NEWS IN BRIEF Washington

Senators get reaction to immigration vote

BY ALEX DANIELS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

WASHINGTON - Since splitting votes on a broad immigration bill last week, Arkansas’ Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor have been taking heat, and receiving kudos, from constituents on either side of the issue.
Pryor helped kill the measure by opposing a motion to cut off debate and bring the bill to a roll call.
Arkansas for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a group of union, Hispanic, religious and pro-immigrant groups, voiced its disapproval in advance. It sent a bouquet of 12 American flags to Pryor’s Little Rock office. Each flag represented 1 million of the estimated 12 million people in the United States illegally, said Neil Sealy, a spokesman for the group. A card read: “We are America.”
However, Sealy said provisions in the failed bill were anti-family, because they made it harder for immigrants to come to the United States to join relatives.
The bouquet was displayed in the front room of Pryor’s office Tuesday, said his spokesman, Michael Teague.
Teague said that with the exception of the coalition, all of the response Pryor has gotten has been positive. “He’s gotten a lot of ‘thank you’s,” Teague said.
Lincoln voted to end debate and call the roll. She received a “thank you” from Arkansas for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, in the form of a cake and greeting card that lauded her for her “courage.”
Lincoln said that she’s heard from people on both sides, including some who are “frustrated” with her vote. “It’s been a mixed bag,” she said during a conference call with reporters.
She defended the bill, however, saying it placed an emphasis on border security and made illegal aliens undergo background checks and pay penalties if they want to stay in the country.
While she said it was “interesting” hearing from people critical of her vote, “many of them are misinformed about what we’ve been trying to do in Washington.”
When it approved funds for the Delta Regional Authority last month, the House Appropriations Committee did so only grudgingly. The authority, which gives out economic-development grants to organizations in the Mississippi Delta region, has fared better in the Senate.
The House panel set the authority’s budget at $6 million and required that it limit expenses to 5 percent of its spending. In a note accompanying the bill, appropriators added a request that the authority communicate better with members of Congress.
That followed criticism by Arkansas’ Rep. Marion Berry, a Democrat who sits on the appropriations committee, who said he didn’t want the agency to receive any funding if it couldn’t develop a long-term strategy and be more transparent with Congress.
Last week, in its version of the spending bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee restored the authority’s budget to its current level of $12 million. Senate appropriators included a note in the bill praising the authority’s “commendable record” in helping the rural poor.
Asked for Berry’s response to that action, Angela Guyadeen, his spokesman, said the 1st District congressman “supports money going to the [authority]. We’re trying to make sure the money is being spent wisely.”
 
This article was published on page 13 of the Wednesday, July 04, 2007 edition in the Front Section.