This Issue: Senate Parliamentarian deals another blow to amnesty in budget reconciliation, but issue still very much alive

After Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough last week rejected Democrat plans to insert an amnesty for more than 8 million illegal aliens into its massive budget reconciliation bill, one would think that the issue was finally dead. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Senate Democratic leaders submitted a second amnesty proposal for around 6 million chosen in a different way.

On Wednesday this week, MacDonough responded. She told Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that his alternate amnesty plan -- which would allow green cards to be awarded to illegal aliens who entered the country prior to 2010 -- would violate Senate rules.

Sen. Durbin said he was "disappointed" by the Parliamentarian's ruling, but acknowledged that it was a tough task. However, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) indicated that amnesty supporters in the Senate aren't giving up. He said that they're working on a third amnesty plan to present to the Parliamentarian.

Further, the Parliamentarian has yet to make a ruling on the other provisions in the Democrats' proposal, which, in part, would "recapture" and issue more than 600,000 "unused" green cards dating all they way back to 1992. (In reality, there are no "unused green cards" since any green card that's not issued in a fiscal year automatically rolls over and is issued in the next fiscal year.)

Pelosi refuses to decouple budget reconciliation and infrastructure

Meanwhile, on the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi reversed course twice this week, cancelling a scheduled vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday night.

Back in August, Pelosi sided with the House Progressive Caucus that was demanding that the fate of the bipartisan infrastructure bill be tied to the budget reconciliation bill. But earlier this week, she said that she was decoupling the two bills to make good on a promise to House Moderates to hold a vote on the infrastructure bill this week. Recognizing that she didn't have the votes to pass the infrastructure bill, Pelosi cancelled yesterday's scheduled vote and recommitted to combining the two bills.

Keeping the two bills tied together makes our task of keeping immigration out of budget reconciliation more difficult since amnesty and the green card expansion are top priorities for House Progressives.

Hopeful news

Obviously, the Parliamentarian's ruling this week was good news. It's becoming more apparent that she's not going to allow any sort of amnesty to be included in budget reconciliation. But a word of caution... Senate Democrats can always ignore the Parliamentarian's ruling.

On the House side, Pelosi is working around the clock to put together an outline on budget reconciliation that all Democrats can rally around. Her initial outline includes three priorities -- health care, family issues, and climate change. Missing from the list -- immigration.

Despite these good signs, there's yet to be a single Democrat to publicly say that immigration shouldn't be in the final budget reconciliation bill. Until that happens, we have to assume that Democrats still have enough support in both the House and Senate to include these terrible provisions.

It's important to note that after today, the next House votes aren't scheduled until October 19. But Pelosi can always change the calendar or recall Members back from their break if there's a deal struck on budget reconciliation.

The Senate will remain in session, and our Capitol Hill team is hearing that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) plans to ask for unanimous consent next week to pass his bill that would recapture employment-based green cards that weren't issued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We continue to post new actions on your Action Board, urging your Members of Congress to reject adding immigration provisions to the budget reconciliation bill. Please continue to look for these actions and our action alerts.

Chris Chmielenski NumbersUSA Deputy Director