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President Trump plans to call on lawmakers to expand health insurance access and lower costs as part of ObamaCare replacement legislation, according to excerpts of his Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress setting ambitious goals for the bill Republican congressional leaders are drafting.

In the excerpts of prepared remarks, obtained by Fox News, Trump says: Tonight Im also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs and at the same time provide better health care.

The president also plans to tackle everything from immigration to national security in his address.

According to prepared remarks, he will cast his tough immigration policies as an economic issue.

By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars and make our communities safer for everyone, he plans to say.

On another key campaign promise, Trump says in the prepared remarks that his team is developing historic tax reform that will reduce the tax rate on our companies so they can compete and thrive anywhere and with anyone, along with massive tax relief for the middle class.

He says: The time for small thinking is over, the time for trivial fights is behind us, we just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts, the bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls, and the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action. From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations not burdened by our fears.

He also vows that his budget will boost funding for veterans. And he says the U.S. cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside of America. We cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists.

On the domestic policy front, he says, Education is the civil rights issue of our time.

The excerpts were released just over an hour before Trump was set to enter the House chamber for his address. Earlier Tuesday, Trump also voiced tentative support for immigration legislation.

The time is right for an immigration bill as long as both sides are willing to compromise, Trump said at a lunch with news anchors.

He reportedly is open to considering a pathway to legal status for some illegal immigrants. But its unclear how far Trump might press the issue in his address Tuesday night, as he also pushes for increased border security and other priorities.

The hint at renewing the immigration reform debate in Congress drew a mixed response late Tuesday from Senate leaders.

Asked about the prospect, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, If he's got an idea, we'd be happy to take a look at it.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voiced doubt. He's got a lot to undo, I mean, the immigrant community is rightfully scared, of what President Trump has done, he said.

Democrats official response will come from former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. According to excerpts of prepared remarks, Beshear will blast Trump and fellow Republicans efforts to repeal ObamaCare.

This, he warns, would rip affordable health insurance away from millions of Americans who most need it.

He says every GOP plan to replace the health care law so far would reduce the number of Americans covered, despite promises to the contrary.

The speech comes at critical moment, as Trump tries to galvanize a Congress that, despite being under full Republican control, still has not advanced legislation to deal with key campaign vows to replace the Affordable Care Act and reform the tax system. He is under pressure Tuesday to unite party allies behind a common agenda.

On ObamaCare, some Republicans already have seized on a leaked repeal plan draft to blast GOP leaders efforts. Conservatives like Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Mark Walker, R-N.C., both have criticized the outline, including its treatment of tax credits.

Ahead of Tuesday nights speech, House Speaker Paul Ryan played down divisions.

This is a plan that we are all working on together, he told reporters. There arent rival plans here. Were going to be unified on this.

But Ryan, at a separate briefing, voiced some concerns about Trumps approach to the federal budget a day after White House officials previewed a plan to boost military spending by $54 billion, cut other agency budgets by the same amount and leave entitlements like Medicare untouched.

Asked about the presidents apparent reluctance to cut entitlements, Ryan said, "There is an open question on long-term entitlement reform."

Trumps forthcoming budget faces pitfalls on other fronts, as some defense hawks think it doesnt go far enough to rebuild the military, deficit hawks think it doesnt go far enough to cut spending and others are worried about cuts to nondefense accounts.

Hours before the speech, McConnell cast doubt on whether the Senate could pass a budget proposal that seeks steep cuts to the State Department, one of the ways Trump might fund the increase for the military.

Aside from internal GOP tensions over legislative goals, Trump continues to grapple with numerous leaks from inside his administration and intermittent staffing controversies that most prominently included Michael Flynn resigning as national security adviser over apparently misleading Vice President Pence on past contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Multiple media reports, which Trump repeatedly decries as bogus, have raised questions about additional contacts between his allies and Moscow another issue that has divided Republicans, with some seeking an independent probe and others rejecting those calls. And most immediately, Trumps team is looking to rewrite and reissue his controversial executive order suspending the refugee program and admissions from seven mostly Muslim countries, after it was blocked in court amid widespread protests.

Fox News John Roberts, Mike Emanuel and Bret Baier contributed to this report.

Originally posted here:
Trump to call on Congress to expand access, lower costs with ObamaCare replacement - Fox News

President Trump indicated again Tuesday that heis open tooverhauling the countrysimmigration laws, including a path to legal status for nonviolent offenders, a departure from the harsh crackdown on illegal immigration that he has instituted since taking office.

