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| 📷 State Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, talks with a reporter at the polls in Lewiston on July 14, 2020. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett) |
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📄 House Republicans held up a conservative-led bill on asylum seekers.
◉ An interesting wrinkle developed on Tuesday, when Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives thwarted the passage of a bill from Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, that would lobby President Joe Biden's administration for a waiver allowing asylum seekers to work when they arrive in Maine.
◉ Brakey, a libertarian-leaning conservative, recruited top Democratic and Republican leaders to co-sponsor the measure. The federal government cannot waive federal law, but it is meant to pressure changes from Congress and decrease pressure on the social safety net from immigrants who now must rely on it when they first arrive.
◉ Opposition within the Republican caucus led the bill to fall short of the two-third majority needed to clear the chamber after easily getting through the Senate. There was no floor debate in the House, but sources said some members in a closed-door House Republican caucus echoed points similar to those made by hardline former Rep. Larry Lockman, R-Bradley.
◉ He said in a recent column that said Maine "doesn’t need any more magnets drawing poor, non-English speaking foreigners to settle here."
◉ Brakey said he would strip the emergency clause requiring two-thirds approval in the Senate next week and seek to pass the bill. |
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What we're reading
🛢️ Fuel and oil are still leaking into Maine waterways after a train derailed.
👵 The amount of money stolen from Mainers by elder fraud exploded in 2022.
🏠 Maine foreclosure rates declined sharply early this year.
📣 Ethics questions prompt calls for a prominent county official to resign.
🧳 A former University of Maine football player must repay $228,000 in loan fraud. |
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