Gang of 8 Rewrite: Amnesty and Cronyism

The latest rewrite of the “Gang of 8″‘s amnesty bill immigration reform bill got some interesting new amendments. This report from Heritage Action outlines the various irony capitalist deals that were inserted in.

Lobster Bait (Maine): moves resources from southern border to northern border (Heritage Action)

Alaska Kickback: special treatment for Alaskan seafood processing (Washington Examiner)

$1.5 billion in youth job training was critical to securing the vote of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (Los Angeles Times)

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) hopped on after his amendment dealing with expedited citizenship for thos in combat was added into the package (Chicago Sun Times)

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) had two of his three amendments, including one on artist visas, wrapped into the rewrite, which he introduced as a matter of procedure (Leahy’s website)

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is widely seen as the mastermind behind the Gang of Eight and the rewritten version, had nine of his 13 amendments incorporated into the newest version (Twitter)

No wonder why this rewrite was dropped only a few days before the Senate is supposed to vote on it. This bill is another example of “we need to pass it to see what’s in it”.