Bring the DREAM Act up for a vote, Senator! An open letter to Majority Leader Rodney Tom

Edi­tor’s note: Ear­li­er today, fol­low­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ light­ning fast pas­sage of the DREAM Act, NPI founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor Andrew Vil­leneuve sent this mes­sage to Sen­a­tor Rod­ney Tom, who rep­re­sents the 48th Dis­trict (Belle­vue, Red­mond, Kirk­land, Med­i­na, Clyde Hill) and is — at least in name — the Major­i­ty Leader of the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

Sen­a­tor Tom:

I’m writ­ing about some com­ments you made today. From The Seat­tle Times:

Asked about the Dream Act and the Repro­duc­tive Par­i­ty Act, anoth­er Democrat[ic]-priority bill, Rod­ney Tom said his cau­cus intends to stick to jobs, edu­ca­tion and the budget.

The DREAM Act has to do with edu­ca­tion. So it’s with­in the purview you out­lined to the Seat­tle Times’ Olympia cor­re­spon­dent, Andrew Garber.

Do you have a fall­back excuse to explain why this leg­is­la­tion won’t be com­ing up for a vote this ses­sion, even though the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has just vot­ed, giv­ing the Sen­ate ample time for consideration?

If you’re tru­ly the major­i­ty leader, as opposed to major­i­ty leader in name only, you should be able to bring this bill up for a vote in the Senate.

I mean, besides you, just one oth­er vote from your cau­cus would be need­ed, and then togeth­er, with the Democ­rats, there’d be twen­ty-five votes for this bill.

Sure­ly you could round up one of your fel­low cau­cus mem­bers to cross the aisle and vote aye on the DREAM Act? You’re the one sup­pos­ed­ly in favor of putting things up for a vote when there is a “philo­soph­i­cal” major­i­ty… isn’t that what all that Ninth Order busi­ness was all about in 2012?

What does it mat­ter if the House does­n’t oper­ate that way? It did­n’t stop you, Sen­a­tor Kas­ta­ma, and Sen­a­tor Shel­don from team­ing up with the Repub­li­cans to take over the Sen­ate near­ly two years ago. So what’s to stop you from team­ing up with Democ­rats to pass the DREAM Act now?

I mean, here’s the ludi­crous thing, Sen­a­tor: You still call your­self a Demo­c­rat, but you won’t work with Democ­rats to pass leg­is­la­tion that you say you sup­port.

Since you’re act­ing like a Repub­li­can, you should­n’t be sur­prised when those of us who are actu­al­ly Democ­rats — like me! — call you a Republican.

Actions speak loud­er than words, Sen­a­tor, and talk is cheap.