more on Bush expresses passport surprise - but he signed the bill!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ethan Ackerman <eackerma () u washington edu>
Reply-To: <eackerma () u washington edu>
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 23:33:48 -0400
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] Bush expresses passport surprise - but he signed the bill!


Greetings Dave -

In light of Pres. Bush's recent rethinking of the re-entry passport
requirements, and with Representatives and Senators beginning to line up
against the idea (try google news with: passport Canada) - including Senate
Democrats like Schumer and Clinton, and Republicans like Murkowski, it might
be time for a little look back at just how this happened.

The requirement that passports be shown by US citizens when traveling from
Canada, Mexico, etc. is not some "surprise, sinister" plan concocted by the
current Administration, but rather a "surprise, sinister plan" concocted by
an overwhelming majority of the elected representatives in Congress - the
President just happily signed it.  I'd hate to think from the LA times
article that the President reads the paper with more attentiveness than he
reads the laws he signs.


The facts are rather simple: The House and Senate overwhelmingly required
this.
The House by a vote of 336 to 75
(http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2004&rollnumber=544 )
and the Senate by a vote of 89  to 2 (yes only 2 Senators opposed the bill
which contained this!!)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm
?congress=108&session=2&vote=00216

The President signed this law on Dec. 17th, praising it up and down...
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_la
ws&docid=f:publ458.108
and
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041217-1.html


The bill, in section 7209, requires the secretary of Homeland Security to
"develop and implement a plan as expeditiously as possible to require a
passport or other document ... for all travel into the United States by
United States citizens. ... This plan shall be implemented not later than
January 1, 2008 ...

The bill goes on to require:
"The plan developed [above] shall require all United States citizens ... to
carry and produce the documentation described [above] when traveling from
foreign countries into the United States."


This is all right there in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention
Act of 2004 - online at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:SN02845:|TOM:/bss/d108query.htm
l|

-Ethan


-------------- Original message --------------

Subject: [IP] Bush expresses surprise at announced plan for passports
to/from Canada
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
To: Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 20:30:54 -0400

>
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-041405bush_lat,0,1122459.s
> tory?coll=la-home-nation
>
> WASHINGTON ‹ President Bush has ordered State Department and immigration
> officials to find a less onerous way to secure America's borders than to
> require U.S. citizens to show passports or some other specialized
documents
> when reentering the country from Mexico and Canada.
[...]
> The president also indicated that he was caught off-guard when officials
at
> the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department announced the
> plan last week and said it would be implemented by 2008.
>
> "When I first read that in the newspaper," Bush told the journalists, "I
> said, 'What's going on here?' I thought there was a better way to expedite
> legal flow of traffic and people."



------ End of Forwarded Message


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/