[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5926-S5928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 549
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I would, in response to the Senator's
request, say that there is a human rights crisis much closer to home
that we have discussed before the committee. We have an opportunity to
address people suffering from a dictatorship who are right here in the
United States, many of whom live in Senator Scott's State of Florida.
For the second time in 2 weeks, I would like to call upon this body
to take up legislation the House has passed that would designate
Venezuelans for temporary protected status. I am asking Republicans to
remember that there was a time before President Trump when our Nation
stood in solidarity with victims of dictatorship.
Nicolas Maduro is a dictator, plain and simple. His regime is a
cruel, criminal cabal that has destroyed Venezuela. Some 200,000
Venezuelans currently live in the United States without legal status.
They are unable to safely return to their homeland, and they would
benefit from temporary protected status. I believe we have to do the
right thing. We have to uphold American values and offer them
protection.
Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further
consideration of H.R. 549 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time
and passed; and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Kentucky.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I have no
problem with asking unanimous consent at this point to pass the
legislation with a few amendments. Since this will not be going through
committee, we ought to, like you say, examine the legislation and think
about what it involves. I think having a few commonsense amendments
would make sense.
It is about 200,000 or 270,000 Venezuelans. I think we can
accommodate them. We are a big, great country, and America has room for
them. We should make sure, though, that they don't overburden the
welfare system, and there should be rules that people, as part of this
program, do not come to the country to receive welfare. That is my
first amendment.
My second amendment would say that at the end of the 18-month period,
Congress should vote on whether or not to extend the period. In the
past, we have granted this temporary status, and it has been renewed
decade after decade and become just sort of this lost zone for people
for whom we can't figure out a permanent solution.
My third amendment would actually create an ability to absorb more
people in our country and would be more of a permanent solution. My
third amendment is called the BELIEVE Act, and it is a bill that I have
had out there for several years. What it would do is to take the merit-
based employment in our country, employment-based visas, and double
these visas. So, if you want to accommodate the 200-some-odd thousand
Venezuelans, we need more green cards, ultimately, for permanent
status. This would be increased employment-based visas.
So, my unanimous consent request would be to pass your bill with
these three amendments: One, to prohibit welfare; two, to make it
Congress's prerogative to decide that this term needs to be extended
and it would have to be a vote by this body; and then the third thing
would be that we expand our employment-based visas in order to
accommodate folks like this in our country.
I would ask unanimous consent that your bill be passed, and, also,
including my three amendments to the bill, and at this point, I ask
unanimous consent for that.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator so modify his request?
The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, reserving the right to object to this
modification, on these three amendments, I respect my colleague who
sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. We don't always agree, but I
always respectfully listen to him.
This effort that I am trying to bring to the floor, in line with
Senator Scott's question about human rights in China, is human rights
right here in our hemisphere. The amendments that the Senator proposes
seeks to basically gut the existing statute for temporary protected
status, and it distracts from other issues in our immigration system as
a price for providing Venezuelans with temporary protection in our
country. One of these amendments is aimed at making it nearly
impossible to renew TPS for foreign nationals, no matter the country or
the conditions in the country.
I would also note that this is at a time in which we have 131,000
with temporary protected status from other countries helping to support
the Nation as essential workers. So I object to the modification, and I
object to Senator Scott's motion.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard to both requests.
The Senator from Kentucky.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I voice my objection to the original motion
of Senator Menendez.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard to the request.
The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, first, as you would expect, I am
disappointed in two ways.
No. 1, I am disappointed that we couldn't get a resolution done that
dealt with what is going on in China.
I would love the process to work perfectly so that everybody would do
things in proper order, but the resolution is pretty simple. We know
all the bad things that are happening in China, and we need to stand
up. We have a chance now, not in 6 months, not in--I don't know what
time it would take to go through the Foreign Relations Committee, but
we ought to be standing up now to say that the IOC needs to move the
Olympics. So I am very disappointed that my colleague is not willing to
just go along with a simple resolution to do that.
