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Immigration Bill: Final requests -- We're not there yet ( NumbersUSA.Com )
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Subject: Immigration Bill: Final requests -- We're not there yet ( NumbersUSA.Com )
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:03:11 GMT
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http://www.numbersUSA.com
From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Wednesday 27JUN07 3:30 p.m. EDT
Your specialty phone calls this aft and Thurs. morn can still make a
difference
DEAR OPPONENTS OF THE SENATE AMNESTY BILL,
We're still five votes short of winning in tomorrow's cloture vote -- but we
are close on turning around a dozen more votes our way. Right now, it is
possible that we won't get a one of them. So, the outcome is totally up in the
air. You the voters of these Senators' states will make the difference.
AN APPEAL TO THOSE OF YOU WITH SPECIAL TIES TO A SENATOR
1. Are you part of the elites or establishment in your community?
2. Have you given any donations to either of your Senators' campaigns in the
past?
3. Do you have any kind of relationship with the Senators, members of their
staff, local leaders of his/her political party, or somebody who does?
Although most of us are part of the broad public (that tends to be overlooked
by Senators), I know that out of 437,000 activist NumbersUSA members, some of
you in every state have some special connections.
For those of you who do, I appeal with greatest urgency for you to use every
means at your disposal to call your Senator or staff person or political party
leader -- this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow morning.
We are already hearing from a number of you with these kinds of connections
who are making contact. And the effect is powerful.
You cannot overestimate the power of your calling and saying, "I've been a
friend for years .... " or "I'm a financial supporter" or something of that
kind and then talk about your great concern for the political future of this
Senator, as well as for your state, if S. 1639 goes through.
If you call staff or party leaders, there is a high degree of probability that
your message will get through to the Senator before the vote -- if you have
some personal connections to talk about and trade on.
One of you called me this morning and talked about having a one-on-one phone
call with a Senator who voted YES yesterday on the amnesty cloture. That
Senator seemed gravely troubled to hear the deep opposition to the bill from
somebody who was a real supporter of his.
A number of old Washington pundits have commented lately -- and I heard this
at an anti-amnesty strategy meeting on the Hill at breakfast this morning --
that when the Establishment all lines up for something, it always wins.
That generally is true. But we are on the verge of something unprecedented, if
we can win tomorrow. What will make a real difference if these Senators can
see that not all the Establishment is lined up on the other side. For all
their arrogance, most Senators tend to give Establishment figures in their
state as much weight as the ones in New York, California and Washington who
run the national scene.
TAKE YOUR ACTIONS
ACTION 1: Phone Your Senators
Senate Switchboard: 202-224-3121
All phone numbers and addresses for your state's two Senators:
www.NumbersUSA.com/myMembers
All DC and local phone numbers for all Senators:
http://www.numbersusa.com/congressinfo/
2. ACTION 2: Fax Your Senators
www.NumbersUSA.com/actionbuffet
IF YOU DON'T HAVE SPECIAL CONNECTIONS BUT WANT TO MAKE A SPECIAL PHONE CALL
Our lobbying team is going from office to office all day and then swinging
back around to catch changes as they happen. What they are hearing over and
over in some of these offices is that their bosses wouldn't mind finding a way
out of this m ess and vote NO to get their constituents off their back.
Here is what I want you to consider and then start making phone calls to DC
and locally ...
If you have been a supporter of a Senator and sincerely like the Senator on
other issues, call and say that. Speak in a concerned tone -- not an angry
tone. Talk about how while you disagree with the Senator's thought that this
bill deserved a chance for debate on the floor, you can understand that to be
an arguable position.
But note that the process today is not a debate and is not an amendments
process. Instead, amendments are routinely being tabled before any real
debate. It is clear that this is a closed process.
Tell the staffers that the Senator has every option now of telling powerful
supporters of the bill that the process was just too flawed to move forward
and that the voters are overwhelmingly against it.
MOST IMPORTANT REPUBLICAN S WING SENATORS TO CALL
We don't appear to have promises from any of the following Senators, yet.
They are the ones who voted NO and helped kill the Kennedy/Bush amnesty early
this month but who voted YES on cloture yesterday to allow this bill back on
the floor.
Some of these may look impossible, but our lobbyists say every one of these
could turn back to NO tomorrow (after all, they voted NO earlier this month).
Alaska: Sen. Ted Stevens, Sen. Lisa Murkowski
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you may want to help the rather small
contingent of NumbersUSA activist in this state.
Arizona: Sen. Jon Kyl
Idaho: Sen. Larry Craig
Kentucky: Sen. Mitch McConnell
Maine: Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Olympia Snowe
Minnesota: Sen. Norm Coleman
Mississippi: Sen. Trent Lott
Missouri: Sen. Kit Bond
New Hampshire: Sen. Judd Gregg
Nevada: Sen. John Ensign < br>
North Carolina: Sen. Richard Burr
Utah: Sen. Bob Bennett
Virginia: Sen. John Warner
MOST IMPORTANT DEMOCRATIC SWING SENATORS TO CALL
Voted NO earlier this month but YES on cloture yesterday.
