EXTREMELY URGENT--imminent congressional action

EXTREMELY URGENT--imminent congressional action

Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 6:20 PM



JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com


Forwards of two urgent messages.




DATE: 6:00 p.m. WED 16jul03
RE: Here are the phone numbers to call Senate Judiciary members about trade agreement with unlimited visas for tech workers from Singapore and Chile


YOU MUST ACT IMMEDIATELY.

My earlier email at 4:30 didn't include the phone numbers and names to use for your calls to the Senate Judiciary Committee. See them below.

Sorry to piggy-back emergencies on the one to which you all wonderfully responded yesterday, but Congress sets the agenda.

We have a chance to play a huge role tomorrow in the Senate which could turn around an absolutely terrible trade bill that the Bush Administration is trying to push through.

THIS EMAIL CONTAINS:
1. ACTION-------Phone numbers to call to urge stripping immigration provisions from trade agreement
2. ACTION-------Sample script for phone calls
3. ACTION-------Phone numbers to call to thank 3 Senate champions of American workers who are leading the way to strip bad trade provisions
4. ACTION-------Sample script to thank our champion Senators
5. ACTION-----When to act
6. INFO-----The situation
7. THANKS----for faxes you already sent
8. ACTION-----Send new faxes now
9. INFO------More explanation of the problem with these trade agreements


1. ACTION-------Phone numbers to call to urge stripping immigration provisions from trade agreement


We recommend that the following calls be made:

(1) Look on the committee list below and call Senators from your state.

(2) Call Senators from states with which you can make some kind of claim (such as where your parents live, where you used to live, where you have another home, etc.) In other words, be able to talk as a constituent in some way.

(3) If there are no Senators from your state, call Senators from adjoining states and talk about "our region".

(4) If you are yourself a tech worker, feel free to call everybody on the list and tell your personal stories.

First priority is to call Washington offices. But also call district offices if you have time. It will create extra buzz. We have to draw enough attention to get the word directly to the Senator.

ARIZONA

Senator John Kyl (R-AZ)
Capitol Hill office: 202-224-4521
State offices:
Phoenix, AZ: 602-840-1891
Tucson, AZ: 520-575-8633

DELAWARE

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-5042
State offices:
Georgetown, DE: 302-856-7690
Wilmington, DE: 302-573-6291
Dover, DE: 302-674-3308

GEORGIA

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Capitol Hill office: 202-224-3521
State offices:
Moultrie, GA: 229-985-2112
Atlanta, GA: 770-763-9090

IDAHO

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-2752
State offices:
Twin Falls, ID: 208-734-6780
Pocatello, ID: 208-236-6817
Lewiston, ID: 208-743-0792
Coeur D'Alene, ID: 208-667-6130
Boise, ID: 208-342-7985
Idaho Falls, ID: 208-523-5541

ILLINOIS

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-2152
State offices:
Chicago, IL: 312-353-4952
Springfield, IL: 217-492-4062
Marion, IL: 618-998-8812

IOWA

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA)
Capitol Hill office: 202-224-3744
State offices:
Sioux City, IA: 712-233-1860
Council Bluffs, IA: 712-322-7103
Waterloo, IA: 319-232-6657
Cedar Rapids, IA: 319-363-6832
Des Moines, IA: 515-284-4890
Davenport, IA: 319-322-4331

MASSACHUSETTS

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-4543
State office:
Boston, MA: 617-565-3170

NEW YORK

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-6542
State offices:
Oneonta, NY: 607-433-2310
Buffalo, NY: 716-846-4097
New York, NY: 212-486-4430

NORTH CAROLINA

Senator John Edwards (D-NC)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-3154
State offices:
Charlotte, NC: 704-344-6154
Raleigh, NC: 919-856-4245
Greensboro, NC: 336-333-5311
Asheville, NC: 828-285-0760

OHIO

Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-2315
State offices:
Columbus, OH: 614-469-5186
Cleveland, OH: 216-522-7272
Marietta, OH: 740-373-2317
Toledo, OH: 419-259-7536
Xenia, OH: 937-376-3080
Cincinnati, OH: 513-763-8260

PENNSYLVANIA

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-4254
State offices:
Allentown, PA: 610-434-1444
Philadelphia, PA: 215-597-7200
Pittsburgh, PA: 412-644-3400
Harrisburg, PA: 717-782-3951
Scranton, PA: 570-346-2006
Wilkes-Barre, PA: 570-826-6265
Erie, PA: 814-453-3010

TEXAS

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)
Capitol Hill office: 202-224-2934
State offices:
Farmers Branch: 972-239-1310
Houston, TX: 713-572-3337
Harlingen, TX: 956-423-0162
Tyler, TX: 903-593-0902
Austin, TX: 512-469-6034
San Antonio, TX: 210-224-7485
Lubbock, TX: 806-472-7533

UTAH

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-5251
State offices:
Ogden, UT: 801-625-5672
Cedar City, UT: 801-586-8435
Provo, UT: 801-374-5005
Salt Lake City, UT: 801-524-4380
St. George, UT: 435-634-1795

