Democrats Mount Last-Ditch Push Of Costly DREAM Act

Apparently undeterred by Friday’s 9.8 percent unemployment shocker, Democrats in both the House and the Senate say they will push for floor votes this week on a DREAM Act that opponents warn will add untold billions to the federal deficit.

Republicans aiming to keep the focus on cutting taxes and boosting employment are expected to oppose the measure.

Majority Senate Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois predicts the Act will come up for a vote this week.

“Sen. [Harry] Reid is going to call it,” he told The Hill. 

Asked if he had the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and shut-off debate on the bill, Durbin hedged: “I’m working on it, talking to members.”
House Democrats, meanwhile, are launching their own plans this week for the DREAM Act legislation.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said House Democrats, who spent much of last week debating a symbolic vote against extending the Bush tax cuts that they knew was dead-on-arrival in the Senate, “ran out of time” to hold a vote on the DREAM Act.

But he told The Hill that lame-duck Democrats will bring the bill up for a vote in the week ahead.

Several Blue Dog Democrats in the House say they will oppose the measure, which provides a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented workers who either attend college or serve in the military.

The White House is urging Congress to pass the bill.

"What makes sense is to allow these young people a way to adjust their immigration status that is firm but fair," Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano told reporters last week.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has said Democrats have the votes they need to pass the legislation. But some members of Congress are worried the Act would aggravate the already serious budget deficit.     

On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis showing that over the next 10 years, the DREAM Act would reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion. It would do so by adding authorized workers to the tax rolls.

A report published last week by the Center for Immigration Studies, however, projects a much different impact.

The study anticipates a cost to taxpayers of $6.2 billion a year. It predicts The Act will spur over 1 million youths will enroll in state universities and community colleges, where they would receive an average tuition assistance of $6,000 annually.

“Many of these institutions are already under enormous fiscal strain,” the report notes, adding that the DREAM Act makes no provision for the additional costs.

Indeed, the CBO report concedes that after 2020, when DREAM Act beneficiaries become eligible for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and federal health programs, the red ink will begin to spill.

Between 2021 and 2061, according to CBO estimates, the Act would increase projected deficits by $5 billion to $20 billion.                                    

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