This Week on the Hill
Week of July 27, 2020
(Last Updated: Friday, July 31, 2020 at 8:41 am EDT)
ThisWeekInImmigration.Com's "This Week on the Hill" page lists the immigration-, human trafficking-, and refugee-related hearings, markups, and floor actions that either have been officially scheduled or that are anticipated to occur during the current week.
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U.S. House of Representatives
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U.S. Senate
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Bicameral
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Non-Governmental
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This Week's Hearings and Briefings
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
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Anticipated Witnesses: Scheduled to testify at the hearing is Attorney General William Barr.
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Anticipated Witnesses: Scheduled to testify at the hearing are Curtis Brown, State Coordinator of Emergency Management, Virgina Department of Emergency Management Testifying on Behalf of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management; Chad Higdon, CEO, Second Harvest Community Food Bank; Marcie Roth, Executive Director and CEO, World Institute on Disability; and Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition.
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Anticipated Witnesses: Scheduled to testify at the hearing are Ms. Anjana Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Polaris; Mr. Matthew Daggett, Technical Staff, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Ms. Emily Kennedy, President and Co-Founder, Marinus Analytics
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
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Anticipated Witnesses: At the time of this writing, it appeared that two panels of witnesses would appear before the Committee. One witness will testify on the first panel: Joseph Edlow, Deputy Director for Policy U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joe Edlow. The second panel will include Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, Director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association; Michael Knowles, President of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924; Doug Rand, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists; and Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
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Anticipated Witnesses: Scheduled to testify at the hearing are Former Census Director Vincent Barabba; Census Director Steven Dillingham; John Eastman, law professor and community service director at the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and senior fellow at the Claremont Institute; Former Census Director Kenneth Prewitt; and Former Census Director John Thompson.
This Week's Markups and Business Meetings
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
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Wednesday, July 29, 2020
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This Week's Floor Actions
Monday, July 27, 2020
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Summary of Bill. As introduced, H.R. 2420 would establish the National Museum of the American Latino in the Smithsonian Institution.
The purposes of the museum would be to (1) illuminate Latino contributions to the story of the United States; (2) provide for the collection, study, research, publication, and establishment of exhibitions and programs related to Latino life, art, history, and culture; and (3) provide for collaboration with Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers and other museums and educational institutions in the United States and abroad to promote the study and appreciation of Latino life, art, history, culture, and its impact on society in the United States.
The bill would establish a Board of Trustees for the museum to advise and assist the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian on all matters related to the administration and preservation of the museum.
The Director of the museum would be required to manage the museum and authorized to carry out educational and liaison programs in support of its goals.
The Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services would be required to establish and carry out specified grant programs and a scholarship program, including a grant program to promote the understanding of the Latin American diaspora in the United States.
The Board of Regents would be required to designate a site for the museum and would be authorized to design and construct it.
Parliamentary Situation. The House will take up H.R. 2420 under a procedure known as “suspension of the rules,” under which debate is limited to 40 minutes, no floor amendments to the measure are permitted, and the bill must receive the affirmative votes of at least two-thirds of those Members who are present and voting in order to be passed.
Outlook. The House is expected to pass H.R. 2420 with little or no opposition.
Thursday, July 30, 3030 through Friday, July 31, 2020
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Together, each year these bills fund the federal government's refugee resettlement, unaccompanied alien children, trafficking victim assistance, and torture victim assistance -related agencies, programs, functions, and activities; and its immigration court-related agencies, programs, functions, and activities.
Also included in the package is the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense Appropriations Act, which includes a significant immigration provision.
The House will begin consideration of the package on Thursday, July 30, 2020, and continue its consideration of the measure throughout the remainder of the week.
Legislative History. The package that the House will take up will use the bill number H.R. 7617. However, the House Committee on Rules has consolidated seven bills that the House Committee on Appropriations has reported to the House under that bill number..
For the purposes of House floor consideration of the measure, the package is divided into seven divisions:
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Division A is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7617, the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Thursday, July 16, 2020.
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Division B is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7667, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Thursday, July 16, 2020.
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Division C is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7613, the Fiscal Year 2021 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
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Division D is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7668, the Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Friday, July 17, 2020.
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Division E is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7669, the Fiscal Year 2021 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Monday, July 20, 2020. However, that bill is expected to be stripped from the package just before the House takes it up.
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Division F is comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7614, the Fiscal Year 2021 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
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Division G s comprised of the text of the House Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 7616, the Fiscal Year 2021 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which the Committee reported to the House on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
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Amendment Process. At the time of this writing, the precise process the House will use to consider amendments to the package had not yet been determined. In all likelihood, the House Committee on Rules will meet, assess amendments that Members wish to offer to the package, and approve a list that likely will include 200 or more permissible amendments. Generally, each amendment in such a scenario is debatable for ten minutes, with that time being equally divided between the proponent and an opponent of the amendment.
