The DREAM Act passed the House, but outlook for the Senate is not so good. The DREAM Act is short for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. Wikipedia provides the following information:
This bill would provide certain illegal and deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously and illegally for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. The students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have “acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor’s degree or higher degree in the United States,” or have “served in the uniformed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge.”[2] Military enlistment contracts require an eight year commitment, with active duty commitments typically between four and six years, but as low as two years.[3][4] “Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated [according to the terms of the Act] shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act.”
The women of Moonhowlings, including its sponsor, support the DREAM Act and feel that those who do not support it are wasting a valuable human resource–good students of strong moral character who study hard and want to become productive members of society. Those attributes sound like good Americans to me. All too many American kids lack these good traits.
Every year we allow thousands of students to pour into the United States from other countries to attend our colleges and universities. Often these students go home, taking their newly acquired educations with them. Our potential DREAM Act students won’t leave. They are as American as most of our kids, they just lack the paperwork, through no fault of their own. Why on earth would we want to deport well behaved kids who do their work in school? These kids will help our work force, pay taxes and social security.
According the the LA Times:
The House passed the Dream Act after a late, hastily scheduled vote. Proponents called it the most significant immigration legislation to pass the House in a decade.
“Let’s give the dream kids an opportunity. They are American in every way but a piece of paper,” said Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a leading supporter. “We have come here to support the rule of law, yes, but to change the law when it is unfair.”
A handful of Republicans in both chambers criticized the Dream Act as “nightmare” amnesty legislation bound to be abused and easily subject to fraud. They said it would create more competition for work in a recession.
We can’t have it both ways. People moan and bitch about illegal immigrants joining gangs. We further grouse about them dropping out of school, leaving schools with high drop out rates. Yet, some folks are unwilling to give these kids who have proven themselves a chance. It makes no sense. To deny hard-working with kids with good grades a chance for higher education, at their own expense, is just plain old mean-spirited.
I’m excited this passed in the House. I pray it will survive the Senate. Thank you for expressing your support.
So there is nothing to lose, and everything to gain by jumping the line and coming illegally, especially once the children’s futures are secured. I’ve been pretty anti-Republican in the last few weeks, but here they are spot on that this is a back door to amnesty.
What a slap in the face to American citizens and LEGAL immigrants the Nightmare Act is. It’s bad enough that illegal aliens educated our dime thanks to Plyler vs. Doe, but to furhter roll out the red carpet is unacceptable. Give me a break!
BTO-I’m hoping that the Senate will act in the best interest of we the people and put this Nightmare Act to bed!!
The kids didn’t jump in line. They worked hard in school or they aren’t eligible to be considered. Why are they any different than your kids or mine?
Slap in the face? Have you seen the number of immigrant kids in the ROTC programs? Check them out marching in the Christmas parade. I don’t see the ROTC ranks filled with young anglo kids all filled with pride. Perhaps some would prefer to see these kids as gang members.
Hard working kids need to be able to continue their dreams, whether academically or in the military. They don’t take from the country. They grow up and give back.
The bottom line is, you and I don’t know if they are legal or illegal. The only person who knows is the kid who is stopped at the gate …..and not allowed to continue because they lack a piece of paper. You want them to go back to some country where most cannot read or write the native language and take that education that you paid for with YOUR tax dollars and have it jut dissolve? If that is the case then mean spiritedness outweighs practicality and what is really good for America. An educated citizenry is always in the best interest of America.
What’s the “definition” worked hard in school? Passed with a D or with solid GPA.
With regards to the ROTC. Do you that they are all immigrants legal or otherwise? I have a feeling many of them are US Citizens thanks to the 14th Amendment.
I didn’t say they had to stop dreaming. But why should they be rewarded with the benefits of American citizens such as instate tution and such things. They’ve already gotten a FREE public school education because of Plyler vs. Doe. There has to be a cut off at some point. Yes, I too want an educated citizenry, but not at my and my family’s expense. We are broke, and need to take care of our legal residents first and foremost.
I’m just not ready to repeat all of the immigration stuff over. I wish I had posts saved that I could just cut & paste.
