Senate Republicans block more nominees of Obama

BY ALAN FRAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS THE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans blocked a lot of nominations mostly lower by President Barack Obama following the democratic movement of the month past weakening the traditional ability of the minority party block presidential appointments later on Monday.

Action demonstrated that the Republican Party was intent of demanding a price most of the changes of the filibusters Senate Democrats muscled, or procedure slows the minority Senators you can use for nominations delay or kill or invoices.

Showdown on Monday came as the Senate returned to work for the first time since the Democrats made these changes on November 21.

It moved democratic had angered Republicans, because weakened it the capacity of wage filibusters Republicans and Democrats made the change with a simple majority of votes. The Republicans said that Democrats should have been forced to win a two-thirds majority to make the change, which is most commonly used to make important changes rules.

On Monday, Senator Lamar Alexander, R - Tenn., objected to the request of the leader of the majority of the Senate Harry Reid, D - Nev., for the unanimous approval of more than 30 mostly minor appointees.

"Until understand you best how to operate in a Senate without rules, protested, a United States Senator", said Alexander.

Blocked nominees include positions as Undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, a peak for the chemical safety and Hazard Investigation Board. It also included Deborah Lee James, election of Obama to be Secretary of the air force.

Fast approval for those candidates who Reid was seeking required the consent of all senators, by Alexander objections were enough to stop them.

The dispute came to head last month after Republican blocked Obama collects three vacancies for the Court of appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit. The candidates were not included in the Group blocked on Monday.

This Court is very powerful because it governs on the actions of the administration. Its eight judges currently divide evenly among those elected by past democratic and Republican presidents.

When Alexander compared objections from the Republican party to the democratic actions against judges chosen by the President of the Republican Party George W. Bush, Reid said: "this explanation is as flat as a bottle of beer open for six months".

Democrats modifications allow filibusters which was completed by a simple majority of senators, not the 60 votes needed since 1975. The changes apply to almost all candidates, but not affect designated judges of the Supreme Court or the law.

Reid also set in motion votes to end filibusters against Jeh Johnson, elected to lead the Department of Homeland Security and nine minor candidates.

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The Republicans could see Senate primary divisions in 2014

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* Cheney's run renews concerns about party divisions

* In bid to take back Senate, party can afford few missteps

* Tension between party's establishment, Tea Party movement

By John Whitesides

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - Liz Cheney's decision to challenge Wyoming U.S. Senator Mike Enzi in a Republican primary next year sets up the type of divisive, intraparty fight that Republican leaders vowed to avoid after the 2012 elections.

The move this week by Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is unlikely to open the door for a Democrat to win the Senate seat in Wyoming, which is heavily Republican.

But it is rekindling Republicans' concerns that party feuds could lead to a reprise of the 2010 and 2012 elections, when bitter Republican primary fights in several states produced weakened, gaffe-prone nominees who went on to lose winnable races to Democrats - and thwart Republicans' hopes of winning a majority in the Senate.

In next year's elections, Republicans will need a net gain of six seats to take control of the 100-member Senate. Most analysts expect the party to gain some seats - possibly enough to reclaim a majority - but say it cannot afford the types of missteps it has made in the past two elections.

The fields of candidates are still shaping up, but already there are signs of brewing Senate primary fights among Republicans in several states, including Iowa, Georgia and Alaska.

"The Republican path to success in the Senate is pretty narrow. If they lose one or two seats because of a difficult primary, that's a huge problem - and it's possible," said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"They can't afford a lot of unforced errors," she added.

Many Republicans still have painful memories of the last two elections, when contentious primaries produced Senate nominees such as Todd Akin in Missouri, Richard Mourdock in Indiana, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

Each rode the momentum of the conservative Tea Party movement to the Republican nomination, then withered amid campaign-trail missteps. Akin and Mourdock stumbled in 2012 by making controversial comments about rape.

During the 2010 campaign, Angle warned that Islamic law was taking hold in some U.S. cities, while O'Donnell - who previously had acknowledged dabbling in witchcraft - made a commercial to try to assure voters she was not a witch.

In the aftermath of the Republican losses last November, party leaders pledged to cut back on internal squabbling and focus on producing disciplined general election candidates.

Republican strategist Karl Rove announced a new political action committee, the Conservative Victory Project, that would back candidates deemed by party leaders to be the most "electable."