No. 2, what my colleague knows is that the bill he is proposing would
never get done. I have colleagues who want to reform and fix the TPS
program. I worked with my colleagues--all 53 Republican colleagues--and
they said that as long as we do a commonsense reform of the TPS
program, we would go ahead and do TPS for Venezuelans. So that is a
bill we could do today.
[[Page S5927]]
We could have done it a couple of times, but my colleague on the
other side of the aisle--another--blocked it. It doesn't make any sense
to me why we are not getting this done. We can both talk about all of
the problems and issues the Venezuelans are dealing with. It is very
disappointing to me.
I don't know what the reason is. I have been trying to work with my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle to ask: What is the problem?
And nobody will say: This is exactly what it is, and this is what you
need to change to get it done. I don't know how we get things done here
if people are not willing to sit down and talk to each other to figure
out how to get it done.
I have also proposed other things that my colleague has blocked, like
trying to make sure that Maduro couldn't--there were no revenues that
could get to the Maduro regime, and that was blocked.
This just doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know what the issue
is. I don't know if it is because it was proposed by Republicans rather
than Democrats, but we have to figure out how to stand up together
against human rights violations around the world.
It should be simple to say that the International Olympic Committee
should not be hosting the Olympic Games in 2022. It is pretty simple.
It is disgusting what Xi is doing.
It should be pretty simple to say: If we want to get TPS taken care
of, whether it is for Venezuelans or whether it is for El Salvadorans
or anybody else, we need to have a commonsense reform of the TPS
system. That is why I proposed this resolution, and all 53 Republican
Senators agreed with me.
I hope my colleague will commit to work with me to try to help the
Venezuelans and also help others by fixing this TPS program. I hope he
will work hard either to get a resolution that he agrees with me on or
work through the Foreign Relations Committee to do something. But we
have to do everything we can to stop the genocide of the Uighurs in
Communist China and also do everything we can to help the Venezuelans
who are here and need TPS.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of my
colleague from Florida.
Let me just say, first, that we don't even need legislation for
Venezuelans to get TPS. Let's not lose sight of that.
President Trump, with a stroke of his pen, could give temporary--
temporary--protected status to the 200,000 Venezuelans who have fled
the Maduro regime--a regime that President Trump himself has signaled
out in every possible way as a regime that undermines the human rights
of its people and that attacks them. So we don't even need legislation.
The only reason the House of Representatives, with Democratic
majorities, passed legislation is to try to instigate the President to
go ahead and give TPS to Venezuelans.
Unfortunately, every time Senator Scott has come to offer what he
calls a reform of TPS, it is really basically the death of TPS. I don't
know why we have to deny those who presently have TPS and whose
country's status may not have changed--slaying their status in order to
give it to Venezuelans. I am not that Solomonic. So that is why there
has been an objection.
Again, I remind us that we don't even need legislation. President
Trump, with a stroke of his pen, could declare TPS for Venezuelans.
That is the first thing.
The second thing is, I would urge my colleagues and all my Republican
colleagues--by the way, I know that you all know this, but just to
remind us, you are in the majority. Chairman Risch is the chairman
because there is a Republican majority. Chairman Risch gets to call
when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee goes into a business
meeting. So as I have said to many of my colleagues, if you want to see
your legislation considered--and I certainly would agree to an agenda
that includes Senator Scott's legislation--urge Senator Risch to hold a
business meeting and a markup on legislation. That is the way this body
is supposed to work. Otherwise, then, let's just meet here as 100 and
make it the committee of the whole, where we can all opine and cast
amendments on Appropriations, Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Energy and
Commerce--the whole spectrum. But if the committee system is supposed
to mean anything, which is the concentration of those who have
dedicated their time to be on that committee and who have insights for
which legislation passes through, then it has to hold meetings and
markups to consider legislation. So it is not that you have to urge us;
you have to urge your colleague, the chairman, to hold markups to
consider your legislation.
I am sure that with some modifications, I would be one of those who
would support your legislation in committee. But we cannot have
everybody bypass the committee, come to the floor, and think that is
the way things are going to operate.
