Conservative Lawmaker Hopes Hastert Will Act to Block Amnesty Legislation
by Chad Groening
April 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Arizona Congressman has said he will call on Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to use a procedural move to block any Senate bill that contains a guest worker provision. Representative J.D. Hayworth, a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, is pleased that so far, at least, the Senate has failed to pass a bill that would offer amnesty to thousands of illegal aliens. If such a bill is passed, he says he intends to encourage Speaker Hastert to block it by simply not calling for conferees to iron out a final bill with the Senate in a conference committee.
"Quite frankly, I don't believe that Speaker Hastert is under any obligation to name conferees," Hayworth contends. "I would ask him not to because, that way, we don't have to entertain any of the guest worker amnesty talk, which I believe is just absolutely the wrong policy at the wrong time for the wrong reason."
It is entirely possible that one chamber or the other could refuse to name conferees, the congressman points out. "That has happened before," he notes. "That's a way that bills die, quite frankly." However, he says he is so alarmed about the implications of this legislation that he has determined, if the Senate in fact passes this bill, to advocate that Speaker Hastert "just refuse to name conferees so the House does not even have to entertain this notion of a guest worker amnesty."
But if Hastert chooses to appoint conferees anyway, Hayworth suspects there are enough "open borders" Republicans who would join the Democrats in approving a final guest worker amnesty bill. "The Left would vote for this bill in overwhelming numbers," he says, "so you would have the spectacle of a minority in the majority party voting for this type of guest worker legislation and the bulk of the Democrats voting for it."
Hayworth earnestly hopes that vote never happens. He says he believes Republicans will suffer at the ballot box in future elections if they ultimately approve an amnesty bill for so-called "guest workers."
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
