This Issue: Republican Senators indicate they'll fight to keep amnesty out of budget reconciliation

As Democrats rally support for adding an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens to their budget reconciliation effort, pro-amnesty Republican Senators indicate that they'll fight to keep the amnesty out of the budget bill.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is part of a bipartisan working group that's trying to piece together a compromise bill that would trade an amnesty for additional resources along the border (something NumbersUSA strongly opposes). But Tillis told Politico that Senate Republicans, including those that support amnesty, will fight Senate Democrats if they add it to the budget reconciliation.

"It's something that we would challenge. There's a legitimate question to be asked about whether it's eligible for reconciliation."

This is welcome news, but we hope it doesn't get that far.

We started a massive activism campaign earlier this week urging Senators to oppose any amnesty in the budget reconciliation bill. For most of you, we've posted messages you can send to your Members of Congress. For those of you who have Democratic Senators in swing states, we ask that you apply additional pressure by phoning your Senators.

The budget reconciliation process

Traditionally, budget reconciliation has been used by Congress to make tweaks and to respond to unforeseen circumstances after an annual budget has been approved. The lure of budget reconciliation is that it only requires a simple majority (currently 51 votes) to pass in the Senate instead of the 60 votes required for most legislation. The catch is that budget reconciliation is limited to budgetary issues.

Earlier this year, Democrats attempted to increase the federal minimum wage through the reconciliation process, but the Senate Parliamentarian -- tasked with interpreting Senate rules and procedures -- determined that the minimum wage provision failed to meet the requirements of budget reconciliation.

However, budget reconciliation has been used in recent years to do more than simply tweak the existing budget. Democrats used it back in 2010 to pass the financial reforms associated with Obamacare. Republicans used it in 2017 to pass the Trump tax bill. And Democrats used it earlier this year to pass its stimulus package.

Before Democrats can bring a budget reconciliation bill to the floor, they must first pass a resolution that instructs the committees on what to include in the final bill.

We expect a vote on the resolution before the end of July. That's why your activism over the next few weeks is so important. If we can convince just one Democratic Senator to oppose adding amnesty to the budget reconciliation bill, we win!

Unfortunately, it appears that Democrats are moving forward with their plan to instruct the committees to include an amnesty in the budget reconciliation bill. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told the Wall Street Journal that the House version will include an amnesty for DACA -eligible illegal aliens, illegal aliens who have received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), illegal farmworkers, and illegal "essential" workers. Meanwhile, Bloomberg caught up with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) -- one of the swing state Democrats -- who said he's open to doing amnesty through budget reconciliation.

Again, our hope is that we won't have to rely on a group of Republican Senators who are supportive of amnesty to argue for stripping it out of the budget reconciliation bill. We'd feel a whole lot better if it were not included in the first place. So please continue to watch for our action alerts over the next two weeks and urge your Senators to oppose granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens through budget reconciliation.

Chris Chmielenski NumbersUSA Deputy Director