Yes, there are some things we would love to see in a timely fashion.
From the reading of several motions the majority leader made for
nominations, it sounds like we are going to be here next week. Well,
the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee could call a business
markup for next week. We could get your resolution on; we could get it
passed; and then we could get it to the floor. Why not? Why not?
Then, the last thing: I don't know what the Senator is referring to
in terms of stopping moneys going to Maduro. My VERDAD Act, which
became law--along with Senator Rubio and others--in essence tried to do
exactly that. But I am certainly happy to join with the Senator in any
efforts to continue to work on stopping any flow of money to the Maduro
regime and, more importantly, to reclaim the money that has already--
the national patrimony of Venezuela that has been spent elsewhere.
But let's be honest. TPS for Venezuelans could have happened already.
It could have happened yesterday. It could happen today, could happen
tomorrow if President Trump only wants to declare it so.
I think he should. I don't think we should have to pass legislation,
but that is where we are.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of my
colleague from New Jersey.
No. 1, I still have not heard what the issue is with a resolution
that sounds like 99 other Senators are OK with, with regard to holding
General Secretary Xi accountable. I haven't heard my colleague say what
the concern is with it.
It seems to me that we have the opportunity right now, between the
two of us, if we need to make a change, maybe we can make a change. But
I would like to get something done today.
No. 2, as we know, the TPS program is a temporary program. It is not
operated as a temporary program, and it has to be reformed.
I agree with my colleague from New Jersey. I would like the President
to say that the Venezuelans would get TPS right now, but I think the
White House's position is that we have to fix the program because the
program doesn't work. It is not a temporary program.
That is why my fix--because what a lot of Senators keep saying--they
want to say that we have to take back power we have given to the
President. My resolution does that.
The President can still do TPS, but after he does, if he wants to
extend it, it has to come back to Congress, and we need to make a
decision. It is pretty common sense. If we did that right now, we could
get TPS for Venezuelans.
The Senator from New Jersey has blocked my bill. It is a bill with
Senator Rubio to hold Maduro accountable by prohibiting Federal
agencies from doing business with anyone who supports the oppressive
Maduro regime. I don't understand why he would do that. He has blocked
a bill that is going to prevent money from going there.
We have to stand up, whether it is against the Castro regime or
Maduro. We have to support democracy and freedom in Latin America.
I hope my colleague will stop blocking that bill also.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Has the Senator yielded the floor?
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. I yield the floor.
[[Page S5928]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I won't stay the whole night debating my
colleague, although I would enjoy that. But let me just say, No. 1, he
has the power, as a colleague in the majority, to go to the chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee and say: I really think this resolution
is timely and needs to be done.
We are going to be in session next week. The chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee can call a markup next week. For his resolution, I
will give him my word that I will support asking the chairman to put
his resolution on the business meeting, and, probably, with some
modifications, I would support it. But he needs to ask the chairman to
hold a markup, No. 1.
No. 2, the reality is that the concern about TPS not being
``temporary''--well, that concern was vitiated. I don't know if it was
the Ninth or Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that recently held a
decision that said the President of the United States can give TPS, and
he can end TPS, in his judgment. I don't necessarily agree with that
judicial decision, but, nonetheless, that is, right now, the law of the
land, so that concern is over.
The suggestion that we have to end TPS as we know it in order to make
sure that it only remains a temporary protected status--the courts have
determined that. They have said that the President can give TPS and can
take it away. So, as far as I learned in my civics lessons, the court
is the final law of the land in interpreting what it is that the law
is.
Lastly, I am going to look at--I would like the gentleman to get in
contact with--I don't know what legislation he keeps referring to that
somehow we blocked, but before the gentleman even arrived here, I have
been pursuing the Castro regime for 20-something years--since I was in
the House of Representatives, passing the LIBERTAD Act and so many
others--and, certainly, the Maduro regime as well. So I am happy to
look at that.
But let's get the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to hold
a markup, and I think we can solve a lot of these problems.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, may I inquire if the Senators are
concluded with their discussion?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. They have both yielded. It appears they are.