Immigration law inches ahead

Posted on May 2, 2008 
Filed Under News

Senator forces vote on reform for today by tying it to House bill

COLUMBIA -The Senate’s leader on immigration reform took a new tack on breaking the logjam Tuesday when he attached the legislation to a bill the House has already passed and tied up all other debate until the issue is resolved.

Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, used the maneuver to force debate and a vote on the House bill to which he attached his immigration proposal.

No vote was taken Tuesday, but Ritchie will have the floor when the Senate convenes at 11 a.m. today.

Ritchie, author of the legislation and chairman of the Senate’s three-person conference committee to work out differences with the House bill, said it was the best thing he could think of to try to end the two weeks of back-and-forth blaming and demands between the two chambers over who should act first and how on a point in the bill most agree on.

“I’m asking the Senate to lead on this one for the people of South Carolina,” Ritchie said.

The two houses mostly agreed on the bill, but the House, after first refusing to impose employment verification rules on private employers, changed its mind.

House conferees said they wanted to require the online federal verification system for all employers, or a state driver’s license or photo ID. The existing federal I-9 form would not be good enough.

Eliminating the I-9 form failed in the Senate debate when the chamber passed its version of the bill, so the change forces a new vote on both sides.

But who should go first and whether the vote should be by simple majority or two-thirds is an issue of the operating rules of each side, and neither would budge.

The business community continues to oppose eliminating the I-9, which is simply filled out and filed away.

Some senators are concerned that not all small businesses have ready access to computers.

Ritchie said the bill allows two weeks for verification, and the state Employment Service will do it for people, or they can go to a public library if they do not have their own computers.

Ritchie’s tactic means the proposal could pass with a simple majority vote, and the House could then do the same. It also forces the senators to focus on it if they want to get any other bills passed in time to send them over to the House.

The deadline to send new bills from one side to the other is midnight tonight.

“I think what the Senate did is the right course of action,” said Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, one of the three House conferees on the immigration bill. “I just think it shows the importance of this issue.”

Constituents made themselves heard after lawmakers went home last week without a resolution, he added.

“A lot of phone calls were made over the weekend,” Viers said.

The bill to which Ritchie attached the immigration legislation is one Viers sponsored calling for a study committee on immigration legislation.

It was filed in December 2006 and the House passed it almost a year ago. Since then, it lay untouched on the Senate agenda.

“I think that’s even better because now my bill could become the new comprehensive immigration law,” Viers said.

On another topic, a Senate bill allowing public schools to team with local colleges on a 1 percent sales tax for capital projects stalled briefly when senators from other areas of the state said they wanted their districts included, too.

In trying to write the bill for Horry County without mentioning it by name – which would be unconstitutional – local lawmakers left out areas that do not have countywide school districts.

Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, said that was not the intention and he agreed to hold the bill over until today for adjustment.

The House also put off consideration of the Senate’s version of the budget until Thursday.

Myrtle Beach Sun News
Zane Wilson
4/30/08