Trump was considering calling foran immigration reform bill in his high-profile speech to Congress on Tuesday night, he told a group of television anchors earlier in the day.

Trump has expressed a willingness to soften his stance before. He told senators as recently as two weeks ago that they should revive the 2013 proposal that died in the House.

Such a move would be a dramatic about-face from the actions he has taken so far, chieflysigningorders last month that subject to deportation virtually all of the 11 million people in the U.S.

Nonetheless, Trumpsaid Tuesday during a lunch with television anchors that the time may be right for immigration reform if both sides compromise, according to PBS NewsHour correspondent John Yang and others present.

Trump believes Congress may be in a position to navigate one of the thorniest policy thickets after two failures to pass a bill in the last decade, including the 2013 effort.

The president has been very clear in his process that the immigration system is broken and needs massive reform, and hes made clear that hes open to having conversations about that moving forward, Sarah H. Sanders, White Housedeputy press secretary, told reporters Tuesday.

She wouldn't say whether Trump will include a call for immigration reform in his address to lawmakers.

Right now, his primary focus, as he has made clear over and over again, is border control and security at the border and deporting criminals from our country, and keeping our country safe, and those priorities have not changed, Sanders said.

During his first week in office, Trump wiped away restrictions on immigration officers, opening the door to deportations for millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Continued here:
Live updates: Trump will pitch his agenda to lawmakers in speech before Congress - Los Angeles Times

U.S. lawmakers are once again weighing changes to the popular but troubled H-1B work visa. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

U.S. lawmakers are once again weighing changes to the popular but troubled H-1B work visa.

President Trump has pushed aggressively against illegal immigration, while his specific plans for legal immigration including the popular but troubled H-1B work visa remain unclear. He has said he wants to crack down on abuses and protect American workers, but it's Congress that holds the power to fundamentally reform the program.

A broken system

For months last year, California lawmakers Darrell Issa and Zoe Lofgren tried to hash out a joint bipartisan bill to reform the H-1B visa, the popular program that lets thousands of highly skilled foreigners work in the U.S., particularly in tech jobs.

As far as immigration reforms go, high-skilled immigration programs are some of the least controversial. The H-1B program covers many fields, but is especially known to benefit tech companies. Its description often invokes a recurring line about America's interest in attracting the world's "best and brightest."

But H-1B also has elements known to be broken: A lottery decides who gets the visa; the demand has far eclipsed the quota; and options for permanent stay differ by country of origin. And the biggest complaint is that Indian IT companies like Wipro, Infosys and Tata have hijacked the system. They are three of the top H-1B employers.

"They're taking the H-1B visas a real U.S. tech company needs," says Gary Shapiro, the head of the Consumer Technology Association. "And they're using them ... to basically replace American workers at a cheaper rate by having people come here temporarily, not paid well, not housed well, not on any way to becoming citizens.

"Everyone loses under the system today," he says, "so it's part of the reason we need an H-1B overhaul."

Efforts to do that kind of overhaul have been undertaken by federal legislators over recent years, but haven't progressed. The latest concerted effort came under President Barack Obama but stalled in Congress, folded into a massive, broad immigration reform bill, Shapiro says.

"President Obama meant well, but ... he had the chance and he lost it," he says. "Now we have another chance."

Attempted joint effort

Lofgren is the top Democrat on the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, where Issa is one of her Republican colleagues. Her district covers a chunk of Silicon Valley; his is in San Diego County. She is, by profession, an immigration lawyer. He is a former electronics executive with family members from Lebanon balancing lives in several countries.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says he's got the votes to pass his narrow H-1B bill in the House and hopes for support in the Senate. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says he's got the votes to pass his narrow H-1B bill in the House and hopes for support in the Senate.

"We tried to work before the election with the ranking member on the subcommittee and she pulled out of it, preferring partisan politics," Issa says.

"We talked for probably six, seven months ... every day it was a new" thing, says Lofgren. "I tried to work with Darrell, but it's impossible to work with Darrell."

Each says the other kept moving the goal post or altering the bill. In the end, the two of them introduced separate bills. With Republicans controlling the majority, Issa's has more potential at least he says he's got the votes to pass it in the House. Shapiro's CTA supports it.

"This piece of legislation is small, it's focused, and it's highly bipartisan," Issa says, "and that gives it an opportunity to break a logjam that has gone on for approaching two decades."

