All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Democrats in the House can only afford to lose 40 members of their caucus when they vote on health care legislation this weekend, and leaders are scrambling to assuage the concerns of certain groups, particularly the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Democrats concerned over abortion issues.

There are already about 25 Democrats who almost certainly will vote against the Democrats' health care package, according to the Washington Post.

On Thursday, the Hispanic caucus told President Obama he could lose 20 more votes if revisions pertaining to immigration are made to the House bill, according to various reports. Mr. Obama met at the White House Thursday with a handful of CHC members, including Caucus Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.).

The lawmakers said they opposed a provision from the Senate health care bill that would prohibit illegal immigrants from buying private insurance plans on the new health insurance exchanges to be created, even with their own money. If the provision is added to the House bill, "I guess they won't have those 20 votes" hinging on the issue, Velazquez said, the Post reports.

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President Obama has yet to take on immigration reform, but the status of undocumented immigrants in the United States will become a hot topic again soon enough as a result of the 2010 census count.

Some Latino groups angered by the president's lack of action on immigration reform are calling for a boycott of the census to prove the Hispanic community's growing political leverage. Other organizations are calling for just the opposite, mobilizing to ensure that the growing minority group is accurately counted.

Meanwhile, two Republican senators will try this week to add questions regarding citizenship and immigration status to the census. Senators David Vitter (R-La.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) recently introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill that would bar funding for the U.S. Census Bureau unless it adds the questions to the nation's survey of the U.S. population, which takes place every ten years.

The census will have an enormous impact on communities, influencing the number of congressional representatives they get and the amount of federal dollars they receive for public works projects like roads and schools. The challenge of counting all of the nation's residents will be even more difficult next year, now that cities are dealing with depleted budgets and will have to seek out citizens who have become homeless or displaced by their own financial hardship.

The census counts everyone who lives in the country, legally or otherwise. For the first time, bilingual English-Spanish census questionnaires will be sent to about 13 million households next year.

Given that communities are granted power and money based on their population, one Latino leader is arguing that local governments should not receive those benefits unless leaders intend to represent all of their residents, including illegal immigrants.

Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, wants illegal immigrants to boycott the census, the Washington Times reports.

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Senators working on health care legislation are giving a fresh look at ways to make sure that only U.S. citizens benefit from an overhaul of the nation's health care system, after an outburst during President Obama's address to Congress put new focus on the issue.

After President Obama on Wednesday said his proposed health care reforms would not apply to illegal immigrants, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted out, "You lie!"

To ensure that new programs or benefits created through health care reform do not apply to illegal residents, Sen. Max Baucus and his bipartisan "gang of six" legislators from the Senate Finance Committee are reportedly considering adding a citizen verification component to their health care bill, which should be unveiled next week.

"We spent some time talking about how one proves one's status to be eligible ... to prove that you're a citizen," Baucus told Roll Call newspaper on Thursday. "Illegal residents are clearly excluded."

Roll Call reports that the gang of six is likely to mandate the use of Social Security numbers as a form of citizenship verification. The group would also likely give alternative means of proving citizenship, since some citizens do not have Social Security numbers.

The committee met Friday morning to discuss the framework for reform that Baucus laid out this week and ways to improve it.

Baucus' framework explicitly states that "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits."

The legislation produced by the House of Representatives also expressly prohibits illegal residents from getting tax credits. As CBSNews.com's Declan McCullagh reports, however, the House bill does not restrict illegal residents from purchasing health care off the proposed health insurance exchange -- a marketplace of both public and private plans. Some illegal immigrants already obtain private insurance now, through their employers or individual plans.

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While Democrats in Congress are hoping to push health care reform forward in honor of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the senator's death serves as a reminder that Congress and President Obama have substantial work to do to accomplish another of Kennedy's lifelong causes: immigration reform.

In a column in Roll Call newspaper, editor Morton Kondracke writes that passing immigration reform would also be a fitting tribute to the stalwart liberal, who died Tuesday night.

Kennedy dramatically changed the United States' immigration system with the Immigration Act of 1965, which eliminated the quota system and allowed immigration from Latin America and Asia to dramatically increase. The bill "will go down as one of our nation's core civil-rights bills of that era," the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute's Vice President Don Kerwin said in a statement.

He also worked to pass the Refugee Act of 1980, and in 1986 he supported a measure that allowed nearly three million undocumented immigrants to gain legal status and established penalties against employers who hired illegal immigrants. He supported the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased the number of immigrants that could enter the country, including those who could enter with permanent job-related visas and temporary worker visas.

"Senator Kennedy was the driving force behind every significant piece of immigration legislation over the past 40-plus years," the American Immigration Law Foundation noted in a statement (PDF).

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, dies at 88...

**President Obama takes health care reform debate to N.H. today...

**Immigration is on the table, it's just going to be a while before he gets to it, Mr. Obama says...

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER: Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics and the sister of former President John F. Kennedy and current Sen. Ted Kennedy, died at 2am today after a long illness, according to her family. She was 88.

