Latest News
Dec 18th: Senate Fails to invoke cloture on House-passed version of DREAM Act. This was the last opportunity to pass DREAM in 2010.
Dec 8th, 2010: House passes DREAM Act, with 216-198 votes.
Dec 2nd, 2010: Details of new version of DREAM Act and Vote scheduled in the House for Friday Dec. 3rd at 10AM.
Nov 30th 2010, Revised Bill introduced in the lame duck session:
This is the latest news from the blogosphere;
The new bill is a bit different from the current version, but not by that much.
It is expected to be introduced sometime this week (Dec 1-3rd) and go straight to cloture vote, which still needs 60 votes to pass.
Sept 23rd 2010, After the vote:
The vote on Tuesday was against cloture 56-43. This means the Senate voted against debating on the Defense Authorization Bill (a historic step on its own, this has passed cloture for 47 years straight).
What this means for the DREAM Act is that it will not debated on as an amendment for the Defense Authorization Bill, not at the moment at least. It could be reintroduced as an amendment again when the Senate revisits the issue, and they have to revisit it, so it could be up for a vote again. This would most likely happen after the Midterm Elections in November.
DREAM is not yet dead. Although it died as an amendment, the actual bill (S.729) was never touched. It could be brought up as an amendment to the Defense bill again, or as a standalone bill.
If brought up as a standalone bill, DREAM has a good likelihood of passing. Some of the senators who voted against cloture were in favor of DREAM, but against passing it as amendment. These included Republican Senators. DREAM continues to have bipartisan support and 70% of the American public support it.
The hard work of SIM members and DREAMers around the country has made DREAM a national topic in the media. It has generated more calls, donations, letters and work in past few weeks than most other campaigns in the past, including Comprehensive Immigration Reform because of the dedicated youth fighting for it.
So, DREAM Act now. DREAM Act in 2010. It will happen.
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On September 14th, 2010, Senator Harry Reid announced that the DREAM act will be included in the National Defense Authorization Act as an amendment. This is a military budget bill passed every year by congress to set allocations of finances for the armed services for the next fiscal year. Including it into this bill makes DREAM likely to pass, however, it is necessary to pressure all of our congress to vote yes for it.
Friday, there will be no vote because most senators will be back in their home states to celebrate Yom Kippur. Monday is a “no vote day.”
The vote is expected to happen next week, September, 21st 2010!
Currently, pressure on Senator Brown will not end until after the vote has taken place. We must push him to support the DREAM act by calling his office, sending a letter, fax or email, visiting the offices in DC and Boston, and also reaching out to our allied organizations.
We must not forget to thank our cosponsors. The Massachusetts delegation of Representatives (all 10 of them!) are cosponsors of DREAM, alongside Senator Kerry. They have signed their name onto DREAM since last summer and we must not forget to thank them for their continued support and their yes vote when the time comes.