A Senate-passed provision to shorten the length of time that immigrants in the U.S. military must wait to apply for U.S. citizenship is moving toward enactment.  The provision would affect the 37,000 legal permanent residents who are on active duty in the armed forces and an additional 13,000 that are in the reserves.  At least 14 “green-card troops” have been killed during the war in Iraq.

The legislation should extend naturalizations benefits to active-duty members and reservists, and ease immigration rules for certain family members of soldiers killed on duty.

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Rep. Ernest Istook, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies, is making an effort to tear apart Clinton Executive Order 13166 by including in the fiscal year 2004 Transportation and Treasury spending bill a measure that exempts the Department of Transportation from requiring state and localities using federal highway funds to provide multilingual signs.

The measure passed the final House transportation spending package, but no such provision is included in the Senate package.  A Democratic spokesperson said that the measure faced little opposition because the provision would have little effect since no state or local governments use multilingual road signs.

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The following bills were recently introduced in Congress:

S.1843: A bill to amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act to provide for FamilyCare coverage for parents of enrolled children, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] (introduced 11/10/2003)
Latest Major Action: 11/10/2003 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

For a review of all the immigration bills introduced this year, visit our legislative chart at www.visalaw.com/advocacy.html.