That drew criticism from Tea Party and other conservative groups, whose challenge to party leaders' authority is at the root of much of the tension within the Republican Party.

'FISSURES IN THE PARTY'

Cheney's announcement seemed to reinforce the message that some Republicans were not on board with the party's unification drive.

She implicitly criticized Enzi's sometimes accommodating style, saying on Tuesday that "we can no longer afford simply to go along to get along" - an echo of past party clashes between ideologically driven activists and more moderate party pragmatists.

"I think it's going to open a lot of fissures in the party," former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on MSNBC. "I think this is an insurgent move by Cheney."

Republicans have some clear advantages heading into the 2014 campaign, including a playing field in which Democrats must defend 20 Senate seats to 14 for Republicans.

Democrats also are defending seven seats in states won by Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election - Arkansas, Louisiana, Alaska, South Dakota, North Carolina, Montana and West Virginia.

But the prospect of ugly Republican nominating battles has given Democrats hope. In conservative Georgia, where Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss is retiring, several Republicans including three members of Congress - Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston - already have said they will seek the seat.

In politically divided Iowa, a few little-known Republican contenders are lining up to replace retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. Democrats have rallied around U.S. Representative Bruce Braley as their candidate.

In Alaska, where Republicans are targeting Democratic Senator Mark Begich, Tea Party favorite Joe Miller is facing Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell in a race that could be complicated by the potential entry of another Republican: former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Palin said this month she was "considering" entering the race. Miller defeated Senator Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 Republican primary, only to lose to her in the general election after she mounted a write-in campaign.

SEEKING 'DISCIPLINED' CONSERVATIVES

Other states where competitive Republican primaries could develop include South Dakota - where former Governor Mike Rounds is running for retiring Democrat Tim Johnson's seat - and West Virginia, where conservatives are exploring a challenge to Republican Representative Shelley Moore Capito's bid for the Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Jay Rockefeller.

Two Republican senators who had been considered vulnerable to primary challenges - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - do not have strong primary opponents, but could still get them, analysts say.

Both have drawn the ire of conservatives at times. As his party's leader in the Senate, McConnell has been accused of not pushing a strong enough conservative agenda, while Graham has been criticized for straying from the party line - most recently in backing a plan to overhaul the country's immigration system.

"There is definitely a lot of frustration in the (conservative) grassroots and a real hunger for new leadership in Washington and new blood and new energy in the Senate," said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund. The "Super PAC," or political action committee, once was led by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, an early booster of the Tea Party movement.

Hoskins said the fund was exploring whether to back conservatives in several states, including potential challengers to McConnell and Graham.

"In Kentucky, Republicans would be better off with a different Republican candidate. Mitch McConnell is a very weak general election candidate," Hoskins said.

Polls indicate McConnell is vulnerable in Kentucky, but he has nearly $10 million in campaign funds for his race against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, the secretary of state. McConnell also has formed an alliance with fellow Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite.

Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Rove's PAC, said the party's losses in 2012 had reinforced the need for a more disciplined approach to elections.

That new caution was most evident this year in Iowa, where staunchly conservative Representative Steve King chose not to enter the Senate race after some Republicans expressed concern that his views were out of step with most voters in the state.

"There appears to be a broad recognition now that in order to win general elections, we need high-quality candidates who aren't just conservatives but are also good fundraisers and disciplined campaigners," Collegio said.

But Hoskins said his group was still looking for credible conservatives who could win general elections.

"We have primaries for a reason. Republican voters should have choices and there should be a healthy debate," Hoskins said. "Once you are elected, you aren't entitled to be there forever. It's not a lifetime entitlement." (Editing by David Lindsey and Peter Cooney)

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Delaware Gun Bill Defeated In State Senate

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DOVER, Del. -- A bill that would have expanded the ability of Delaware authorities to prohibit people with mental health issues from having guns was defeated Thursday in the state Senate even after being revised to placate the National Rifle Association and other critics.

Senators voted 13-to-6 Thursday to reject the measure, which was pushed by Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. His father, Vice President Joe Biden, has been spearheading the administration's efforts to expand background checks and pass other gun restrictions since the mass shooting last December at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 dead.

The Delaware legislation had cleared the House with only one dissenting vote.

