Amnesty Bill’s Lack of Accountability Talking Points

I. THE PROCESS IS BROKEN (GENERAL WEEKLY TALKING POINTS)

  • Too Rushed: Congress needs more time to read and review the bill.  We also need more hearings and opportunities for feedback to improve the current legislation.  We need more than empty promises and superficial explanation from the Senate sponsors.  The Senate Judiciary Committee has already passed this bill out of committee and it is now heading to the full Senate for a vote.
  • Lack of Transparency: This bill is another “behind-closed-doors” piece of legislation that was written by special-interest lobbying groups.
  • Lack of Accountability: This amnesty bill gives too much discretion and power to an unelected official (the Secretary of Homeland Security) and also creates an unmanageable bureaucracy.  In early May, the IRS admitted that some of its agents had harassed tax-exempt organizations, including tea party groups. That incident is a reminder of why we need more control over the Executive Branch and unelected government officials.
  • Security First: The first step for any immigration legislation under consideration MUST be national security.  We have heard over and over that Congress is going to get serious about securing the border, and yet there is no accountability for their continued failure to get this done. Border security must be a top priority for any immigration legislation because we cannot afford another broken promise on border security.
  • Fiscal Responsibility: We do not yet know the true cost of this legislation.

 

II. THERE IS VERY LITTLE ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE SENATE AMNESTY BILL (SPECIFIC WEEKLY TALKING POINTS)

  • The Senate amnesty bill gives unelected bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security too much discretion over how to implement a border security strategy.
  • Bureaucrats at DHS are unelected, and are entirely unaccountable to the American public.  Unlike elected officials who must account for their actions, the bureaucrats in the federal government are entirely separated from any recourse from voters.
  • The recent IRS scandal highlights just how dangerous it is for unelected bureaucrats to be in the position to exercise their own discretion.  Federal bureaucrats cannot be trusted with our private and sensitive tax information.  Likewise, they cannot be trusted with our border security.
  • S. 744, the Senate amnesty bill, gives the Secretary of DHS the authority to decide when and even if she will expand the fence along the border.  The fence is our best strategy for securing the border, yet the Senate bill completely fails to make the fence a requirement.
  • Issues of national security are simply too important to be handed off to unelected bureaucrats.  Members of Congress need to be fully accountable for the consequences of this bill, but instead they are shirking their duties and handing their work off to unelected officials.
  • One of the pillars of a constitutionally limited government is accountability.  The Senate amnesty bill will create an even more bloated federal bureaucracy that will be impossible to control and hold accountable.

 

III.  ANOTHER TRAIN WRECK (OVERALL THEME POINTS)

  • When Congress rammed through Obamacare in 2010, opponents correctly pointed out that there had been insufficient time to analyze the bill.
  • In April, Senator Baucus, one of the original authors of the Obamacare legislation, admitted that Obamacare is going to be a “train wreck.”
  • The current immigration bill, much like Obamacare, is a hefty piece of legislation that will have permanent, detrimental ramifications.  At almost 900 pages, this amnesty bill is far too complex for the Senate to be rushing to pass it.  We need time to analyze the bill and ask questions.
  • The Senate amnesty bill will prove to be just as much of a “train wreck” as Obamacare because Congress is repeating the same mistakes (i.e. passing it before we know what’s in it.)

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