Plant incident prompts 'no' vote

Brown-Waite rejects a Homeland Security bill after it sheds immigration rules.

By JOHN FRANK
Published May 11, 2007

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's concerns about illegal immigrants working at nuclear power plants prompted the Brooksville Republican to take a controversial vote against a major Homeland Security bill this week.

The measure, which passed 296-126 with the support of the power-wielding Democrats, restores $2.1-billion for first responders through grant programs, keeps open the Florida office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and allows the government to better investigate disaster response and border security.

But Brown-Waite said the bill didn't go far enough after a number of provisions, including a few focusing on illegal immigration, were removed.

"There is no way that we could support this unless we want to water down homeland security," Brown-Waite, a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday.

At the heart of her argument: an incident at Progress Energy's Crystal River plant in 2005 where three painters used fake Social Security numbers to get their jobs and gain access to the nuclear power facility.

A provision written by Brown-Waite would have required employers at highly sensitive sites such as nuclear plants to check a list of employees against immigration status databases. But Democrats cut the measure during the final negotiations.

[Last modified May 10, 2007, 23:54:29]