I’ve always stated I certainly do understand people wanting to immigrate to country. However, there is a LEGAL process and that needs to be followed. I do believe the immigration policy is in dire need of overhauling. However, by rewarding illegal aliens we are rolling out the carpet for others to slip into our country illegally. Geesh.
Here’s to the Senate do the right thing today!! I’ve already fired off my emails. I probably won’t be back to read until after the workday is done. I don’t need by blood pressure to rise.
No one has proposed that anyone pay for these students to go to school. Right now, most are prohibited from going to 4 year schools. Its a paper work issue.
This really isn’t about immigration. Its about kids who have done the right thing. They need a way to legally go to college (paying their own way) and they need a way to legally go in to the military. I would be all for giving the kids a student visa so they could go to college. However, probably more is needed and the student visa would help those who want to enter the military.
Obviously a person with D’s wouldn’t be admitted to most 4 year colleges. No one is asking for any thing special. The Dream Act kids would have the same expectations as anyone else. All the Dream ACt is about is not having a barricade to a certain group of students.
Having had MANY an immigrant child in my folds during my years of being a school counselor, how anyone can deny them an opportunity is simply mean spirited. If these kids, having been involunarily brought here, want to contribute to our society, what the hell is wrong with that?
For many of these children, they see THIS country as their own. How many people here KNOW, personally, children who could benefit from being able to DREAM. I imagine, if you know, personally, a child who would benefit, your opinion would change.
Lafayette,
You don’t see a difference between the adults and the children who are trying to do the right thing?
Do you really believe in your heart that children should be held to the same culpability as their parents who brought them here?
With Moonhowlers permission, I highly doubt that ANYONE on this blog has seen, firsthand, the number of real life children who fall into the category of a DREAMer more than she has.
In my cynical way, I view the Act based on one phrase “complete two years of military service”.
Two years…ah, yes, the length of service from the days of the DRAFT! The dreaded word nobody wants to touch; same as the idea that there be two years of mandatory government service such as there is in other countries.
Having that phrase in the Act equates in my old Sergeant’s mind the same as lifting DADT – everyway will be found to have young bodies fills the ranks as we are breaking our current military with repeated operations and deployments; stretching thinner with basing more Army back in South Korea just in case.
“Rather, it allows individuals to apply for legal permanent resident status on a conditional basis if, upon enactment of the law, they are under the AGE OF 35, arrived in the United States before the age of 16, have lived in the United States for at least the last five years, and have obtained a US high school diploma or equivalent” (Caps are mine)
Since when is a child between the ages of 18-35?
How does one determine when they entered the US?
How does ICE follow up on the immigrant if they fail in any of the the above requirements?
Since they return to their previous immigration status if they do fail, how do we deport them?
Since they have to be in the US for, at least, 5 years, and entered before the age of 16, why not cut off the deadline at at age of 21? Entering at the age of 16? Old enough to know better.
Individuals 18-34 and over 35 who already have obtained a degree from a postsecondary institution would be eligible IMMEDIATELY for conditional status and for permanent status after six years based on their existing educational attainments and assuming they can demonstrate good moral character. (caps mine)
This is not about “saving the children.” This is about getting more vote for the Democrat party. This is amnesty. We are rewarding illegal immigrant families for successfully evading ICE, breaking the law, and using false identification.
You want to do something for the children? Then make it about the children.
There is no time limits on the Act. So, if enacted, all future illegal aliens can bring their children, KNOWING, that if they meet these standards, can game the system, and their children become citizens.
That’s how they are jumping the line. This will become the defacto means of becoming a citizen.
@Moon-howler
Then there’s that Cal State Fresno student body President who lied to the student body when running…….
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/18/local/la-me-1118-illegal-immigrant-presiden20101118
So where do we draw the line? When does our national sovereignty matter? If we do not enforce the law, do squatter laws take effect? Because that’s technically what illegal aliens are.
“You want them to go back to some country where most cannot read or write the native language”
But, what about all the English and Canadian illegal immigrants? Besides, I hear that, once immersed, German, and French, and Polish, and Italian, etc are all very easy to learn.
Oh. Are you telling me that these are probably Mexican or Central American illegal aliens? I thought that we weren’t supposed to look at that predominance as evidence; that it would be profiling…..
