WASHINGTON DISPATCHES

Schumer Seeks

National ID Card

In trying to solve the problem of illegal immigration, Senator Chuck Schumer said he believes that all Americans should be issued an identification card that would be necessary to obtain legal work. The card would contain “biometric” information, such as fingerprints of the scan of veins on top of the hand.

“It’s the nub of solving the immigration dilemma, politically speaking,” Mr. Schumer said last week. “If you say they can’t get a job when they come here, you’ll stop it.”

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who is working closely with Senator Schumer to craft a new Senate bill on immigration reform, defended the idea: “We’ve all got Social Security cards,” he said. “They’re just easily tampered with. Make them tamper-proof. That’s all I’m saying.”

Schumer’s proposed immigration reform would create a path to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States, though it would also impose fines, back-taxes, and require some waiting. The reform would also create a guestworker program, allowing foreigners to work in the United States legally.

Mr. Schumer said employers would be able to obtain a legal ID scanner for about $800. Small employers, he said, could take their applicants to a government office and have their hands scanned there.

Privacy-groups have already criticized the proposal, raising alarm bells that a national-ID card could, in the future, be used to regulate access to financial services along with housing and medical services, or that it may become an “internal passport.”

Gillibrand Rails Against

Pro-Life Democrats

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, currently running for special-election to fill out the rest of Hillary Clinton’s term as senator, suddenly has no credible challengers for the seat.

Centrist Democrat Harold Ford pulled out of a potential primary battle last week, and media magnate Mortimer B. Zuckerman announced that he was not interested in challenging Gillibrand as an Independent or Republican.

“It had nothing to do with chances,” Zuckerman said. “I really thought this was something I could have won, without question.”

Instead of campaigning against challengers to her seat, Gillibrand is concentrating on fighting pro-life Democrats over health care reform.

“I just can’t believe it—Representative Bart Stupak is back at it,” Gillibrand said in an e-mail appeal to supporters last week. “He and a dozen or so of his colleagues are trying to block health care reform by reinserting a dangerous, anti-choice provision into President Obama’s health care bill. I’m sure you were just as shocked as I was when you heard the news.”

“Representative Stupak’s amendment was resoundingly defeated in the Senate before because it discriminates against women and poses a dangerous health risk to women and girls from every state,” Gillibrand said.

Gillibrand characterized the pro-life objections of Rep. Stupak and others as “extremist points of view.”

Gillibrand: Tougher

Sanctions Against Iran

After recent reports that companies that do business in Iran defied U.S. sanctions laws, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for passage of a law that would allow the president to impose tougher sanctions and checks against companies tied to Iran, including blocking federal contracts to violators and imposing a three-year ban on government contracts against those companies. Gillibrand is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We need to send a strong, clear signal to Iran that until it halts its nuclear ambitions, the dangerous state will be denied the benefits of access to the global economy. Company offenders whose profits serve to fuel Iran’s nuclear ambitions should not be allowed to do business with the U.S.—period,” said Gillibrand in a statement. “Taking a tougher stance against companies tied to Iran’s refined petroleum capacity would provide the president with a more robust set of tools to address Iran’s existential threat to our nation and our allies.”

Last year, Senator Gillibrand cosponsored legislation that was included in the Iran sanctions bill, which would target companies that support Iran’s refined petroleum capacity, a sector that funds Iran’s nuclear military ambitions.

Hall Promotes Bill

Honoring West Point

On March 3, Representative John Hall led a bipartisan effort to pass legislation congratulating West Point on being named by Forbes Magazine as America’s Best College for 2009.

“The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is a national treasure and a jewel of the Hudson Valley, forging today’s heroes and tomorrow’s leaders,” said Hall. “I am so proud to represent West Point in Congress and am glad it is getting the nationwide recognition it so rightly deserves as a college of excellence.”

West Point has also received commendation from U.S. News & World Report, which named West Point as the Best Public Liberal Arts College in the United States and has consistently rated West Point’s undergraduate engineering program as among the best in the country.