How Boston Might Help Immigration Reform
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THE TAKE
How Boston Might Help Immigration Reform
The bipartisan Senate Gang of 8 introduced its immigration proposal today to considerably less fanfare than anybody could have expected just days ago, before the bombings in Boston and before poisoned mail and suspicious packages in Washington would come to dominate the headlines.
Indeed, some immigration reform advocates are now worried that the bombings could derail their efforts. Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa is already saying reform should be put on hold in light of the Boston attacks.
While there is reason to worry -- President Bush made a commitment to reform only days before the Sept. 11th attacks consumed the country -- there is also an upside.
With the nation focused on Boston, the Gang of 8 members now have time, out of the harsh spotlight, to talk with their Senate colleagues and sell the bill. If used properly, the extra time could help win some valuable support.
Chris Frates
cfrates@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
NO ARRESTS YET, BUT ‘SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS’ MADE IN BOSTON CASE. Earlier this afternoon, several news outlets, including CNN, reported an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon bombing case. But federal officials vehemently denied those reports, the Associated Press reported. Still, authorities are reporting “significant progress” in the case, including the fact that investigators say they have found video footage of a man they believe planted the bombs, The New York Timesreports. A third victim in the bombing has been identified: Lingzi Lu, a Chinese national who was studying at Boston University. A press conference is expected at 5 p.m. EDT. Read more
@daveweigel: Has CNN ruled out the possibility that the suspect has fled the scene in a silver balloon?
FBI: OBAMA, WICKER LETTERS RELATED, TEST POSITIVE FOR RICIN. The FBI said in a bulletin on Wednesday that a letter addressed to President Obama has preliminarily tested positive for ricin and is “related” to a letter addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., which also tested positive for the substance, the Associated Press reported. The FBI said that both letters contained the message, “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance,” and were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message." Both letters bore a Memphis, Tenn., postmark, and were intercepted at off-site mail facilities. The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that there was no connection to the attack in Boston. Read more
Capitol Police have removed and are now investigating a trio of “suspicious packages” found in the Hart and Russell Senate Office Buildings Read more
MANCHIN, TOOMEY PESSIMISTIC ON GUN BILL. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who negotiated a compromise amendment on firearms background checks, on Wednesday expressed doubt that the measure would gain sufficient support in the Senate. Manchin told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell: “We will not get the votes today.” Toomey told National Review, “As we sit here this morning, we don’t have the votes. Now, there are enough undecided people that it’s still possible, but I’ll be the first to admit that there is a very, very narrow path to get to 60 votes.” Voting on nine amendments--all subject to a 60-vote threshold--will begin at 4 p.m. EDT Read more
National Journal’s Ron Fournier writes that at first glance, the potential defeat of Manchin-Toomey could be considered a victory for President Obama’s enemies, but that the victory could be Pyrrhic.
NRCC PULLS PLUG ON SANFORD. National Republicans will no longer help fund Mark Sanford in his congressional race, Politico reports. Reports surfaced Tuesday night that the former South Carolina governor had been accused of trespassing on his ex-wife’s home, and the news apparently blindsided the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Mark Sanford has proven he knows what it takes to win elections. At this time, the NRCC will not be engaged in this special election,” Andrea Bozek, an NRCC spokeswoman, told Politico. Sanford will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch in a special election on May 7. Read more
Sanford’s explanation for the trespassing charge: He was watching the Super Bowl with his 14-year-old son.
BORDER SECURITY IMPROVING, ‘GANG OF EIGHT’ GOALS ACHIEVABLE. The Senate immigration-reform plan includes strict provisions for border security before conferring legal status on undocumented persons, but its goals are achievable, National Journal’s Niraj Chokshi writes. Many of the goals outlined in the failed 2007 reform bill have been achieved, and the gang’s proposal allocates $3 billion to border-security efforts. Meanwhile, a December report from the Government Accountability Office indicates significant progress in securing the border. Read more
Members of a bipartisan House group issued a release backing the efforts of their Senate counterparts and indicated that they are close to a deal on their own plan. Read more
OBAMA’S PICK FOR BUDGET DIRECTOR CLEARS FIRST COMMITTEE VOTE. President Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, cleared the first of two Senate committees on Wednesday, The Hill reports. By a voice vote, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Burwell. The Senate Budget Committee is also expected to approve Burwell, and she is likely to win easy confirmation in the full Senate. Read more
OBAMA CHIEF OF STAFF BANS SMARTPHONES FOR SECURITY REASONS. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough is known to ban smartphones from meetings of senior staff, BuzzFeed and Bloomberg report. The Washington Post’s Al Kamen writes that McDonough’s prohibition “owes more to worries over cybersecurity than efficiency. The goal is not having people in, say, Beijing become part of the conversation.” Read more
TOMORROW
OBAMA TO BOSTON WITH FIRST LADY. President Obama will visit Boston on Thursday, where he’ll attend an interfaith service in response to this week’s bombing of the Boston Marathon. First lady Michelle Obama will also travel with the president.
LABOR NOMINEE LIKELY TO FACE CRITICISM IN HEARING. President Obama’s pick for secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez, will get a confirmation hearing on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Republicans have accused Perez of abuse of power while making a dubious deal as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Read more
QUOTABLE
"What they tell the press and what they tweet is not the same as how they vote." -- Obama press secretary Jay Carney, on how senators will vote on gun legislation (Politico)
BEDTIME READING
THE BIGGEST OIL SPILL YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR KEYSTONE XL. One morning, without warning, John LaForge’s front lawn was swamped with a black goo that pulled at his shoes like chewing gum, Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song wrote in their Pulitzer Prize-winning piece for InsideClimate News. LaForge’s house had become inundated with a noxious smell; he could barely keep his breakfast down. Hours later, two men showed up. “It's not safe to be here,” one said. “You're going to have to leave your house. Now.” Within a half-hour, LaForge’s entire family was at Holiday Inn Express, where they would stay for the next 61 days. “Their lives had been turned upside down by the first major spill of Canadian diluted bitumen in a U.S. river,” McGowan and Song wrote. “Diluted bitumen is the same type of oil that could someday be carried by the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline. If that project is approved, the section that runs through Nebraska will cross the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies drinking water for eight states as well as 30 percent of the nation's irrigation water.” Read more
PLAY OF THE DAY
WHAT REPUBLICANS CAN LEARN FROM BUZZFEED.The Daily Show focused its first segment on immigration reform and, specifically, on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s explanation of the path to citizenship. The Colbert Report on Tuesday examined more of the Republican Party’s outreach toward young voters in its attempt to emulate BuzzFeed (National Journalfirst reported on the efforts). Specifically, host Stephen Colbert looked at a recent post on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s site using disappointed animals to talk about Obama’s health care plan. On TBS, Conan O’Brien went international in citing a recent hack of National Public Radio’s site by the Syrian Electronic Army. Watch it here
REALITY CHECK
DEBUNKING SOME BOSTON FALSEHOODS. In the rush to report breaking news, many outlets passed along bad or incomplete information on the attacks in Boston. Mother Jones magazine rounds up a few of the most egregious, including the fact that there was not a third bomb at the JFK library, there were no other unexploded devices found anywhere else in the city, and that cell-phone service was not shut down by authorities. And, apparently, you can now add “arrest made in case” to the list. Read more
TODAY’S PHOTO GALLERY
MARGARET THATCHER’S FUNERAL.The Independent has a lengthy photo gallery of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. Included are photos of bold-faced names like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Vice President Dick Cheney, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Queen Elizabeth II. See it here. The Daily Beast captures scenes of Thatcher’s funeral procession as it traveled through London. See it here
