Rep. Calvert Votes Against Irresponsible Democrat Funding Priorities
Press Release
REP. CALVERT VOTES AGAINST IRRESPONSIBLE DEMOCRAT FUNDING PRIORITIES
This week Congressman Ken Calvert (R-Corona) voted against the Fiscal Year 2008 State and Foreign Operations bill and the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill.
"I'm disappointed that the Democrats did not allow the House to vote on many critical amendments such as one introduced by Rep. Kingston from Georgia which would have prohibited funds in the Legislative Appropriations bill from being used to contract with entities that do not participate in the Basic Pilot Program," stated Rep. Calvert, who wrote the legislation that created the program. "The American people have made it very clear that employment verification is vital to enforcing our immigration laws. Requiring anyone who does business with the federal government to verify the legal status of their employees would have demonstrated that the federal government is serious about this issue. Unfortunately, the Democrats would not allow Members to vote on the amendment."
The Basic Pilot Program - which is user-friendly, web-based, accurate and timely - has over 16,000 employers voluntarily participating in the system (to sign up for the Basic Pilot Program go to https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration).
H.R. 2764, the State and Foreign Operations bill, provides $34.24 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of State and Foreign Operations programs in fiscal year 2008, a 9.4% increase over non-emergency appropriations for FY2007.
Congressman Calvert had concerns in regard to a number of provisions in the bill, including language weakening current abortion and abstinence policies; shifts in funding priorities for Colombia; zeroing out the Economic Support Fund requested for Iraq; and shortchanging the Administration's request for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) by $1.2 billion.
Rep. Calvert also voted against H.R. 2771, the FY2008 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill which provides $3.1 billion in appropriations, which is a 6.7% increase from the FY2007 enacted level.
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