I forgot. This doesn’t state whether or not an illegal alien has to apply for Dream Act status (whatever that would be) before entering the military or if previous military membership applies.
I ask, because if they already had military service, then they entered the military under dishonest means. The military is not allowed to recruit illegal aliens.
Then again, we’re talking about children. Children wouldn’t have been in the mil…oh, again…there’s that age of 34 years cut off……
DREAM vs. Reality:
An Analysis of Potential
DREAM Act Benefciaries
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34069747/DREAM-Act
S U M M A RY: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:262qVXyblXAJ:www.scribd.com/doc/34069747/DREAM-Act+Dream+act+34+years+old&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2011/hb1465/
Ya know…..I know of a way to stop the need for all this….
Secure the border.
Enforce all immigration laws.
Deport illegal aliens.
Then those “children” wouldn’t be in the country long enough to qualify.
Cargo,
How many of these children do you know personally?
Too many outliers in all that to even address it. I don’t even want to hear about the outliers that slip in through the cracks. In every situation there are outliers.
Most of us who support the DREAM Act simply want kids who are in a cawtch 22 to be able to remedy their own situation.
To take political rhetoric out on young people who are doing the right thing appears to just be a way to keep people who have overcome many odds down.
Look at the reality of the situation. I don’t like hearing about woulda coulda shoulda.
I think the Senate Dems just killed the DREAM act.
Washington (CNN) — Senate Democrats conceded Thursday they don’t have the votes to pass the DREAM Act, a bill that would have offered a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children.
Democrats voted to pull the measure from consideration, a move that jeopardizes the chances for passing the hotly contested bill during the current lame-duck session of Congress that ends in early January.
I don’t really know too much about the bill except that it seems to push an unfunded mandate to the states. I’m not for that. I’m also for ‘fixing’ the problems that we have WRT the length of time it takes to process applications and of course enforcement.
The military service part of this is interesting to me but I want to make sure this doesn’t impact force readiness and manage the constant churn of 4 year enlistments and people leaving (the service) now that they have a skill and citizenship.
Lots of open ended questions in my mind.
@Elena
None.
It doesn’t matter. And, if you think I don’t have sympathy for those in the catch-22 of being raised American by illegal alien parents, you are wrong. But, the law does not allow sympathy and neither does the politics. Why should these children benefit from the law-breaking of their parents? Would children of Madoff get to keep the money because they would become destitute otherwise? Illegal aliens cheat. Legal immigrants have not. My brother-in-law worked his butt off to get here legally from Guatemala. He can’t STAND the fact that this country has abrogated the responsibility of enforcing its borders and thus, making his sacrifices and efforts a joke.
Do we allow future illegal aliens to blithely cross our border so that they’re children just become “defacto” citizens?
Do we enforce any of our immigration laws?
Is sympathy for the plight of children of illegal aliens enough to disregard a law?
Where do we draw the line? What do you think Mexico would do if the tide was going the other way?
THIS act is a travesty. It uses the plight of these children to carry the amnesty for adults. 18-34 year old illegal aliens are not children. There is no verification of how long illegal aliens HAVE been in the country.
As I said, if they want to do something for the children, then make a law covering THE CHILDREN.
The Democrats are being bastards today. Let today go on record as to why I freaking HATE both parties. Too much posturing and play acting.
Cargo, not to sound like a Republican, but if your brother in law doesn’t like how we do things in this country, he is free to leave and go back to HIS country.
How dare he criticize this country. The border is more secure now than it has ever been. the problem is so many more people want to come here because of conditions at home.
Your brother in law needs to get his facts straight. It certainly has not abrogated its responsibility in protecting its borders. I get real tired of hearing that. How many border patrol agents are there? How many of our troops? How many miles of barricade?
I believe everyone is for taking the red tape out of coming here legally.
Opposition to the Dream Act promotes oppression and makes sure that there is a foot on a permanent under class. There is literally NOTHING these kids can do. As for 35–how many 35 year olds will really take advantage of it?
I get extremely angry when education is denied to any group of people. There are too many native slugs who waste the opportunity afforded them. If just one immigrant kid per high school were to take advantage of the Dream act, it would all be worth it.
