California Congresswoman Linda Sánchez and New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, two Democrats with past experience crafting immigration policy, introduced a Biden Administration backed proposal in the House and Senate today that would reshape U.S. immigration laws and allow millions of immigrants living in the country without authorization to obtain legal status. The plan would not benefit new arrivals, as all prospective applicants would need to prove they were in the U.S. before January 1, 2021. The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be allowed to issue humanitarian waivers to this requirement for immigrants deported during the Trump administration as long as they prove they lived in the U.S. for at least three years before their deportation. The proposal would create a two-tier legalization program which would automatically make farmworkers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children eligible for green cards. After three years, they could apply to become U.S. citizens. All other eligible unauthorized immigrants would be able to request temporary deportation relief and work permits while being placed on an eight-year pathway towards U.S. citizenship. Petitioners would all need to undergo background and national security checks, as well as file taxes and pay application fees. The bill will reflect priorities outlined by President Biden in an executive order on his first day in office. The President also signed an executive action terminating the state of emergency at the southern border, declared by former President Donald Trump, and pausing border wall construction projects. On a call with reporters Wednesday evening, Biden administration officials previewed the legislation.
Also today, President Biden will direct his administration to conduct a review of key U.S. supply chains including semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, medical supplies and rare earth metals. The assessment, which will be led by members of both Biden’s economic and national security teams, will analyze the “resiliency and capacity of the American manufacturing supply chains and defense industrial base to support national security [and] emergency preparedness.” The text of the executive order is being finalized and the ultimate language could vary from the current draft. The White House also plans to review gaps in domestic manufacturing and supply chains that are dominated by or run through “nations that are or are likely to become unfriendly or unstable.”
The Federal Reserve repeated in minutes of its January meeting released on Wednesday that fiscal and monetary policy in a pandemic cannot by themselves throttle a pathogen. It will take ample supplies of vaccines and herd immunity to return to a semblance of normalcy. Vaccines, masks and social distancing, mixed with aid from Congress, could improve the economic outlook the FED said, underscoring the need for quick passage of the COVID relief legislation. In the House, Democrats put the Biden stimulus on a 10-day fast track for a House vote. After, several House committees advanced portions of the bill last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) told members on Tuesday that he plans for the bill to be considered on the House floor next week, likely on February 26th. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has said that she will send the bill to the Senate as soon as it passes the House. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is looking for ways to speed up the process once the bill reaches him, which include bypassing Senate Finance Committee approval for parts of the bill in order to get the legislation to Biden before federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14. But Senate consideration may slow the process as the Senate parliamentarian scrutinizes provisions such as a minimum wage hike for their compliance with the rules of the reconciliation process. The minimum wage increase in the bill would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, a long-sought goal for progressives that has drawn opposition from Republicans and some Senate Democrats. The House Democratic measure would raise the wage gradually from $7.25 to $15 per hour in 2025. Two Democratic senators, Senators Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), oppose the hike. Manchin has expressed support for a smaller increase, while Sinema has said she doesn’t think it’s appropriate for any minimum wage increase to be included in the relief measure. There are also questions about whether the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, will allow the minimum wage increase to be included in a budget reconciliation bill. In reconciliation legislation, every provision has to be directly related to the budget and can’t have a budgetary impact that’s “merely incidental” to its non-budgetary aspects. Key Senate Democrats are hopeful that MacDonough will rule in their favor, but other lawmakers and budgetary-policy experts are skeptical.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