Dueling bills

Issa's bill is small indeed. Without reaching for changes to the quota or how the system operates, Issa's legislation in simplest terms raises the bar for companies with more than 15 percent of H-1B employees to "attest" that they could not hire Americans.

Currently, these "H-1B-dependent" companies have to certify this only if a foreigner displaces an American worker for a job that pays less than $60,000 far less than an average tech wage. Under Issa's bill, the threshold would rise to $100,000 and holders of master's degrees would lose an exemption.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., says the H-1B program needs a broad reform, including changes to the lottery process that awards the visas. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., says the H-1B program needs a broad reform, including changes to the lottery process that awards the visas.

However, Lofgren and other critics which include the engineering group IEEE-USA say that this won't do much. They argue companies have figured out how to game the so-called attestation process, and in a highly paid field of tech work, even the new wage threshold would allow for displacement of Americans.

"Some people think (attestation) works, but my observation is it doesn't work and it hasn't worked," Lofgren says. "I think if we place all eggs in that basket, we're going to be disappointed."

Lofgren's bill sweeps wider. It proposes replacing the lottery process with a system that prioritizes the highest-paying companies. Then it goes beyond H-1B, suggesting changes to work-based immigration and other types of visas.

Issa sees merit in Lofgren's bill he says parts of it came from their joint effort. But, he says, the time for broader legislation is after a narrow bill passes.

"I support comprehensive high-skilled reform," Issa says. "But there's a difference between plugging a leak and building a better ship. ... In this particular structure of Republicans and Democrats, simplicity may be the best way to at least get a partial fix."

Presidential power

Issa's and Lofgren's bills aren't the only ones under consideration in Congress. And Trump is expected to weigh in on the matter.

A leaked draft of his executive order earlier this year took aim at H-1B and other work visas, but with few specifics. It recommended a review of the programs to ensure protections for American workers.

"The president made it clear when he was asked by [Apple CEO] Tim Cook and other tech leaders to put a priority on this that he would and they agreed with him," Issa says about Trump's December meeting with tech executives.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer was asked about plans for legal immigration earlier this month. He replied that they would shape up, but for now illegal immigration was a priority.

And ultimately, experts say that key elements of the program, including the number of the visas that get issued, are written into statute, meaning Congress holds the power to change them.

Original post:
Trump May Weigh In On H-1B Visas, But Major Reform Depends On Congress - NPR

Photo by James Sienkievic

In the State of the City Address, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte discussed the dire need for adequate housing, immigration reform, and funding for public education in District 42, which includes Ditmas Park, Flatbush, and Midwood.

The idea of a divided America has been dominating the national conversation recently, with town hall meetings full of angry constituents happening across New York City in recent weeks.

But the message of finding solutions through civil engagement and community activism rang loud and clear as Bichotte addressed around 200 of her constituents at Brooklyn College on Monday night.

Referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bichotte warned that it can feel like the American dream is turning into a nightmare to many New Yorkers.

A nightmare where 20 million people may soon be stripped of affordable health insurance. Where medicare and medicate which is heavily relied upon by our seniors, low-income people and working families will be severely diminished. A womens right to choose and reproductive freedom may be rolled back. A wall will be build to keep some of us in and immigrants out while tearing families apart through mass deportation, Bichotte said

How do we prepare for whats ahead? How do we keep the dream alive? Our nation is struggling. It is struggling to overcome ignorance and hate.

Affordable Housing

More than any other issue, Bichotte said that housing was the number one problem that she heard from her constituents this past year. Many people showed up in person at her office for help.

Without adequate housing, it is almost impossible for individuals and families to build a stable life, and this remains one of our top priorities, Bichotte said, adding that in the past year alone, her office handled 154 constituent cases.

Supporting public education and free college tuition for all

Bichotte broke down the projected state budget for 2017-18, which is estimated to be about $162 billion dollars up from the proposed $142.8 billion in 2016. She contextualized that number by detailing the top expenditures last year Medicare, Medicaid, health, and education made up around 60 percent of the budget in 2016.

But she attacked Governor Andrew Cuomos proposed education budget, and his proposal to permanently lift the cap off charter schools. The Governor continues to shortchange our public school system, by only proposing $428 million versus the $4.3 billion that is owed to our public schools, Bichotte said.

Another important issue for Bichotte is fighting the expansion of charter schools, which she sees as a threat topublic education in her district. This idea is being pushed by the new Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, whom Bichotte called a billionaire whos made her career fortune rigging the system to privatize and defund our public school system.