Marin, I see no way it is an unfunded mandate. Giving someone the paper work needed to be able to go to college really isn’t a lot. No one is saying full tuition. As for in state tuition, they already get it if they go to NOVA don’t they? Good. They have paid sales tax and can prove residency.
Actually, my bro in law became a citizen decades ago, so this is his country. The illegal immigrants are making a mockery of his sacrifices so that he could come here legally. OUR country is making a mockery of the sacrifices that all LEGAL immigrants make because we refuse to enforce our own laws. Every single illegal alien that wants to, will take advantage of this bill. If its for “the kids” why are illegal aliens of that age even in the bill?>
And no, the border is not secure. We don’t stop people from crossing. We get less than one in 10, if that. Apparently we don’t have enough agents. As for troops, none. The previous deployed office workers have returned home. If we WERE serious, we would put troops on the border and take back that Nat’l park area in Arizona that now a no-go area.
Few deportations happen. Businesses are barely penalized when they are prosecuted while the same businesses cannot inquire as to residency.
More people want to come here for many reasons. One is that we obviously don’t enforce our immigration laws. See the sanctuary cites and the lawsuit against Arizona.
How is education being denied these “kids?” I linked to the Cal State Fresno student body president who is an illegal alien. Many states allow them to have instate tuition. You keep saying “immigrant” kid. Really? How many LEGAL immigrant children are having trouble getting services because the localities are overwhelmed by ILLEGAL immigrants.
“prove residency.”
Just read this. Really? Prove residency because they’ve paid sales taxes? How are they different than someone from Texas that has moved here to go to college? Since they are here illegally, how does one prove residency? Did they get here last week? Or were they here from the age of 2 days old? What forms of fake ID have they used to prove that residency? They need ID to get a driver’s license and where did they get the SS number?
I wouldn’t get all frazzled yet about this issue. Somewhere down the road in the new Congress, I suspect that a deal may be worked out in which there could be a trade-off for the Dream Act in some form with a much tougher and much more visible system for protecting the border and thereby preventing an endless need for programs like the Dream Act. Without such a compromise, I do doubt that the Dream Act as currently conceived will ever get by a Republican-controlled House. Ergo, a probable reason why the Dem House tried to push it through now.
I do not think any of us knows how secure that border is right now. The big elephant in the room is our bad economy and how much of an effect that has had on the inflow of illegal border crossers. Just to cite lower numbers from the Border Patrol at this particular point in time is, in my opinion, a mistaken use of statistics. See how that works out if and when the economy comes back and the job lure is out there once again. As for the “troops” on the border, did I not hear recently that the National Guard is soon to be withdrawn? In any case, I think you have to look at border security improvements in terms of potential effectiveness in a good economy and not from the aspect of lower immigration stats during a bad one. So, I say once again: “Let’s make a deal!”
Wolverine, which National Guard units were deployed? Did I miss some? Besides, any units deployed are not allowed to actually do anything. They are office help.
Lets mobilize the Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and California Guard. Stop sending them to Afghanistan. I mean, Obama has already surrendered and set a withdrawal date. And we do still have troops in Iraq. I thought that we were leaving…….oh, yeah. Its only “non-combat” combat troops there now.
@Cargosquid
Obviously, I was mimicking what I have heard said regarding people who don’t like how things are in America. Telling people to leave if they don’t like it really isn’t an acceptable solution. Telling kids who have grown up here and been part of this culture to go home is not an acceptable solution either. Sorta makes you bristle, doesn’t it?
Telling a kid there is no hope makes ME bristle.
I don’t know what happens in California. Perhaps that situation is another outlier. What I do know is that kids who are good students can only go to NOVA in Virginia. Perhaps they can go to private colleges also. Very few people have the funds for that.
I don’t like telling kids who have worked hard and who have done the right thing that they are forever relegated to living in the shadows because of their parents. There is just something UnAmerican about it.