Click here for the Boston Globe obituary.

HEALTH CARE: Today, President Obama heads to Portsmouth, N.H., to continue laying out – and continue defending – his health care reform proposal. He will hold a town meeting-style event at 1pm ET at Portsmouth High School; 1,800 tickets have been distributed and, as is happening at these types of events with members of Congress, protestors are expected to show up.

"A White House official said participants wouldn't be screened to keep out opponents," points out the Wall Street Journal's Janet Adamy.

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Asked by CBS News' Katie Couric in an exclusive interview whether illegal immigrants should be covered under a new health care plan, President Obama responded simply, "no." But he said there may need to be an exception to that policy for children.

"First of all, I'd like to create a situation where we're dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don't have illegal immigrants," he said. "And we've got legal residents or citizens who are eligible for the plan. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan that creates a pathway to achieve that."

"The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children," he continued. "Partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren't getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception."

President Obama on Thursday finally held a twice-delayed meeting with members of Congress to discuss immigration reform -- a goal the Obama administration claims to fully support but will keep on the backburner until it becomes more politically feasible. In the meantime, the president announced, the White House is implementing administrative changes that are meant to improve the country's immigration system.

After the meeting, Mr. Obama said immigration reform is "one of the most critical issues that I think this nation faces." Still, he added, "there is not by any means consensus across the table." (Watch a video of the president's remarks here.)

The White House said in a release the meeting aimed to "launch a policy conversation by having an honest discussion about the issues and identifying areas of agreement and areas where we still have work to do, with the hope of beginning the debate in earnest later this year."

The president restated his goals for immigration reform, which he laid out at the Esperanza National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast last week.

"The American people still want to see a solution in which we are tightening up our borders, (and) we're cracking down on employers who are using illegal workers in order to drive down wages," he said. "And we need an effective way to recognize and legalize the status of undocumented workers who are here."

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by Kevin Hechtkopf:

**Mark Sanford's shocking revelation of an affair…

**President Obama tries to focus on health care…

**Immigration reform on tap for today…

Gov. Mark Sanford: The revelation that shocked the political world yesterday came from South Carolina, when the governor admitted that he had an affair.

"I've been unfaithful to my wife, and I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina," Gov. Sanford said during a press conference in the state capital of Columbia.

Sanford had returned to South Carolina from a trip to Buenos Aires on Wednesday morning, and even before the admission of an affair he was the talk of the town for being mysteriously out of pocket for almost a week. He had left last Thursday without telling anyone where he was going, and even misled his staff to think he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

"I've let down a lot of people," Sanford said. "That's the bottom line."

Now the question becomes whether the governor can survive the scandal. While his national aspirations for higher office are clearly over, his spokesman said Sanford had no plans to resign his post as governor. However, he did resign his post as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

"Though Sanford frequently has fought with lawmakers, state leaders largely held their fire Wednesday," writes Clif LeBlanc And John O'Connor in The State newspaper.

"But some said the governor's actions were unacceptable. He left the country and deliberately made himself unavailable ... he misled his staff who unknowingly misled the public," Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler said in a statement. "We cannot let the Governor’s personal life overshadow his public responsibility, or in this case, his negligence of gubernatorial authority."

"Others reiterated the need to clarify state law about when a governor should hand over power if traveling, ill or disabled. Some are wondering if Sanford now lacks the standing to lead the state during a troubled economy and should resign. 'The state needs someone who can be effective,' said Greenville-based consultant Chip Felkel. 'I don’t think Mark can be effective at all.'"

"Those who've worked in previous gubernatorial administrations say the fallout from Sanford's bizarre Appalachian Trail hike-turned-Argentine tango will be significant, long-lasting and extended," writes Robert Behre and Schuyler Kropf of the Post and Courier in Charleston.

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President Obama this morning told a Hispanic audience that he remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform and upholding "America's tradition of a nation of laws and a nation of immigration."

"Those things aren't contradictory, they're complementary," Mr. Obama said at the Esperanza National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. "That's why I'm committed to passing comprehensive immigration reform."

He said the United States should strengthen its border security and also "clarify the status of miillions who are here illegally."

Those who wish to become citizens should be required to pay a penalty, learn English, and get to the back of the line behind those who came here by the rules, he said.

"We must never forget the promise of America has been renewed by immigrants who make their story part of the American story," Mr. Obama said.

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During the debate over immigration reform in Congress over the past few years, certain parties have consistently pointed to border security as a top priority, as the Associated Press points out. The continuing debate over what constituted adequate border security was a major reason why the immigration bill failed three times.

But according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the borders are now safe enough to take a step forward. "We can pass strong, fair, practical and effective immigration reform this year," he said following a hearing on border security Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection said that the number of people arrested while illegally crossing the Mexican border dropped 27 percent from the same period since last year. Along the Canadian border, the number of arrests was down 13 percent.

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