By Micheal E. Hill
Friday, October 16, 2009  -  8:35 am EDT

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) yesterday revised a census and immigration status amendment that he originally offered last week so that instead of requiring the Census Bureau to ask every person in the United States about their citizenship and immigration status, the Bureau would only have to ask persons about their citizenship status.  Despite the revision, the amendment is still expected to be vigorously opposed by the Administration, as well as by much of the immigrant, civil rights, and minority communities. 

In a Thursday, October 15, 2009, Senate floor speech that he gave upon announcing the revision of his amendment, Senator Vitter indicated that he intends to use the information gleaned from the census questions that his amendment would mandate to deny representation in the U.S. House of Representatives to noncitizens. 

The Vitter amendment is pending to the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (C-J-S Appropriations Bill).  The Senate took up the bill last week.  However, the Senate Democratic Leadership has pulled it from the Senate floor until next week or later.  The Democratic Leadership pulled the bill from the Senate floor, in part, in order to avoid a vote on the Vitter amendment.

Prior to Senator Vitter's revision of his amendment, Senate insiders had suggested that the C-J-S Appropriations bill would likely remain in limbo until the Democratic Leadership can assemble 60 votes to shut off debate and prevent a vote on the Vitter amendment.  Some insiders are now predicting that the bill may never again be brought to the Senate floor and that the Leadership may, instead, fold fiscal year 2010 appropriations for the three affected departments into an omnibus spending measure.

The original version of the census and immigration status amendment was offered by Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) on Wednesday, October 7, 2009.  The specter of a vote on it has dominated the Senate's consideration of the C-J-S Appropriations bill since then. 

Other immigration-related amendments have been filed to the measure, as well.  They include an amendment by Senator Sessions on the E-Verify program, and separate amendments by Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) to increase funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).

The Senate Democratic Leadership is holding out the threat of invoking cloture on the C-J-S Appropriations bill, a process that would shut down debate and place mandatory limits on the amendments that can be offered, as leverage during the negotiations.  However, on his first try to invoke cloture on the bill earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) fell three votes short of the 60 votes he needed.  Three Democatic senators were absent during yesterday's cloture vote.  Majority Leader Reid could bring up the cloture motion for a re-vote at any time if the three senators who were absent during yesterday's vote become available for a re-vote.

Should the Senate invoke cloture on H.R. 2847, the only amendments that could be offered to the bill are amendments that were pre-filed and are germane to the bill.  This restriction could result in several immigration-related amendments to H.R. 2847 being barred from the Senate floor.  Among the amendments that likely would be barred is the Vitter/Bennett census and immigration status amendment.

If cloture is not invoked on H.R. 2847 and there is no agreement in place to voluntarily limit amendments, the bill would be open to amendment with only the narrowest rules of germaneness limiting amendments.

Depending on the parliamentary sitaution that the Senate faces when it resumes consideration of the measure, the Senate could take up any of the following immigration-related amendments to the bill:

Click Here to see a copy of the original Vitter/Bennett Census and Immigration Status Amendment

Click Here to see the text of the revised Vitter/Bennett Census and Immigration Status Amendment

Click Here to read a related story...