VERMONT

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-4242
State offices:
Burlington, VT: 802-863-2525
Montpelier, VT: 802-229-0569

WISCONSIN

Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-5323
State offices:
Milwaukee, WI: 414-276-7282
Wausau, WI: 715-848-5660
LaCrosse, WI: 608-782-5585
Green Bay, WI: 920-465-7508
Middleton, WI: 608-828-1200

Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-5653
State offices:
Milwaukee, WI: 414-297-4451
Appleton, WI: 920-738-1640
Eau Claire, WI: 715-832-8424
Madison, WI: 608-264-5338
LaCrosse, WI: 608-796-0045


2. ACTION-------Sample script for phone calls


You can add plenty of your own thoughts, especially after reading the further explanation offered at the bottom of this email. But here is a sample script for you:

"I am calling about the Judiciary Committee's consideration of free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore on Thursday."
(or say "today" if you call on Thursday)

"Please stand with the American people and Senators Feinstein, Sessions and Graham in demanding that all the immigration provisions be removed from the Chile and Singapore free trade agreements.

"Congress should not cede its constitutional authority to set immigration policy to the White House or to foreign governments.

"The immigration provisions in these trade agreements provide for unfair labor practices against our own American workers, and would deny Congress the ability to add protections for our workers later.

"Please remove the immigration provisions from these trade agreements."

[If you don't see this until after 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, add a line something like:]

"The committee meeting probably has already started. Please get the word to the Senator that his/her constituents are asking for this action."


3. ACTION-------Phone numbers to call to thank champions of American workers who are leading the way to strip bad trade provisions


* Californians, call Sen. Feinstein.
* Alabamans, call Sen. Sessions
* South Carolinians, call Sen. Graham
* Tech workers, you may want to call all three if you have time.


CALIFORNIA

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-3841
State offices:
San Diego, CA: 619-231-9712
Fresno, CA: 209-485-7430
San Francisco, CA: 415-536-6868
Los Angeles, CA: 310-914-7300

ALABAMA

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-GA)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-4124
State offices:
Montgomery, AL: 334-265-9507
Huntsville, AL: 256-533-0979
Mobile, AL: 334-690-3167
Birmingham, AL: 205-731-1500

SOUTH CAROLINA

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Capitol Hill office:
202-224-5972
State offices:
Mount Pleasant, SC: 843-849-3887
Greenville, SC: 864-250-1417


4. ACTION-------Sample script to thank our champion Senators


Don't take much time. These are our friends. We don't want to tie up the phone lines.

Identify yourself, give some praise for taking this leadership for all Americans and hang up. We have an indication that this will be an encouragement rather than a pain for staffers. Senators are not used to being thanked.


5. WHEN TO ACT


Immediately.

If you see this email this evening, go ahead and call and leave a message on the machine.

Then everybody should start calling Thursday morning as soon as you get up, beginning around 6 a.m. EDT. Call throughout the day or until we send an email saying to stop.


6. INFO-----The situation


The Senate Judiciary Committee will be doing a kind of markup of the Chile/Singapore trade agreements Thursday morning beginning at 10. It is not likely to deal fully with this issue until a little later in the day. But you can see that we have almost no time to make our mark. All of you who see this must act immediately.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has been the champion for the American worker on this issue for many days now on the committee. She is consistently standing up for American tech workers against relentless waves of foreign workers.

Sen. Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Graham (R-SC) have just today taken a formal step to stand with Feinstein in her fight.

But most of the members of the Judiciary Committee have been acting half-deaf to Feinstein's arguments. Some don't seem to have noticed at all.

We need to give Feinstein all the support possible so that more people will be listening when she speaks tomorrow. Her staff feel it still may be possible for the committee to take a strong stand against the Bush sell-out of American tech workers in these trade agreements.


7. THANKS----for faxes you already sent


Our records show that you all already have sent more than 2,500 faxes to your own Senators and Member of the House on this issue since we put them up Monday morning.

Thanks for your good work. These faxes have pushed people to vote against these trade agreements on the floor of the House and Senate.


8. ACTION-----Send new faxes now


Please make sure that you have sent the earlier faxes, as well as the new ones.

A reminder: You will only see the faxes if you checked on your interest survey one of the following items: (a) on the "Jobs" section, "computer and engineering occupations, and (b) the "numbers are too high" category on the first page.

[You can always change your interests by clicking on the CHANGE INTERESTS link on the left of the upper navigation bar on each page.]

If you checked one of those interests and if one of your Senators is on the Judiciary Committee you will see the emergency fax on your Action Board at:

http://www.numbersusa.com/fax


9. INFO------More explanation of the problem with these trade agreements


Congress is in the process of considering the free trade agreements that the White House negotiated with Chile and Singapore.

Currently, the trade agreements contain immigration provisions that would create a new "W" non-immigrant visa to allow 6,800 workers from Chile and Singapore to enter the U.S. each year and work here indefinitely.

They also would permit an unlimited number of Chileans and Singaporeans to enter the U.S. each year as "treaty traders or investors" who are coming here to carry on trade between the U.S. and Chile or Singapore or to "establish, develop, administer or provide advice or key technical services" to the operations of a business in which they have invested capital. Once the agreement becomes law, Congress would be prohibited from restricting the category with numerical limits, labor certification requirements or other protections for American workers.

