Congress for the year.
Battle 4--?????: That's where we are now. Congress did not adjourn, allowing it to be brought back for yet another lame-duck session in December (next Monday). Senate leaders and President Bush are twisting arms to get Hastert to bring the neutered bill for a vote in the House.
What nearly all of the news media are missing, though, is that Hastert at the moment cannot bring the Conference Report for a vote because it has not officially passed the Conference Commmittee.
To officially pass, a compromise bill has to be signed by the majority of Senate conferees and the majority of House conferees. Thus far, only the three Democratic conferees (Harmon of California, Skelton of Missouri and Menendez of New Jersey) have been willing to sign.
It was believed that the lead GOP House negotiator (Hoekstra of Michigan) was also willing to sign.
But none of the other four Republican conferees stepped forward to sign.
Hunter of California and Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin publicly decried the compromise bill.
But little known to the public, Hyde of Illinois and Dreier of California also have been declining to sign the bill.
That leaves a 4-4 tie which does not provide a majority to allow a bill to be reported out.
The pro-drivers-licenses-for-illegal-aliens crowd needs one more signature.
We are advertising in the regions of all the four Republican holdouts, urging them to not budge in insisting on keeping driver's licenses out of the hands of illegal aliens.
You might want to print out this alert and highlight just a few sentences and phrases that you want to use on your phone call.
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