[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.
____________________