TOMORROW
House Republicans decide whether or not to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses
The continuing peril to our elections in the Minnesota House is cropping up in another veiled place, the Transportation Omnibus Bill.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 5, 2015, there will be a Transportation conference committee meeting of five selected members from the House and five selected members from the Senate. This committee will produce an agreed-upon bill formed from the provisions of HF4 (passed by the House) and SF1904 (passed by the Senate).
So far, the Republican-controlled House has protected our elections by not including in its omnibus bills any of the Senate’s destructive election-related provisions. Good for the Republicans!
As a result, HF4 and SF1904 differ in that HF4 has no driver’s licenses for illegals, BUT SF1904 does.
What needs to happen is that the Republican conference committee members must remain loyal to their constituents, to their caucus, and to their party by insisting that election-related provisions are non-negotiable at this stage of lawmaking and the Senate’s measure allowing illegals to get driver’s licenses cannot be a part of the final agreed-upon bill.
Inserting election provisions into House bills at this point is a misuse of reconciliation, a betrayal of the committee process, and a deception of the public.
Republicans must not trade fundamental rights for a bike path.
The (Class D) driver’s license granted to illegals would have disqualifying language on it saying that the card may not be used to register to vote. A big problem with that is that the transportation bill does not require disclosure of the names of those cardholders so that the voting records can be checked to see if there is a problem in fact, as there has been in other states and as there is expected to be here.
The critical point is that driver’s licenses for illegal non-citizens and the impact on voter registration and elections has not been reviewed by the elections committee. No expert testimony or the views of opponents has been heard and debated. Consequently, the impact on elections of this would-be historic change are completely unexplored by the House.
Please contact these House leaders and Transportation conference committee members today, before the committee convenes tomorrow:
Name
|
Position
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Email Address
|
Phone
|
District
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Kurt Daudt
|
House Speaker
|
31A
|
||
Joyce Peppin
|
Majority Leader
|
34A
|
||
Tim Kelly
|
Member
|
21A
|
||
Jeff Howe
|
Member
|
13A
|
||
John Petersburg
|
Member
|
24A
|
||
Tim Sanders
|
Assist Maj Ldr
|
37B
|
It appears that there is a Democrat, Ron Erhardt, appointed to the conference committee from the HOUSE and NO Republican on the committee from the Senate. You might ask how that happened!
A conference committee should never produce a bill with provisions that have already been rejected by the Republican House.
Andrew E. Cilek
Executive Director
Minnesota Voters Alliance
P.O. Box 4602
St. Paul MN 55104