Conyers to announce 'something' next week????

[babylonsister]

See the last sentence in his latest blog entry...any speculation out there?

www.conyersblog.us

The End of the Legislative Year
Something's Coming...

Sorry posts have been a bit more infrequent than usual lately. The end of the year wrap up in Congress is exceptionally busy this year, and exceptionally full of matters concerning the House Judiciary Committee and, therefore, consuming a lot of my time. Among other things, the Patriot Act passed the House, but a measure I offered to substitute the Conference Report with the bill that passed the Senate unanimously, narrowly failed. I hear the Senate will have a vote on cloture (ending debate on the bill) Friday and Senator Feingold may have rounded up enough votes to block the termination of debate. If so, it would be a tremedous accomplishment and he -- and the bipartisan coalition opposing the Conference Report -- deserve our thanks. I should note that both Senator Reid and House Democratic Leader Pelosi have been courageous in their opposition to this Conference Report.

In the House, we are considering something the Republican leadership calls a "Border Security Bill." Never mind that they have passed border security measures before and then failed to fund them. never mind that they are now using the issue of border security to bootstrap and anti-immigrant agenda. Among other things, the bill and amendments I expect to be offered to it would deny citizenship to people born in the United States, if the person's parents were non-citizens; require the forfeiture of church property if clergy assisted an illegal immigrant in obtaining food or shelter; and impose jail time for the clergy involved in such aid.

It may well be that the House Republican leadership has bitten off more than they can chew. The far right in their caucus is insisting on votes on many of these bizarre proposals. If they do not get those votes, they may bring down the whole bill, even though it is already filled with some of their extreme proposals. Watch the House tomorrow. It could be a bumpy ride for this bill.

If all goes well next week, I also expect to make an announcement that will interest many of you....