Arkansas
Sen. Pryor, Mark (DEM)
217 Russell Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510
(202-224-2353)
500 President Clinton Avenue,
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501-324-6336)
California
Sen. Boxer, Barbara (DEM)
SH-112,
Washington, DC 20510
(202-224-3553)
600 B Street - Suite 2240,
San Diego, CA 92101
(619-239-3884)
1130 O Street,
Fresno, CA 93721
(559-497-5109)
1700 Montgomery Street - Suite 240,
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415-403-0100)
201 North E Street - Suite 210,
San Bernardino, CA 92401
(909-888-8525)
501 I Street,
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916-448-2787)
312 North Spring Street - Suite 1748,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213-894-5000)
New Mexico
Sen. Bingaman, Jeff (DEM)
SH-703,
Washington, DC 20510
(202-224-5521)
118 Bridge Street - Suite 3,
Las Vegas, NM 87701
(505-454-8824)
Loretto Town Centre,
Las Cruces, NM 88001
(505-523-6561)
105 West Third Street - Suite 409,
Roswell, NM 88201
(505-622-7113)
625 Silver Avenue SW. - Suite 130,
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505-346-6601)
119 East Marcy - Suite 101,
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505-988-6647)
Virginia
Sen. Webb, James (DEM)
Russell Senate Office Bldg.,
Washington, DC 20510
(202-224-4024)
222 Central Park Ave.,
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
(757-518-1674)
3140 Chaparral Drive,
Roanoke, VA 24018
(540-772-4236)
507 East Franklin Street,
Richmond, VA 23219
(804-771 -2221)
THE GOOD ONES -- MOST NEED YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT TO RESIST SPECIAL INTEREST AND
WHITE HOUSE LAST-MINUTE LOBBYING
These Senators voted NO against the amnesty cloture yesterday.
Keep thanking them and reminding them why this bill must die.
SENATE DEMOCRATS
Baucus,Max (MT)
Bayh,Evan (IN)
Byrd,Robert (WV)
Dorgan,Byron (ND)
Landrieu,Mary (LA)
McCaskill,Claire (MO)
Rockefeller,John (WV)
Stabenow,Debbie (MI)
Tester,Jon (MT)
Sanders,Bernie (VT) -- Independent
SENATE REPUBLICANS
Alexander,Lamar (TN)
Allard,Wayne (CO)
Bunning,Jim (KY)
Chambliss,Saxby (GA)
Coburn,Tom (OK)
Cochran,Thad (MS)
Corker,Bob (TN)
Cornyn,John (TX)
Crapo,Michael (ID)
DeMint,James (SC)
Dole,Elizabeth (NC)
Enzi,Mic hael (WY)
Grassley,Charles (IA)
Hatch,Orrin (UT)
Hutchison,Kay Bailey (TX)
Inhofe,James (OK)
Isakson,Johnny (GA)
Roberts,Pat (KS)
Sessions,Jeff (AL)
Shelby,Richard (AL)
Smith,Gordon (OR)
Sununu,John (NH)
Thune,John (SD)
Vitter,David (LA)
MORE BACKGROUND
Thanks to all of you who have already responded to our nearly two dozen
separate fax and phone action alerts that we've sent out in various groupings
since the Senate voted yesterday to reconsider the Kennedy/Bush amnesty bill
(S. 1639).
Check out your customized Action Buffet corkboard to be sure you have done all
you can do to influence the Thursday vote.
I hope you have been consulting our home page at www.Numb ersUSA.com
throughout the day and evening as our legislative team has kept you informed
of every step as it has happened.
MEANINGLESSNESS OF THE AMENDMENT VOTES
On our Senate Vote Day Page on the website, you will not see our customary
listing of NumbersUSA positions on the amendments. Rosemary sent out a
statement to all Senate offices yesterday explaining our position:
Because the amendment process is a sham and because no
amendment could improve S. 1639 enough to make it worth
supporting (even if the amendment could survive a rigged
conference), neither NumbersUSA nor Americans for Better
Immigration will be taking a position on any amendment or
scoring the vote on any mendment. Thus, your votes on
amendments will not be able to make up for a “yea” vote
on cloture.
NumbersUSA and our sister organization, Amer icans for Better Immigration,
will score today’s cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the immigration
bill as if it were a vote on final passage of the underlying bill. While we
normally would not give a procedural vote the same weight as a vote on
passage, it should be apparent to all that such action is warranted in this
case for the following reasons:
In its consideration of the underlying bill, the Senate has bypassed normal
procedure at every turn—no hearings on the bill were held; no committee ever
considered it; the amendment process was stifled by a cloture vote;
The underlying bill, with its instant amnesty for illegal aliens, its
unenforceable “guest” worker program for low-skill cheap labor, and its
meaningless triggers, has already been debated on the Senate floor and,
knowing that the vast majority of Americans opposes the bill, 50 Senators
voted to let it die;
The bill has been resuscitated at the insistence of President Bush, who
promises to hold enforcement hostage to amnesty, and the handful of Senators
who drafted it behind closed doors only to once again bypass regular order,
stifle any real debate, and ram it down America’s throat;
The amendment process being orchestrated by Senate leadership and the bill’s
drafters is a sham*—the drafters have rigged the process by allowing only
those amendments they hand picked to be offered and Senators Reid and Kenedy
have made clear that, in the unlikely event that any amendment they oppose is
passed, they will simply strip it out in conference;
In their desperation to convince 60 Senators to ignore their constituents and
pass this bill, White House officials have been on the Hill attempting to buy
votes for cloture; and
In order to ensure that the Senators who represent the American people on this
issue will not have a chance to change the outcoe purchased by the White
House, the majority party intends to use a procedural tool—the clay pigeon,
designed to protect the rights of the minority party—to shut out the bill’s
opponents.
For these reasons, your vote on cloture today will be scored and will be given
the same weight as a vote on the underlying amnesty bill.
For the rest of your career, your constituents will see your vote reflected in
your profile at http://profiles.numbersusa.com/ and in your immigration grade
at http://congressgrades.com/reportcardintro.html.
THANKS,
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