"I'm very disappointed. This was a commonsense piece of legislation," Beau Biden said. "... I can't explain what happened today in the state Senate."

The bill had been pulled from the Senate agenda Tuesday, but Rep. Michael Barbieri, the chief sponsor, said he was unaware of any problems prior to Thursday's Senate vote.

"I'm pretty shocked, especially since we compromised on our side" said Barbieri, D-Newark. "I thought we had appeased everybody, including the NRA."

After successfully pushing for an amendment to raise the standard of proof for taking away someone's guns, the NRA took a neutral stance on the bill, neither endorsing nor opposing it. The NRA had said it would oppose the bill unless the standard of proof for declaring a person dangerous was changed from "a preponderance of evidence" as initially written, to "clear and convincing evidence."

"We no longer consider the bill a significant threat to law-abiding gun owners," NRA lobbyist Shannon Alford told the Senate.

But lawmakers said they received several calls in opposition to the bill just prior to the vote.

"Today, our phones were flooding," said Senate sponsor Margaret Rose Henry, a Wilmington Democrat. "... It was a grassroots effort at the last minute that really threw things off."

The bill would have required mental health providers, including licensed school counselors, to call police if they believed a person posed a danger to himself or others. Police would investigate and would refer the case to the attorney general's office if they believed the person shouldn't have access to a gun.

The attorney general's office could then ask a judge to prohibit the person from buying or possessing a gun. The judge also could order the seizure of any guns that the person owns.

But some critics feared the legislation would infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms and make it difficult for them to get their guns returned. Some lawmakers also expressed concern that the legislation could discourage people from seeking mental health treatment for fear that their firearms could be seized.

"I think it went beyond what was correct in being able to confiscate someone's guns," said Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson, R-Milford.

Beau Biden described the bill as a direct response to mass shootings such as the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo. The suspect in that shooting, which left 12 people dead and 70 injured, was being seen by a psychiatrist before the attack.

Said Biden: "I'm not giving up on this."

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Michael Froman approved the Senate as United States trade representative

* New USTR will oversee trade negotiations with the EU, Asia and the Pacific

* Froman also faces challenges in India, China trade

* Senator Warren complains about the secret of the trade negotiations of United States

* Ex-USTR Zoellick: the key question is can Froman close deals (adds more quotes, background, signature)

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - the Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to approve the Adviser for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman White House to be the next representative of trade, sending him to the battle of big in Asia and Europe trade negotiations.

Froman, an old friend of President Barack Obama, has already played an important role in the trade policy of the United States in the last four years of his tenure at the White House.

Now moves that work behind the scenes to a prominent role in the Cabinet of Obama, where other large jobs will include manage difficult relationships with China and India and breathing life into moribund world negotiations.

"Mike is smart. Known issues. What is very important, has the confidence of the President, "former representative of Commerce of United States Robert Zoellick, a Republican, said Wednesday in a speech at the Wilson Center, a foreign policy think-tank.

Froman was passed in a vote of 93-4. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, was one of the few senators to vote against it, citing what it called a lack of transparency in trade negotiations in the United States, a complaint of many civil society groups have done in the past.

"Many people are deeply interested in the tracking of the trajectory of the trade negotiations, but if they do not have reasonable access to view terms of bargaining agreements, then they cannot have real input," said Warren.

Froman got strong words of support from President of the Committee of finance Senate Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and Senator Orrin Hatch, top of the Republican group.

"I have full confidence in this man's going to be a great leader..." "It is highly qualified, said hatch.

Senate action came few days after Obama and the leaders of the European Union opened talks on what would become the free trade agreement in the world, the society's proposed transatlantic trade and investment pact.

From now you will preside over the first round of such negotiations, for the week of July 8 in Washington.

United States is also negotiating an agreement of free trade with Japan and 10 other countries in the region of Asia and the Pacific, known as the Pact of transpacific partnership expected to finish by the end of this year.

Froman's legacy will rest on if you can bring these two great negotiations for agreements and gain its approval in Congress.

To ensure the Covenant of Asia and the Pacific and win new opportunities for export to American businesses and farmers, Froman has to make politically difficult decisions that would open the U.S. market to more auto, dairy products, sugar and textile imports.

The United States and the European Union want to finish their negotiations in late 2014, requiring compromise on difficult issues such as European restrictions on the importation of modified crops genetically and other barriers to food safety which Washington says they are not based on scientific evidence.

