Contact: Kurt Heath 202.225.3671

Washington, Aug 6, 2007 - Before Congress adjourned for the August recess, the new Democrat majority managed to do what no Congress in 218 years of Congressional history has ever done: erase a vote from the record because it didn’t like the outcome.

Though it’s an infamous accomplishment that no Democrat will tout to voters back home, the fiasco that unfolded on the House floor earlier this month is instructive for the American people. Democrat leadership brazenly disenfranchised American citizens to ensure that illegal immigrants can receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.

If you think I’m engaging in partisan exaggeration, consider for yourself the relevant facts.

During debate on the 2008 Agriculture spending bill, Republicans offered an amendment to prevent any taxpayer funds from being used to provide housing or employment to illegal immigrants—a commonsense proposal that most Americans support. When the vote officially closed, Republicans had narrowly won the vote with the help of like-minded Democrats.

For 218 years, this would have been the end of the story  -- no taxpayer subsidies for illegal immigrants…that is, until now.

Upset that the proposal appealed to enough of rank and file Democrats to pass the House, Democrat leaders broke long established House rules by reopening the vote and strong-arming their own members until enough of them switched to change the outcome.  

Never…I repeat…never in history has a vote ever been officially closed and then reopen so the majority could change the outcome.  Aware that their actions could rightly be interpreted as an unprecedented abuse of power, Democrat leaders even had the events surrounding the agriculture bill fiasco scrubbed from the public record.

Breaking the rules to protect welfare benefits for illegal immigrants wasn’t the first time the new Democrat majority had broken Speaker Pelosi’s election-year promise to run "the most honest, the most open, and the most ethical congress in history." It simply represents a perfect storm of quickly acquired political arrogance and bad policy.  That storm has been gaining strength since Democrats took power in January.

Despite promising open and honest government, House Democrat leadership has consistently crafted large bills in the wee hours of the morning, made them public only hours before a vote, given lawmakers little time to review the proposals, and routinely barred the minority from offering amendments.  In the seven months since regaining the majority, stealth legislating has become the way Democrats do “business.”

Stealth legislating, of course, is particularly useful if you don’t want Americans to know what’s in the bills being passed by Congress.  And nowhere is it proving more useful to Democrats than on policies related to illegal immigration. 

Since most Americans are opposed to giving illegal immigrants taxpayer-funded benefits, like food stamps, housing assistance, Social Security and healthcare benefits, Democrat leaders, who support amnesty, are attempting to quickly and quietly slip illegal-immigrant friendly policies into larger bills.   The mad dash to finish several bills before the August break provided the perfect opportunity.

Just prior to the agriculture bill fiasco, for instance, Democrats rushed a 500-page bill to the House floor to expand a government-run healthcare program.  Tucked away in that measure was a provision providing taxpayer-funded health insurance to illegal immigrants – not to mention $157 billion in Medicare cuts for seniors including 40,000 District 15 seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, and taxpayer funded health care subsidies for adults in New Jersey making $83,000 per year.  No wonder Democrats bypassed the normal legislative process and put the finishing touches on the 500 page bill in the middle of the night, just hours before bringing it to the House floor for an up or down vote.

A few day’s later, Democrats proposed the 2008 Agriculture bill with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for benefits, including rental assistance, to illegal immigrants.

When a bipartisan majority - small as it was - wisely blocked this blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars, Democrat leaders couldn’t resist the urge to tinker with a 218-year process that has served this nation well.

As usual, a complicit media has largely been AWOL in reporting the latest, most outrageous Democrat misdeed.  But the American people have a right to know the lengths some of their elected officials will go to spend their taxpayer dollars on subsidies for illegal immigrants.