[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17863-17864]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today is a day of victory and defeat. 
So many people have poured so much of themselves into this bill over 
the last weeks and months, and every one of them deserves our thanks 
and our respect.
  This bill tested the will, and the goodwill, of many people. But it 
tested some more than others. So first I want to thank those whose 
position did not prevail.
  Senator Specter's knowledge of this issue is matched only by his 
stamina. As the ranking member, he has our admiration and he deserves 
our thanks.
  Senator Kyl inspired all of us, flying into his State and facing a 
lot of angry constituents, and the cameras week after week with 
optimism, patience and good cheer.
  Senator Graham was one of the generals in this effort. He always does 
what he thinks is right, and Americans admire him for it.
  Senator Martinez was another general. He brought intelligence and 
tenacity to this debate, and a story that never fails to inspire us.
  Senator Lott's a great whip, and a good friend. He has been in this 
building more than 3 decades, but he has the energy of a freshman. He 
has been a leader and friend: I thank him for it.
  Senator Salazar gave a lot of himself to this debate, a lot of time 
and no little criticism. Thank you.
  And finally, it is a marvel of nature to see a man whose calling in 
life is obvious to anyone who sees him at his job. Senator Kennedy is 
such a man. He loves his work, and his passion has inspired us.
  Of course, behind all these Senators are a lot of terrific staff 
members who have worked incredibly hard on this bill. On the Judiciary 
Committee, there was Michelle Grossman, Lauren Petron, Gavin Young, 
Lauren Pastarnack, Lynn Feldman, Juria Jones, and most of all Mike 
O'Neill.
  On Senator McCain's staff, Becky Jensen. On Senator Graham's staff 
there was Matt Rimkunas and Jen Olson. On Senator Kyl's staff, 
Elizabeth Maier and Michael Dougherty. On Senator Martinez's staff, 
Brian Walsh, Clay Deatherage, and Nilda Pedrosa.
  Now I want to thank everyone who opposed the bill.
  Senators Sessions, DeMint, and Vitter got us all to sit up and listen 
closely to a lot of people who thought they had been shut out of this 
debate. They put the rules of this body to work. And I would take any 
one of them in a firefight.
  Senator Cornyn, one of the original architects, deserves our thanks. 
He has been committed to finding a solution to our Nation's immigration 
problem for a long time. His contributions on the interior enforcement 
piece of this bill were a major part of the original compromise. But 
when he saw it was not a solution he could accept, he told us.
  Senator Chambliss told us what the farmers needed, and we listened. 
We thank him for his important contributions to the bill.
  Senator Isakson was the author of the trigger concept, which every 
one now agrees is a good idea.
  To everyone involved in the crafting of this bill, I want to thank 
you. This was a labor of uncommon intensity. It required will, energy, 
and patience. And while it strained a lot of bonds, it broke none of 
them. As the majority leader said after the final vote, ``We're all 
still friends here.''
  As the elected leader of my conference, I stood here in January and 
opened this session with a pledge. I knew contentious issues always 
have a better chance of being solved by divided governments, that 
immigration reform was within our reach, and I said we should put it in 
our sights.
  I also knew it was going to have to be bipartisan if we were going to 
get a bill at all. So everyone I have mentioned rolled up their sleeves 
and got to work. And they put together a bill that represented the best 
chance we had of getting to our goal.
  But it touched a nerve, and the shock of it shot right through the 
Senate. It lit up the switchboards here for weeks, and ignited a debate 
that strained our normal alliances here and at home in our States.
  I heard from a lot of Kentuckians. Thousands of smart, well-informed 
people called my offices to talk about this

[[Page 17864]]

bill. They did not like the idea of someone being rewarded for a crime, 
or the impact that this would have on a society whose first rule is the 
rule of law. They did not trust the Government to suddenly get serious 
about border control after neglecting it for 2 decades. And I do not 
blame them. I worried about all that too. And to every one of them, I 
say today: Your voice was heard.
  A lot of good people came to my office. They argued for positions as 
diverse as the country itself. They explained their views patiently and 
with passion. I want to thank them too for informing my thinking and 
for helping to shape this extraordinary debate.
  My goal from the start has been to move the conference forward, to 
facilitate debate, to ensure that the minority's voice was heard to the 
maximum extent possible. I had hoped there would be a way forward. And 
as the divisions between supporters and opponents widened, the only way 
forward, to my mind, was to ensure a fair process. This was the only 
way to be sure we could improve the status quo, which all of us agreed 
was indefensible. If every voice was heard, we could be confident our 
votes reflected the best this body could do.
  I had hoped for a bipartisan accomplishment, and what we got was a 
bipartisan defeat. The American people made their voices heard, the 
Senate worked its will, and in the end it was clear that the bill that 
was crafted did not have the support of the people of Kentucky, it did 
not have the support of most Americans, it did not have the support of 
my conference, and it did not have enough support in the Democratic 
conference, a third of which opposed it.
  This is not a day to celebrate. We do not celebrate when a pressing 
issue stays unresolved. But we can be confident that we will find a 
solution to the problems that we have tried to address here. Many 
people have made great personal sacrifices to work on a solution to our 
broken immigration system. A lot of them exposed themselves to ridicule 
and contempt.
  And so we can say with pride that the failure of this bill was not a 
failure of will or hard work or good intentions. Martin Luther King 
once said that ``human progress never rolls in on wheels of 
inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men.'' And we 
can be sure that many good people will step forward again to offer 
their intelligence, understanding, and their ``tireless efforts'' when 
the time comes to face this issue again.
  That time was not now. It was not the people's will. And they were 
heard.

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