Froman also faces an early test in Congress to get the approval of the authority of trade promotion, a piece of legislation that many of the companions of the Obama Democrats have opposed in the past.

That law, which expired in 2007, allows the White House to trade to submit tenders to the Congress to vote up or down without amendments.

Approval of the Bill would be a strong signal of support from the Congress for Asia and the Pacific and the EU agreements, helping to bring them to an end.

Concern in the Congress for the massive US trade deficit with China, which reached a record $315 billion in 2012, also pressuring Froman to advance on that front.

In addition, many lawmakers are increasingly frustrated with indigenous policies that block imports of United States and override patent protection for valuable pharmaceutical products in the United States.

In December, Froman will head to Bali for the ninth ministerial of the world Organization of trade in the middle of darkness on the continued viability of that body as a negotiating forum.

With the 12-year-old Doha round of world trade in a dead-end negotiations WTO members are struggling to reach an agreement on a small package of trade agreements to demonstrate that they can produce results. (Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Trott)

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Senate Passes Half-Trillion Dollar Farm Bill

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WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday passed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that expands government subsidies for crop insurance, rice and peanuts while making small cuts to food stamps.

The bill passed on a bipartisan 66-27 vote. The legislation, which costs almost $100 billion annually, also would eliminate subsidies that are paid to farmers whether they farm or not. All told, it would save about $2.4 billion a year on the farm and nutrition programs, including across-the-board cuts that took effect earlier this year.

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the bill would support 16 million American jobs, save taxpayers billions and put into place "the most significant reforms to agriculture programs in decades." But it would still generously subsidize corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, sugar and other major crops grown by U.S. farmers.

The legislation, similar to a bill the Senate passed last year, would also set policy for programs to protect environmentally sensitive land, international food aid and other projects to help rural communities.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday that his chamber will take up its version of the farm bill this month. Debate in the House is expected to be contentious and much more partisan than in the Senate, with disagreements over domestic food aid that makes up almost 80 percent of the bill's cost.

Last year, the House declined to take up the legislation during an election year amid conflict over how much should be cut from the food stamp program, which now serves one in seven Americans and cost almost $80 billion last year. That cost has more than doubled since 2008.

The bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee last month would make much larger cuts to food stamps than the Senate version, in a bid to gain support from those House conservatives who have opposed the measure. The Senate bill would cut the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by about $400 million a year, or half a percent. The House bill would cut the program by $2 billion a year, or a little more than 3 percent, and make it more difficult for some people to qualify.

In his statement Monday, Boehner signaled support for the House bill's level of food stamp cuts, saying they are changes that "both parties know are necessary." Other Republicans are expected to offer amendments to expand the cuts, setting up a potentially even more difficult resolution with the Senate version.

On the Senate floor, senators rejected amendments on food stamp cuts, preserving the $400 million annual decrease. The bill's farm-state supporters also fended off efforts to cut sugar, tobacco and other farm supports.

Senators looking to pare back subsidies did win one victory in the Senate, an amendment to reduce the government's share of crop insurance premiums for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said their amendment would affect about 20,000 farmers.

Stabenow argued the amendment would result in fewer people buying insurance and undercut a separate provision in the bill that would require farmers buying crop insurance to comply with certain environmental standards on their land.

Currently the government pays for an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums and also subsidizes the companies that sell the insurance. The overall bill expands crop insurance for many crops and also creates a program to compensate farmers for smaller, or "shallow," revenue losses before the paid insurance kicks in.

The crop insurance expansion is likely to benefit Midwestern corn and soybean farmers, who use crop insurance more than other farmers. The bill would also boost subsidies for Southern rice and peanut farmers, lowering the threshold for those farms to receive government help.

The help for rice and peanuts was not in last year's bill but was added this year after the agriculture panel gained a new top Republican, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran. Critics, including the former top Republican on the committee, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, said the new policy could guarantee that the rice and peanut farmers' profits are average or above average.

"This bill looks in the rearview mirror for outdated policies that cause the farmer to plant for the government and not the market," Roberts said after the Senate vote.

Other critics said the bill would subsidize large corporate farms when farm country is in the middle of an economic boom. Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group that has long criticized farm subsidies, said the legislation would simply redirect subsidies and "needlessly cut nutrition and conservation programs designed to help the hungry and the environment."