My husband’s mother was the daughter of an Irish immigrant and a German immigrant. Her father died in 1918 during one of the influenza epidemics. Her widowed mother somehow managed to bring up 4 girls. I believe she was a seamstress, living in Northampton, MA. MIL Howler was an excellent student. The older siblings somehow saved enough money and she got enough scholarship money to go to Smith College. (Nancy Davis Reagan attended there shortly after she did.)
She didn’t graduate from Smith because she was a little rich girl like her classmates. Far from it. She pulled the Smith College thing off because of hard work and the hard work of her siblings.
Is her story identical to an illegal immigrant kids, No. And she was born in this country.
Somehow, I just don’t think it matters. No kid should know from kindergarten on that they will never be able to enter college. Maybe it didn’t work this time. However, one day it will work. Maybe Republicans will gain a conscience and maybe one day all Democrats will stop being hypocrites. Actually right now I hate both parties. And all of this simply makes me want to vomit. I guess its a good thing there are immigrant kids and gays out there. We needs some more victims to hate.
50 years of liberal insanity is what got us into this mess in the first place. president eisenhauer, the last commander in chief who led an america which undertood the necessity of a country to secure its borders. what if tomorrow the u.n. demands that we allow 100 million of the world’s population to settle in the u.s. should we say ok to that too? sounds crazy, but why not? have we no compassion? how about 200 million? a billion?
The thing about “Dreams” in the traditional sense is they tend to be too fantastic to be real and some of us forget them completly when we wake up….
I’m part of a new generation of Americans who did fantastic in college, graduated, but was unable to get the job I dreamed about because it was outsourced…
Unless we can create a sustainable local economy for these children to work in, this will just turn into a nightmare for the immigrant children and our own.
My “Goal” for the children (for I’m taking the basic classes needed to get a teaching liscense) is to help them learn to love and respect nature. If you respect nature, it will provide for you, if you forget nature, it’ll erase you and start a new evolutionary cycle of organisms that may have better respect for their mother.
These kids can go to college. Just in their home country. Or here in America. There are many already in college. The Act even acknowledges that. My question is why is that child in an American kindergarten in the first place? Send the family home.
Yes, I know that you consider that the US is these kids’ home country because they grew up here. Well, the “Republican’s conscience” wants these kids to not have this problem and wants the illegal immigrants sent back as soon as possible. What makes it possible that illegal immigrants can live in this country under falsie ID and raise entire families without deportation? The first time these kids get registered, they should provide ID. And if they are illegal immigrants, send the family home.
It is because we “feel sorry” for these illegal immigrants that allows this problem to become insurmountable. Again, if you want to help these kids, then make a bill that is limited to children. And make it children that are already here. Otherwise, its just another incentive for illegal aliens to jump the line and use resources that should go to LEGAL aliens and immigrants.
You keep attributing a lack of conscience to the GOP and talking about hating. See, this is part of the problem. Conservatives look at that and say, “WTF?” How about the rule of law? Should we ignore other laws that make lives hard for innocents? Blame the parents. THEY are the ones that broke the law. We don’t hate illegal immigrants. Conservatives like the idea of immigrants that want to become Americans. We just want them to follow the law like everyone else.
@rod2155
Define sustainable for me. The modern economy needs global sources of raw materials. And in what way do you mean local? How local?
It all sounds good, but, what does it actually mean?
Please, I’m not trying to give you a hard time. Its just that I hear this all the time, but no one explains it in detail.
That comment by rod2155 is rather interesting. Here we have someone who did well in college but could not secure the “dream job” which was obviously the ultimate goal of all that hard work. Yet, we continue to talk here almost as if the sole purpose of the Dream Act is to give as many of those “immigrant” kids as possible the right to go to public four-year colleges.
Not just a bit ago, someone on another thread mentioned that the only guy in the neighborhood who owned a Cadillac was the plumber. Quite frankly, it has often occurred to me that, even in the worst of economies, the people most likely to keep their jobs the longest are those in the skilled trades, without the likes of whom most of us highly educated but often unskilled dummies would be solidly up the proverbial creek without a paddle. There are skads of our kids with all kinds of fancy college degrees in computer science who cannot find a “dream job” and sometimes any job at all. But I have a son-in-law without that sheepskin who has made himself into an absolute whiz at fixing up crashed systems, installing security mechanisms, chasing out viruses, and the like. He doesn’t have a B.S. or a B.A. All he has is more work than he can handle and people begging him to come when their systems go down in a society now so utterly dependent upon electronics.