Both of these categories are in addition to the number of Chileans and Singaporeans who are permitted to come to the U.S. each year under our normal immigration laws.

PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANTLY.......

The agreements also prohibit Congress from placing any numerical limits, labor certification requirements or other protections for American workers on the issuance of L-1 visas to nationals of Chile and Singapore. L-1 visas are available to "intra-company transferees," or aliens who have been employed abroad for at least one year in the three years preceding application by a business that has subsidiaries or affiliates in the United States. Such visas are supposed to be limited to aliens working in a "capacity that is managerial, executive or involves specialized knowledge," but have been widely abused by businesses seeking to avoid the restrictions on H-1B visas.

There has been talk within the Bush Administration that these two trade agreements should serve as the models for future agreements with other countries. Thus, it is absolutely critical for Congress to make clear to the White House that bad immigration provisions have no place in international trade agreements. Free trade should not automatically entail the importation of large numbers of foreign workers.

Moreover, it is important to remember that Congress only has the authority to approve or reject free trade agreements; it may not amend them because of the President's fast track authority. Once Congress gives it's approval, it may not pass laws that restrict or alter the provisions of the trade agreements.

There is still a chance to ensure that these bad immigration provisions are removed from the Chile and Singapore (and any future) trade agreements, but time is short. The House and Senate are expected to vote on these agreements before the August recess starts (July 25 in the House and August 1 in the Senate).

The House Judiciary Committee took a slap at the Bush open-door policy this month. While the committee cannot amend them or single-handedly send them back to the White House for renegotiation, it made some of its concerns clear in a mock mark-up session. In a bi-partisan effort led by Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), and supported by committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the committee voted that the White House should change the immigration provisions by eliminating the proposed "W" visa, instead setting aside 6,800 of the existing H-1B visas (i.e., within the existing H-1B numerical cap) for Chilean and Singaporean workers, and subtracting those 6,800 visas from the annual number of green cards that may be issued to Chileans and Singaporeans.

While the House Judiciary Committee's proposed revisions do not address all our concerns with the immigration provisions of the free trade agreements, they certainly send a signal to the White House that the provisions are a problem. The White House, however, will only renegotiate the immigration provisions if Congress either threatens to vote down the agreements or actually does vote them down.



WANT MORE (OR LESS) INFORMATION FROM NUMBERSUSA? As a NumbersUSA subscriber, you will receive occasional emails about immigration-related opportunities. If you want to increase or reduce the frequency of these emails, click here and make the change at the bottom of your registration form: http://www.numbersusa.com/user





Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 09:35:33 -0400

I'd like to say that our constant talks with DeLauro's office shows us(TORAW) that they've got their act together and will get sponsors. Though it's good to keep it up. We're talking to our other Congressmen in CT, two who are on the list of supporters for Mica's Bill ( 6 so far), and asking them to also support DeLauro's Bill. But right now, there's a more important issues than needs lobbying NOW!

Below are two links to the last House Ways and Means subcommittee meeting that is reviewing Bush's trade agreements. They're trying to get this past on fast track and by August recess. The lower link are the members of the subcommittee that are reviewing these agreements. I'd urge any and all people, groups and ABOVE ALL, anyone who is a 'constituent' of these subcommittee members, to contact the members on that committee(second link) and urge them not to support the trade
agreements, the trade agreements that WILL NOT limit the numbers of intra-company transferees (L-1's) coming in from those countries. We need lobbying now and from constituents in those subcommittee members districts. of course, even if not in their districts, call, write, whatever. We need them to know that their constituents, and the public, are watching them on these issues and will take offense to them not revising them to protect American workers rights.

Remember, if these trade agreements are voted on and allowed, the question will be then, can the Mica, DeLauro or anyone else's Bill(s) on limiting L-1's have any strength. If we can stop these here, in the subcommittee by constituent and group lobbying, we will show Bush and others that people are getting together to really battle these issues. Committees are where you really need to concentrate on a Bill. And this is important now. If passed, like I said, they might hurt any
passing of any other Bills to limit L-1's. Take those legislators names, and anyone listening, if these guys are in your state, CALL NOW, and also email and write letters. If they are neighbors, do not be afraid to drop in on them in their offices or homes and speak your piece. Protect yourself now.

One advice I was told by an American lobbyist who works does have to lobby for issues we don't like sometimes, said, 'James, think of me like a lawyer defending a rapist. I hate it but it's my job. Realize though, we lobbyists are only as good as the opposition or support of the constituents of the legislators we are lobbying. We may have the money, but you guys have the votes that keep or throw these people in or out of office. Use that power, and you'll win. But get to them
immediately, before and during committee reviews. Wait till after committee review and into the legislators hands for final vote, and you'll have a hard time to win.' In other words, we, the constituents, have the power if we want to use it and timing is everything.

James Pace
Vice President
T.O.R.A.W.

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Hearings.asp?formmode3Ddetail&hearing=3D70=

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/members.asp?comm3D5


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