The Serrano Report, Vol. VII, #25

House Sends DREAM Act on to Senate

On Wednesday evening the House narrowly passed the DREAM Act by a vote of 216 - 198. The bill, which for procedural reasons involved Senate Amendments to an unrelated piece of legislation, would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States before they were 16 years old. The bill would require applicants for the new process to pay additional fees and then complete either two years of service in the military or two years of higher education.

"Our immigration system is clearly broken and I wish that we were passing a comprehensive immigration bill that fully addressed the needs of the large number of undocumented immigrants in our country and set a reasonable, achievable immigration policy for the future,"said Serrano after the vote. "We cannot continue to ignore this issue.

"However, time has run out on such a bill in this Congress and the DREAM Act is the least we can do for this small portion of the population that so deserves a chance at citizenship. They have grown up here and it is past time that we recognized that they merit an opportunity to become American citizens.

"As a nation of immigrants, it will be a shame if we cannot even agree that these people deserve a chance to become citizens of what is for many the only country they have known. For that reason I urge the Senate to take up and pass this bill, and I look forward to continuing to work for a comprehensive reassessment of our failed immigration policy.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.

Watch the video below to see Serrano's statement in favor of the bill during the debate.

House Passes Food Safety Bill

Wednesday, as part of a bill to fund the government for fiscal year 2011, the House passed legislation that takes a number of steps to improve food safety in the United States. For food grown or processed overseas, the bill increases regulations to make sure that it is subject to the same standards as food produced in the United States. Within the United States the bill increases the number of FDA inspections for processing plants and increases the FDA's authority to recall contaminated food, a power that currently relies on the cooperation of the producer. To ease the burden of additional regulations on the smallest producers the bill exempts them from certain provisions, although any violations will cause them to lose their exemption.

"As the sources of the food we eat increases it is critical that we work harder to ensure that all the food we eat is safe," said Serrano. "It is imporant that we give the FDA the authority and resources it needs to do its job properly, to ensure that it can do a sufficient number of inspections on food coming from different sources. I was pleased to vote for this bill and look forward to the implementation of these important changes."

The bill will now go back to the Senate as part of the package funding the government for next year.

Youth Ambassador Grant

Application Deadline: January 27, 2011

The U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs recently announced the availability of funding to support cultural exchange programs for youth and young adults between the U.S. and South America.  The Youth Ambassadors Program with South America promotes structured, intensive exchanges focused on civic education, community service, and youth leadership development.  Exchange delegations will travel from 10 South American countries to the United States, and U.S. exchange delegations will travel to select countries.  Public institutions of higher education and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations are encouraged to apply.

For more information about this opportunity, please click here.

For information on other government grants, please go to: www.grants.gov.