White House Conference Call notes on the DREAM Act amnesty

FACT SHEET ON THE DREAM ACT AMNESTY THEY HOPE YOU NEVER SEE HERE

9/17/10

Stephanie Valencia (WH Office of Public Engagement): We convened this call to inform you about our mobilization in support of the DREAM Act.

Cecelia Munoz (WH Office of Intergovernmental Affairs): We’re excited there are hundreds of you on the call today. We can only educate you on the status of the bill today. We cannot and will not ask you to lobby. The Defense authorization bill will be on the Senate floor as early as next week. If it gets to the floor, a DREAM Act amendment will be offered. This is a really pivotal time. Since the DREAM Act is being offered as an amendment to an underlying bill, this prevents them procedurally from letting other crazy stuff happen. It will prevent other amendments, particularly ugly amendment that we would all worry about, from being offered.

The President spoke at the CHC gala about his commitment to immigration reform and to the DREAM Act. We are mobilized across the Administration to help. Cabinet agencies. Secretaries. The President himself. And we have a whole team here just devoted to immigration issues.

There are several important hurdles we have to overcome. First, the underlying bill must be brought to the floor. To do that, we have to pass a motion to proceed. It will take 60 votes because we assume someone will filibuster. Key Republicans led by Sen. McCain are opposing that motion. That’s a really critical vote because if it fails, we won’t have a vote on the DREAM Act.

A vote is expected early Tuesday afternoon. If passed, the bill will move to the floor. A series of amendment are expected to be offered. The DREAM Act will be one of those. At least three amendments are expected. A filibuster is expected on each so Sen. Reid will have to file for cloture. Each cloture motion will take several days to ripen. If the DREAM Act passes, a cloture vote will still be needed for passage of the bill plus the actual vote on final passage.

There are a lot of hurdles before final passage. The Administration and the Senate leadership are all united to maximize the vote. If you look at other bills over the last 28 months, not all of the Democrats voted with the President. Some won’t support this now so we will probably need a number, probably a small number, but a number of Republican votes.

We are in a very tough environment. There are lots of ways for Senators to make excuses because it’s a complex debate about a lot of issues. The DREAM Act is not the only controversial thing on this bill. We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to be successful, but the Administration’s commitment is very strong.

Stephanie Valencia (WH Office of Public Engagement): We’ll take some questions now but I want to emphasize this call is off the record for press and bloggers. It is intended for the benefit of advocates.

Question: What is the President doing to support Sen. Reid?

Munoz: We’re going to make these decisions every day. We are on the phone every day to his office. We will do whatever Sen. Reid asks us to do. The cabinet and the President will make calls. But we really need folks mobilizing across the country.

Question: Don’t they need a Defense authorization bill?

Munoz: Yes, DoD needs it but they have been able to continue to work without it, including conducting two wars.

Question: Do we have the necessary votes for the first hurdle?

Munoz: We don’t know yet because members haven’t committed. We have reason for concern because Sen. McCain said he will lead an effort to stop the bill from coming to the floor. We are hearing that a number of Republicans are lining up to say that Sen. Reid is making this bill too controversial and that they will find ways to vote against the motion to proceed. We’re going to have to fight for every vote. That motion is pivotal because otherwise there won’t be a vote on the DREAM Act or other challenging issues.

Stephanie Valencia (WH Office of Public Engagement): We want to thank everyone for being on the call. We have very clear marching orders. This isn’t going to be anything easy. Please make your voices heard.