Boehner criticized farm subsidies in the House bill, which are similar to those in the Senate bill, saying his "concerns about our country's farm programs are well known." Boehner, a former member of the agriculture panel, has voted against recent farm bills. But he acknowledged that the rest of the chamber might not agree with him.

"If you have ideas on how to make the bill better, bring them forward," Boehner said in a statement directed to his colleagues. "Let's have the debate, and let's vote on them."

The Senate bill also would:

- Overhaul dairy policy by creating a new insurance program for dairy producers, eliminating other dairy subsidies and price supports. The new policy includes a market stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when oversupply drives down prices. The program faced little opposition in the Senate but a similar overhaul in the House bill is expected to face resistance in that chamber, where Boehner last year called the new stabilization program "Soviet-style." He reiterated those concerns in his statement Monday, saying he will support an amendment on the floor to challenge the proposed policy.

- Make modest changes to the way international food aid is delivered, a much scaled-back version of an overhaul proposed by President Barack Obama earlier this year. Senators adopted an amendment that would slightly boost dollars to buy locally-grown food close to needy areas abroad. Currently, most food aid is grown in the United States and shipped to developing countries, an approach the Obama administration says is inefficient but that has support among farm-state members in Congress.

- Consolidate programs to protect environmentally-sensitive land and reduce spending on those programs.

- Expand Agriculture Department efforts to prevent illegal trafficking of food stamp benefits.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Senate Immigration Debate Shows Party Divisions Ahead Of Vote

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POR DAVID ESPO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Memo a partidarios de la legislación bipartidista hacia el piso del Senado: Asegúrese de que insistir en que los inmigrantes que están ilegalmente en los Estados Unidos tendría que trabajar, aprender inglés, pasar una verificación de antecedentes y, sobre todo, pagar impuestos antes de que podría obtener la ciudadanía.

Destacar que el 100 por ciento de la frontera México-Estados Unidos se pondrá bajo vigilancia, que los inmigrantes que obtener estatus legal no será elegibles para el bienestar "para más de una década" y que quienes ingresen a los Estados Unidos ilegalmente en el futuro se bloquearán de situación jurídica.

No se olvide a los críticos de la etiqueta de la cuenta como defensores de un status quo que es impopular con el público.

Este es el Consejo probado encuesta distribuido a los demócratas del Senado recientemente en una medida que ofrece la mejor oportunidad en años para reformar el sistema de inmigración de la nación, al mismo tiempo le da al Presidente Barack Obama una oportunidad para un triunfo nacional del segundo término hito.

Puede sonar simple, dado que un grupo bipartidista de ocho senadores redactó el proyecto de ley y luego la guiado por el Comité Judicial del Senado; que la casa blanca, el trabajo organizado y la cámara de comercio apoyan la medida; y que muchos estrategas políticos republicanos quieren el GOP para mostrar una bienvenida más cara a los votantes hispanos.

No pasará.

Ambiciones presidenciales sólo contribuirán a ello, como el senador Marco Rubio, por ejemplo, intentos un straddle político mientras otros posibles candidatos presidenciales GOP se oponen firmemente a la medida.

El republicano de Florida ayudó a negociar el proyecto de ley bipartidista encabezada actualmente para el pleno del Senado y recientemente ha pedido cambios mientras intenta mantener la fe con los partidarios del tea party y otros conservadores que votarán en las primarias y caucuses 2016.

Divisiones internas en el partido republicano, profundamente sostenido diferencias sobre la política, las preocupaciones sobre los costos y más añadir a la complejidad de la legislación que ha dicho el líder de la mayoría en el Senado Harry Reid, D -Nevada, proceder a una votación final el 4 de julio.

"En verdad, el proyecto de ley es Amnistía primero y una promesa de cumplimiento más adelante," el Senador Jeff Sessions, R -Alabama, dijo el viernes, previsualizar puntos junto a otros opositores conservadores pretenden hacer durante las próximas tres semanas.

Requisito de la ley para el pago de impuestos atrasados "es ineficaz", las medidas prometidas para asegurar la frontera "no funcionará" y millones de inmigrantes actualmente en el país ilegalmente calificaría para bienestar en cinco años, dijo de sesiones. La medida "realmente debilita la ley actual en varias áreas significativas" cuando se trata de casos de inmigración juzgados en los tribunales, añadió.

