[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 71 (Monday, May 20, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3609-S3610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, over the past several weeks the Senate 
Judiciary Committee has considered the Border Security, Economic 
Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. In addition to the 
three hearings the Committee held this year on the need for 
comprehensive immigration reform, the Committee held an additional 
three hearings specifically on this legislative proposal after it was 
introduced. In those legislative hearings we received testimony from 26 
witnesses, including the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary 
Napolitano, who spoke at length about the bill would make our country 
safer and help address the current problems in our immigration system.
  The Judiciary Committee has benefited from more process and 
transparency than any previous Committee consideration of immigration 
reform. In 1985, the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration 
held three hearings on the Immigration Control and Reform Act and heard 
testimony from 14 witnesses. In 2006 and 2007, the last two times the 
Senate tried to enact comprehensive immigration reform, the Republican 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee held no hearings on his legislative 
proposal or the McCain-Kennedy proposal or the Kyl-Kennedy formulation.
  In 2006, the Republican chairman circulated his legislative proposal 
just one week before the Committee met to make opening statements. He 
then revised his legislation and circulated it barely 2 days before the 
Committee met to begin debate and consider amendments. This year, the 
Judiciary Committee received the bill text on April 17, and after a 
period of more than 3 weeks to consider it and draft amendments we 
began our consideration of amendments to the bill on May 9.
  During the Committees consideration of the Immigration Reform and 
Control Act in 1986 the Committee met four times. We are holding our 
fourth day of markup today. It is my hope that the Committee will 
complete our consideration of the bill on Wednesday after 6, extended 
days of consideration. In 1985, the Committee debated only 11 
amendments, adopting 7. The Committee sent the bill to the Senate on as 
12-5 vote.
  In 2006, the Committee met five times to consider amendments to the 
Chairman's Securing America's Borders bill, conducted 60 votes and 
adopted 54 amendments. The bill was then reported to the Senate on a 
vote of 12 to 6. In 2007, the bill was not considered by the Judiciary 
Committee at all before floor consideration.
  Already this year the Committee has met for 4 days to consider 
amendments to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and 
Immigration Modernization Act. During just the first three executive 
sessions, the Committee has considered 99 amendments. Of those 50--more 
than half--were offered by the Republican minority. During those first 
3 days, the Committee debated and voted to accept 67 amendments to the 
bill. That is already more amendments than were debated in 2006 and 6 
times as many amendments as were debated in 1986. Of those accepted, 20 
were offered by Republican members. That includes several amendments 
sponsored by Senator Grassley, Senator Cornyn and a few sponsored by 
Senator Sessions. The Committee has acted in a bipartisan way to accept 
amendments authored by Senators from both sides of the aisle and by 
Senators who are proponents of the bill and some by Senators who can 
fairly be considered opponents of the bill.
  The Committee will continue its consideration of the legislation 
after tonight's votes. As of 4:30 today, we have considered an 
additional 45 amendments, including 22 offered by Republicans, and 23 
offered by Democrats.
  One example of the Committee's bipartisan efforts to improve this 
legislation was offered by Senators Hatch, Coons and Klobuchar, which 
will increase certain immigration fees and provide 70 percent of the 
funds collected to the states to improve and enhance the economic 
competitiveness of the United States by improving science, technology, 
engineering, and mathematics education and training in the United 
States. Senator Schumer offered a second degree amendment which would 
direct some of this funding to promote STEM education in groups that 
are underrepresented in the sciences, such as women and racial 
minorities. Both amendments were accepted by the Committee by unanimous 
consent.
  The Committee also unanimously approved my amendment to permanently 
authorize and further strengthen the EB-5 Regional Center Program which 
will benefit the economy. The United States Citizenship and Immigration 
Services--USCIS--estimates that the EB-5 Regional Center Program has 
created tens of thousands of American jobs and has attracted more than 
$1 billion in investment in communities all across the United States 
since 2006.
  These amendments are just a few of the many offered to promote jobs 
and innovation in the non-immigration visa provisions in Title IV of 
the bill. Other bipartisan proposals to provide assistance for American 
workers to apply for jobs in the technology sector and establish 
employee reporting requirements to address potential abuse of the visa 
system have also been adopted.
  The Committee has voted to accept amendments offered by nearly every 
member of the minority on the Judiciary Committee. Senators Grassley, 
Hatch, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn, Lee, and Flake have all offered 
amendments adopted by the Committee to improve the bill. Senators 
Feinstein, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Franken, Coons, Blumenthal and Hirono 
have also contributed important amendments to improve the legislation. 
With the adoption of these amendments, the Committee demonstrated its 
ability to act in a bipartisan manner to improve this historic 
legislation.
  In an unprecedented effort to achieve transparency during the 
Judiciary Committee's public proceedings, and to ensure the American 
people could follow the Committee's consideration of the bill, I made 
public all 301 amendments filed on Tuesday, May 7, by posting them on 
the Judiciary Committee's website. In real time, as the Committee 
accepts or rejects amendments, the Committee's website is updated to 
reflect which amendments are modified, accepted or fail.
  The Judiciary Committee's mark up of the Border Security, Economic 
Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is not yet finished but 
we have completed work on two of the four titles of the bill as well as 
the important ``trigger'' provisions. We have been able to focus our 
extensive consideration of this complex bill for three weeks and still 
achieve a fair and transparent process for Committee consideration. 
With the help of the Senators who serve so diligently on the Judiciary 
Committee from both sides of aisle, I hope by the end of this week

[[Page S3610]]

that the Committee will have completed its consideration of the 
legislation and that we will report a comprehensive immigration reform 
bill to the Senate with the recommendation that it be considered and 
passed. I look forward to bringing this legislation before the full 
Senate at the beginning of our next work period.
  I note, I hope we will finish that this week. We will go very late 
tonight, very late tomorrow night, very late Wednesday night, all day 
Thursday, and all day Friday, if necessary, until we get it finished.

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