The House is expected to take up 340 floor amendments to the measure. Of those, the following migration-related floor amendments are expected to be made in order to the bill:
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GOSAR WALL AMENDMENT. Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has submitted and offered Gosar Amendment 22, an amendment to Division A that would strike a provision prohibiting funds appropriated to the Department of Defense from being used to construct a wall, fence, border barriers, or border security infrastructure along the southern border.
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MILLER WALL AMENDMENT. Representative Carol Miller (R-WV) has submitted and offered Miller Amendment 61 to Division A that would strike a provision that would prohibit construction at the southern border, including roads, the border wall, fence, or barrier.
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GOSAR WALL AMENDMENT. Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has submitted and offered Gosar Amendment 14 to Division C, an amendment that would strike a provision which prohibits funds for the Civil Works Program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers from being used to design or construct a wall, fence, border barriers, or border security infrastructure along the southern border.
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MENG UNDOCUMENTED IN CENSUS AMENDMENT. Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) has submitted and offered Meng Amendment 33 to Division B, an amendment that would prohibit use of funds made available by this Act to implement, administer, or enforce the Presidential Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census, issued on July 21, 2020.
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TLAIB DNA COLLECTION FOR DETAINEES AMENDMENT. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has submitted and offered Tlaib Amendment 80 to Division B, an amendment that would prohibit funds from being used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to implement, administer, or enforce the DOJ rule requiring DNA collection from immigration detainees.
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ESPAILLAT UAC AMENDMENT. Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has submitted and offered Espaillat Amendment 29 to Division F, an amendment that would prohibit the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from contracting with any for-profit contractor for the purposes of housing unaccompanied children (UAC).
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ESCOBAR COVID-19 IN BORDER REGION AMENDMENT. Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX) has submitted and offered Escobar Amendment 56 to Division F, an amendment that would increase and then decrease funding by $1 million in the Office of the Secretary account to urge the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission to develop and implement a bi-national strategy to address COVID-19 in the border region.
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ESCOBAR SUSPENION OF TRAVEL AT BORDER AMENDMENT. Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX) has submitted and offered Escobar Amendment 109 to Division F, an amendment that would prohibit funds from being used to implement or enforce the restrictions under the rule entitled, ‘‘Order Under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service Act; Order Suspending Introduction of Certain Persons From Countries Where a Communicable Disease Exists (42 U.S.C. 265, 268)’’ at the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.
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ALLEN ACROSS-THE-BOARD-CUT AMENDMENT. Representative Rick Allen (R-GA) has submitted and offered Allen Amendment 53 to Division F, an amendment that would reduce funds made available in Division F by 5 percent.
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JACKSON LEE TRAFFICKING AMENDMENT. Representative Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) has submitted and offered Jackson Lee Amendment 21 to Division A, an amendment that would increase and then decrease the Department of Defense Military Retirement Fund by $2 million to provide the Secretary of Defense the flexibility needed for technical assistance for U.S. military women to military women in other countries combating violence targeting women and children as a weapon of war, terrorism, human trafficking, and narcotics trafficking.
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HORSFORD CITIZENSHIP DATA AMENDMENT. Representative Steven Horsford (D-NV) has submitted and offered Horsford Amendment 23 to Division B, an amendment that would nullify the effect of the recent executive order that requires Federal agencies to share citizenship data.
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Outlook. The package contains many controversial provisions that will severely limit the number of Republican votes (if any) it will receive. Consequently, the House Democratic Leadership will have to rely almost exclusively on Democratic votes to pass the measure. The Leadership pulled the Homeland Security Appropriations Act from the package because it believed that a significant number of liberal Democrats would not vote for a package that included that measure in it. It is questionable whether the right balance has been achieved in the remaining provisions to win the votes of 216 Democrats. Apparently, the Leadership believes that balance has been achieved or it would not bring the measure to the House floor for a vote.
This Week's Hearings and Briefings
Thursday, July 30, 2020
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Anticipated Witnesses: Scheduled to testify at the hearing is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
This Week's Markups and Business Meetings
No Scheduled Immigration-, Human Trafficking, or Refugee-Related Markups or Business Meetings
This Week's Floor Actions
No Scheduled Immigration-, Human Trafficking, or Refugee-Related Floor Activity
Hearings, Briefings, and Conference Committee Actions
No Scheduled Immigration-, Human Trafficking, or Refugee-Related Legislative Activity