Sesiones había ridiculizado la coalición bipartidista detrás de la medida como una colección de grupos externos que no representan los intereses nacionales.

En un reflejo de la división del partido republicano, él discrepó con Karl Rove, el ex estratega superior para el Presidente George Bush para W., cuyo intento de revisión de inmigración flameado hacia fuera en 2007.

Escribiendo recientemente en The Wall Street Journal, Rove advirtió republicanos para ser consciente de sólido apoyo público para fronteras seguras y para un camino a la ciudadanía para aquellos en el país ilegalmente.

Instó a los legisladores del partido republicano para evitar el uso del término "Amnistía", que dijo es "perdón de delito sin pena".

La legislación impone costos financieros a los inmigrantes en el país ilegalmente que buscan la ciudadanía.

En su núcleo polémico, la legislación crea una ruta de 13 años a la ciudadanía para un estimado los 11,5 millones de inmigrantes actualmente en los Estados Unidos ilegalmente. También establece objetivos de seguridad de la frontera que el gobierno debe cumplir antes de cualquier cambio en el estatus legal a los inmigrantes.

Tal como estaba redactado, la legislación también crea un programa de trabajadores invitados poco calificado, amplía el número de visas disponibles para los trabajadores de alta tecnología y quita énfasis lazos familiares en el sistema de inmigración legal que ha tenido lugar durante décadas.

En el fondo son preguntas sobre el impacto económico de la legislación a la vez son altos déficit federales y la economía está montando una lenta recuperación de la recesión.

La oficina de presupuesto del Congreso tiene todavía estimar el impacto de la legislación sobre el déficit, aunque los fanáticos reconocen que los cambios serán necesarios si la Agencia predice en última instancia la medida tendría como resultado tinta adicional roja.

Sesiones y otros dicen que lo hará.

"Puesto que un número abrumador de los trabajadores aquí hoy es calificado de bajo que son ilegales... se puede esperar de sus ingresos a ser baja, clasificará para el crédito tributario por ingresos devengados, para Medicaid y el programa tras programa, estampillas y otros," sesiones dijo el viernes.

Citó un estudio realizado por la conservadora Heritage Foundation, estimando que los costos del gobierno para las personas cuyo estado de residencia se hará legal agregará $6,3 trillones al déficit en más de 50 años.

Sesiones no dicen así, pero el estudio ha sido ampliamente criticado desde la izquierda y derecha. Parcialmente fue escrito por un economista cuyas tesis 2009 afirmaron que los inmigrantes tienen IQs inferiores que la "población indígena blanca" en los Estados Unidos.

También se perfila como el debate se mueve en un escenario más nacional apenas está sumergido las tensiones raciales.

Sesiones y el senador Mike Lee, R-Utah, se refirieron a los viernes. Algunos en el otro lado de la cuestión se refirió a la carrera cuando la casa de control republicano votó el jueves para reanudar la deportación de los inmigrantes que trajo a los Estados Unidos ilegalmente como niños, muchos de ellos procedentes de países de América del sur o Central o México.

Los partidarios de la legislación a veces afirman que sus opositores son "de alguna manera anti-inmigrante, o es una persona infructuosa, que tu corazón está hecho de piedra, que las costillas están hechas de concreto y que no tienes corazón", dijo Lee. Llamó a este tipo de comentarios "debajo de la dignidad" del Senado.

Sesiones dijo: "hay mucho poder detrás de esta legislación. Lo puedo sentir. Cuando plantean cuestiones, viene el retroceso. "Eres cruel. No te gustan los inmigrantes,'"dijo, parafraseando a la crítica.

"Eso es ofensivo para mí."

Los partidarios del enfoque general adoptadas por la legislación hace clara la crítica no va a parar.

"Casa GOP da el proverbial dedo medio a la comunidad Latina con voto" para deportar a los inmigrantes más jóvenes, ex asesor de Obama David Plouffe escribió poco después de que la casa actuado.

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Senate Stacks the Deck Against Reformers in Sexual Assaults Crisis

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?House Republicans set off a firestorm last year when they held a hearing on contraception without inviting any women.

Read the whole story at National Journal