Bichotte mentioned her ongoing work to advance the Dream Act, helping undocumented students attend college, and the introduction last year of legislation that would make New York one of only three states to offer free tuition for all community colleges.

Last year I introduced the New York Promise Bill, which was reintroduced this year. Now the significant financial investment proposed in this bill would create access to education for hundreds and thousands of New Yorkers.

Bichotte said her proposal would allocate $450 to $800 million in funds to provide free tuition to community colleges and help lower-income families by offering additional grants to help offset additional costs, such as books.

But she dismissed a similar free college tuition plan proposed by Governor Cuomo, saying that he did not go far enough to help lower-income families. The governors plan would cover tuition for state or city university students whose families earn $125,000 or less.

Immigration reform

Bichotte addressed the issue of immigration reform, citing four immigration bills which she co-sponsored a few weeks ago which she says will help to ensure the fair and ethical treatment of New Yorkers by providing clarity and certainty for state and local officials when they deal with immigrant populations.

As we protest against the deplorable ban against Muslim immigrants and the ICE raids we are seeing and hearing about, we have to ask ourselves, how did this go so far?

Bichotte ended the evening with a call to unite coalitions across political movements, urging her constituents to stand together in progressive causes.

We ought to be marching side by side on all issues that affect our lives and the lives of our neighbors, Bichotte said. Let us remember that our liberty and our freedom are intrinsically tied to each other. We are not truly free until we are all free.

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Our Nation Is Struggling Rep. Bichotte Fights For Housing & Immigration Reform - BKLYNER

Most Americans are aghast when they hear that the government does not know how many foreigners or who is staying illegally in the country after entering with a visa. The government knows who is entering thats what those lines at the airports passport control are doing. But there is no similar collection of reliable data on departing travelers that allows the exit data to be compared with the entry data to identify those staying beyond their authorized stay.

Although this fact is not generally known to the public, it is known to Congress. When Congress enacted a package of reforms in 1996 (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ) as urged by the findings of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, the Clinton administration was instructed to develop a system for collecting the departure information in a way that could be reliably compared to entry data so that policy makers would learn the magnitude of the overstay problem and the profile of the overstayers in terms of type of visa, country of origin, and biometric data. The idea was that if visa entry scofflaws were concentrated among a group such as young single persons entering with a temporary work visa or a student visa and from a particular country, the visa issuance process in that country could be tightened up. Similarly, if it were found that a disproportionate number of scofflaws had been issued a visa by a specific consular officer, that consular officer could be counseled to tighten issuance standards.

But, aside from a few tentative steps to explore the means to capture reliable exit data, no progress was made in complying with the mandate from Congress.

A new impetus was generated by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on our country. It was revealed that five of the 19 terrorists on the hijacked planes were visa overstayers and that shoddy visa issuance procedures in Saudi Arabia had enabled that attack. With heightened concern for national security, Congress again mandated action in the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. It again ordered the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement an automated biometric entry-exit matching system.

But, more than a dozen years later, it still has not been accomplished. One notable setback occurred when airlines refused to accept any responsibility for doing anything other than scanning machine-readable passports at their reservation desks in airports. This left the loophole that the traveler might not be the same person to whom the passport was issued. DHS currently is again attempting to enlist airlines to cooperate with it in the exit data collection.

Congress has continued to be apprised of the failure to fulfill the mandate it gave the administration in reports from the Government Accountability Office, other reports and in testimony. A further prodding from Congress came in the Budget Act of 2016 when DHS was given earmarked funding for a pilot project to collect the biometric exit data.

It is not that DHS has been entirely ignoring the law. It has executed a series of narrowly-focused tests that have accomplished better understanding of the difficulty in collecting reliable data. And, DHS now reports that it is readying a partial data collection system for departing travelers by next year. However, reviewing the string of failures since 1996, it is premature to be hopeful. DHS also delivered its first report to Congress on what it believed was the number of foreign travelers who failed to depart by the end of their authorized stay during fiscal year 2015 in two categories travelers for business and pleasure (i.e. tourism), Those visa categories account for a large majority of arriving foreigners, but not necessarily the most likely to overstay their admission period. That report identified 527,127 potential scofflaws. That calculation, however, is not definitive, and it is only partial, but it demonstrates that the issue is substantial.

Anyone wanting more on the history of this national security flaw and current efforts underway by DHS to comply with the law will find it in the latest report of the GAO (February, 2017) here.

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Snail's Pace Towards Controlling Against Visa Scofflaws - ImmigrationReform.com (blog)