By Nancy Matthis at ADMC

Former NFL quarterback and current US Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC) has thrown a long pass over the heads of Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts. Now we urgently need a firestorm of letters, phone calls, faxes, and emails to Congress to put a receiver in the end zone.

On November 6, 2007 Rep. Shuler introduced the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act in Congress as H.R.4088. Shuler explained:

America is a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. We should not reward those who come to our country illegally….

The SAVE Act offers a 3-part plan to drastically reduce illegal immigration: a strict emphasis on border security, the verification of an employee’s legal status, and increased enforcement of existing laws. It provides a sensible solution to the illegal immigration crisis that is affecting every part of our Nation….

But the Democratic party leaders conspired to prevent this legislation from coming to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote. In February 2008 the Washington Times reported:

….the Democrats are putting together an elaborate con job: using tough-sounding rhetoric while working behind the scenes with open-borders advocates in the business community to win support from from firms that have become very dependent on cheap foreign labor. The goal of these Democrats — and possibly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well — is to defeat a bipartisan bill that takes a no-amnesty, enforcement-oriented approach to illegal immigration. Specifically, they are very worried about the fact that a growing number of moderate and conservative Republicans and Democrats (and even a few liberals) are cosponsoring the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, H.R. 4088, introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina Democrat.

The SAVE Act is an omnibus bill that would strengthen border security and require that employers verify that their workers are legally present in the United States. Forty-seven Democrats and 89 Republicans are cosponsoring the Shuler bill, which is currently bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee, where liberals … will work to ensure that it stays there….

Heath Shuler noted the opposition from within his own political party:

Shuler said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership were not pleased with his attempts to get the bill to the House floor.

“They said (the bill) was not the proper thing for our caucus,” Shuler said.

But he said the SAVE Act is “not about Democrats. Not about Republicans. It’s about what is best for America.”

Shuler said he went to Washington to solve problems and was not willing to go along with the leadership in his party.

“You can’t be scared in Washington,” Shuler said. “You have to do what is right.”

Shuler said he understands party leadership and that the party system has a role. But he said partisanship and the struggle for power get in the way of solving problems.

“We need to move forward as a country,” Shuler said. “Not as Democrats, not as Republicans.”

Faced with opposition from entrenched political party leadership, sponsors of the bill are fighting to enforce a discharge petition, whereby the signatures of a simple majority of Congressmen can force a bill stuck in committee onto the House floor. (In the history of Congress, only about two dozen discharge petitions have ever succeeded.) Initially, this effort seemed headed for success, until behind-the-scenes Republican party leadership surfaced.

Speaking to the Rotary Club of Hendersonville, NC in March 2008, Shuler suggested that Arizona’s Republican Senator (and presidential candidate) John McCain was also trying to scuttle this effort:

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler says he believes Republican presidential candidate John McCain blocked his immigration bill from getting a vote on the U.S. House floor. McCain’s staff denies it.

The Waynesville Democrat spoke to the Rotary Club of Hendersonville… He said the Republican leadership tried to bring the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act to the House floor. They used a provision of House rules called a discharge petition, in which a simple majority can bring to the floor a bill that is stuck in committee.

The petition had 181 of the 217 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill.

“It was going great until McCain blocked it,” Shuler said.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, called Republicans in Congress and asked them not to sign the petition, Shuler said. He said after McCain’s intervention, Republicans in the House were less willing to sign onto the bill.

“We’ve really slowed down in the last week in Washington,” Shuler said….

Since then, a few more signatures have been gleaned, and as of today the discharge petition needs only 28 more signatures. As Jim Robb, Vice President of Operations for NumbersUSA, put it in an email to us:

….we are just 28 signatures short of changing history….

Our champion, Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC), has written a masterful bill that would choke off illegal immigration at its ultimate source–jobs going to illegal aliens….

A “discharge petition” effort has been launched. If a majority of the House members sign the discharge petition, Pelosi will be forced by House rules to schedule a vote on the bill. Passage would then be virtually guaranteed, since the majority are already on record supporting it.

We are now only 28 signatures short of success in the petition. This is big news! Only about two dozen discharge petitions have ever succeeded, and we are close to achieving that….

Here is a list of Congressmen who have not yet signed the discharge petition — Blocking SAVE Act by NOT Signing Discharge Petition. These individuals need to be put under the most intense pressure that we can muster to sign!

Use this resource for addresses and phone numbers — Write Your Representative

Most Congressmen do not have direct email addresses because of the spam problem. To email a Congressman, you need to use a web mail feature on his official website. A list of Congressional web mail page URLs is maintained by the University of Michigan — CONGRESSIONAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES.

You can also register with NumbersUSA to send faxes — Action Buffet Registration.

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders syndicate.