Right now I have some electrical needs in my house. I am not going to put the call out for a Ph.D. from UVa. I am trying to find an electrician who is both good and reasonable in price. I need that guy. If he is properly licensed, knows what he is doing, and does it well, I don’t care if he only has a high school diploma from the local vocational school. I have multiple college degrees but I am not about to look down on someone who can do the things which this ham-handed college graduate has no clue about whatsoever.
I would like to see many of those “immigrant” kids go into the truly skilled trades, meld in seamlessly with that part of our legal population already there, and wind up eventually driving that Cadillac while I am still putsying around in my old Chevy. I think we may have arrived at a point where we have oversold college to a lot of kids and could be taking them away from skilled jobs which may suffer far less with the ups and downs of the economy. I can do without that new fancy electronic gadget for awhile; but, by Gosh, when I need that plumber, I need that plumber….NOW!! If he tells me he can’t come because he is taking classes in ornithology at GMU, I’ll say “Fine, good luck with that!” Then I’ll start looking for another plumber.
I’d just like to point out that there is a major discussion going on in other parts of the intertubes about the “college bubble” and the lack of jobs; about how college is terribly overpriced, they lie about job placement, and force high debt on young people that may be unable to pay it back. School loans cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy and the lenders will not work to modify it if you can’t pay. They like defaults because the penalties and interest are higher.
Many Americans are not sympathetic to the DREAM Act.
For those who are, please note this. A more narrowly tailored version would have had a better chance to pass. But in point of fact the Democratic leadership was much more interested in putting this out there, to keep Hispanic lobbying groups off their backs, and to continue to court the Hispanic voting bloc, than in actually making laws. This is, as so many things are, all about politics. Those who seek passage of this type of “Amnesty lite” really have no advocates in Congress. None of us do. We’re governed by elitist whores who manipulate us with marketing campaigns.
The people in Congress don’t much care about the kids who can’t go to college, nor about borders ecurity or sovereignty. They just play games with those issues.
Even in that context, Luis Guitierrez manages to offend me. “You try going through school without a Pell Grant”. I did, Luis, I did.
@Rick, I am just tired of the word amnesty. It is being misused. Amnesty is no penalty forgiveness. That is not what the Dream Act is about.
Many Americans are sympathetic, even if you want to say they aren’t. I know many people who see these kids in no man’s land. That is the injustice of the situation. I really don’t give a rat’s ass about the politics.
Amnesty is ANY type of forgiveness that allows an illegal alien to stay in the country while seeking citizenship.
All it is is politics, Moon. If it were about anything else they would have put a bill out that had half a chance. But such a bill would have angered the hard core pro-Amnesty groups, so it’s not in the Democratic Party’s interest, so they play charades with bills like this. And they keep the issue in play, which is where they want it – in stasis, so they can continue to milk the Latino vote as best they can.
The GOP does it with abortion. The issue’s in stasis, and each party profiteers off taking a “strong stance” on the issue they would never move to unfreeze. The Democrats are doing it with this issue as much as any.
That’s what passes for “leadership” from whores like Reid, Obama, Boehner, Bush. That’s the leadership that’s ruining our country.
Gotta love the tax compromise between Obama and the GOP. Something for everyone, more borrowing while running deficits, and put the bill off another few years. Where are the Tea Partiers when this is going down? Shouldn’t they be standing up screaming?
Rick,
I think that the tax compromise slipped past most of the Tea Party groups since it went down so quickly. Those of us that actually know a bit about it, want either side to kill it. I think Obama suckered the GOP. I think the GOP didn’t care so that THEY could have political coverage. The current GOP pols don’t want the TP GOP and the others to get credit for saving the tax cuts. Personally, if I was the GOP, I’d point out that the Dems control both houses and the Executive, and say loudly and clearly, that its up to the Dems to save the middle class and not raise taxes. When it all tanks, we then know whom to blame.
Its up to the new House members to enact any tax reform. I say freeze it ALL until the new members are seated in January.