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The CMSC ends its 7th year wishing you happy holidays and a prosperous new year.
Here is a recap of recent news & events.
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Why Chuck Schumer declined to gamble on a government shutdown.
By Jim Newell ~ Slate ~ Dec. 22, 2017
When 18 Senate Democrats joined Republicans to pass a short-term spending bill on Thursday, it marked yet another day of disappointment for Dreamers and their allies in Congress.
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, a dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus had marched across the Capitol to Sen. Chuck Schumer's office, asked his receptionist for a meeting, and soon found themselves in a room with the minority leader. The topic was finding a fix for DACA recipients before adjourning for the year-a pledge Democrats made to the so-called Dreamers in September, after President Trump announced plans to end the program that shields children of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
"We were clear," Illinois Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, perhaps the most outspoken advocate for Dreamers in Congress, said after the meeting. "You cannot put [Dreamers], Mr. Schumer, on a pedestal, take them to the Democratic convention, and then not give them the same kind of legislative importance moving forward."
The Hispanic Caucus, Dreamers, activists, and progressives are furious that another must-pass spending bill will move through Congress without a DACA fix attached.
There was no fix in the September short-term spending bill, there wasn't one in the two-week spending bill that passed on Dec. 8, and there isn't one in the four-week spending bill that the House introduced Thursday before government funding was set to expire on Friday night.
Democratic leaders say they used "end of the year" as shorthand for when the full, long-term appropriations bill would pass and did not anticipate that there would be another short-term bill kicking the process into January. But they now have to live by their miscalculation. A DACA fix will not come out of Congress by the end of the year.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has stood her ground, whipping her conference to vote against the bill if the DREAM Act and other priorities weren't included in the bill. Pelosi herself, along with Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, testified before the House Rules Committee on Thursday morning, urging the committee to amend the spending bill to include the DREAM Act. It did not. The bill passed the House on Thursday afternoon, 231 to 188. Though 14 Democrats eventually voted for it, they withheld their votes until it was clear Republicans could reach a majority without their help. Read Full Article.
