The E-Verify amendment did not make it to the Senate floor yesterday, and the authorization and funding has expired.
However, the Appropriations Bill was not passed and the debate will continue on Monday. This means that the amendment #604 by Jeff Sessions (R-AL) can still be brought to the floor if the Democrats allow. We must continue to contact our Senators to push for reauthorization of E-Verify.

Regarding my calls to Ohio Senators George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown:
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – I called his Washington number, 1-202-224-2315, and after a couple rings it forwarded to a recorded response stating that the Senator was receiving a large volume of calls and if I wanted to comment I should go to his website. There was no other option, and the call was disconnected. I DID leave a pleasant message on his website.

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) – I called his Washington number, 1-202-224-3353, and after a couple rings received a recorded response stating that the Senator was receiving a large volume of calls, but my call was important, and to please hold on the line and someone would be with me shortly. After about three minutes an aid answered the phone and asked if he could help me. This aid was very helpful and very well informed. He was well aware of the situation with E-Verify, and even gave me some additional information and said that Senator Voinovich has supported E-Verify from its inception. He informed me that the Republicans in the Senate had every intention of bringing Senator Sessions’ amendment to the floor on Monday. He assured me that if the amendment was allowed to reach the floor and passed that it would be funded. I have had many disagreements in the past with Senator Voinovich, but since he announced his retirement after the current term, he has come forward on the right side of several important issues.

Senator Reid and many Democrats are still trying to block this from reaching the floor. We need to keep up the pressure on all of the senators to bring this to the floor for a vote. Please continue to call both of your senators, and also call Senator Reid and other Democrats that are blocking this amendment.

Background link: Do Not Let E-Verify Expire

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 11:25 am and is filed under Congress / Senate, Legislation, Take Action.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.