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Senate Republicans Warn Stimulus Rebates Could Pay Illegal Immigrants
Republicans find that tax rebates in the stimulus bill would allow eligible recipients to use taxpayer identification numbers, which illegal aliens can obtain, instead of Social Security numbers to identify themselves.
Senate Republicans say they have found a provision in the $819 billion economic stimulus bill that could allow illegal immigrants to receive tax rebates.

In the version that passed the House Wednesday, eligible recipients would be allowed to use taxpayer identification numbers, which illegal aliens can obtain, instead of Social Security numbers, to identify themselves for the tax rebates.

The legislation, which would send tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple, expressly disqualifies nonresident aliens, but the absence of a Social Security number requirement could create a problem.

But Senate Majority Harry Reid denied the glitch and scolded Republicans for trying to invoke the immigration debate.

"This legislation is directed toward people who are legal in our country, working. That's what it amounts to," Reid said. "And it would seem to me that it's about time that Republicans got a different piece of reading material. Can they get off this illegal immigrant stuff? This bill has nothing to do with anything illegal as far as immigration goes. It deals with creating jobs for people who are lawfully in this country."

A revolt among GOP conservatives to similar provisions of a 2008 economic stimulus bill, which sent rebate checks to most wage earners, forced Democratic congressional leaders to add stricter eligibility requirements. That legislation, enacted last February, required that people have valid Social Security numbers in order to get checks.

The tax rebate provision is one of many concerns Republicans on the Senate side are now raising in the current House bill and a similar Senate version. They also found funding for $87 million for a single icebreaker ship to be used in the Arctic; $150 million for something called "honey insurance," which is described as money to "provide emergency relief to eligible producers of livestock, honey bees and farm-raised fish to aid in the reduction of losses due to disease, adverse weather or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires, as determined by the secretary"; and $20 million for something called fish barriers.

Not a single Republican voted for the House plan, which passed 244-188 on Wednesday evening. Eleven Democrats also opposed the package.