[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12241-12242]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is clear--we all agree--that the 
immigration system is broken and badly in need of a fix. We have 12 
million immigrants, some of who live in constant fear. We have 
employers facing the quandary each day over who they can hire and who 
they cannot hire, while raids regularly disrupt and even shut down 
their businesses. Crops can't be harvested. Produce is dying on the 
vine because farmers cannot hire enough workers to harvest the crop. 
Under the current system, there are no winners but lots of losers.
  Next Tuesday, right after our weekly party conferences, the Senate 
will have an opportunity to vote on whether to begin debate on the 
complex and critical challenge of immigration reform. The bill we 
debate and eventually pass will give us a chance to strengthen border 
security, put in place an effective and efficient employer verification 
system, design a new worker program to take the pressure off the 
border, and give those 12 million undocumented immigrants the 
opportunity to come out of the shadows and into the light of day.
  Over the past several months, Senators from both sides of the aisle, 
Republicans and Democrats, have spent countless hours negotiating a 
bipartisan solution to this critical challenge. These Senators have 
been bargaining in good faith. I believe they are working hard to reach 
a compromise. I hope they can do that. But if they are not able to 
reach a new bipartisan agreement, we have an opportunity to move 
forward on a previous bipartisan piece of legislation. The bill I 
placed on the calendar is the same bill the Senate passed last year 
overwhelmingly with 23 Republicans voting in favor of the legislation. 
Last year's bill was far from perfect. Many of us had misgivings about 
it--this Senator included--but it is a solid, comprehensive package 
that will serve as a good start for this year's very important and 
vital debate. Several of my colleagues have said we should not move 
forward at this time; let's wait.
  Over this weekend, there will be negotiations taking place--the rest 
of this day, Saturday, Sunday, and I hope Monday--to see if a 
compromise can be reached. If we put this off a week, the same thing 
would happen. People would be trying to work something out at the last 
minute. There has been ample opportunity for people to work out an 
arrangement. I have asked publicly and privately that the President be 
involved. Members have put so much

[[Page 12242]]

time and effort into working on an immigration bill, they certainly 
should embrace a motion to start debate.
  Those who have threatened a filibuster on the motion to proceed I 
hope will reconsider the threat and understand how illogical it would 
be not to allow us to proceed. A bill that passed this body last year 
with 21 Republicans voting for the legislation now saying they are not 
going to proceed does not make sense to me.
  Let me be as clear as I can: By moving this bill, I am trying to make 
sure negotiations continue. There has been ample time for negotiations 
to bear fruit. The purpose of this legislation is to move forward on 
comprehensive immigration reform. I want this Congress to accomplish 
immigration reform, but we are running out of time to do it. We have 
set aside the next 2 weeks to do this. After that, we have 4 weeks, and 
then we have the July 4 recess. After that, 4 more weeks, and then we 
are into the August recess. There is no more time to do it. Today is 
the time. If we don't do it, starting next Tuesday, there will be no 
immigration reform this Congress. That would be a real shame.
  The House is waiting for us to do this. As everyone knows, the 
schedule we have is so crowded. This next 2 weeks, in addition to doing 
immigration reform, we have to send a bill to the President for 
supplemental appropriations for the ongoing conflict in Iraq, the civil 
war in Iraq. We want to try to do our budget. We are going to finish 
WRDA. We have an energy bill we have to do. That is keeping in mind all 
the procedural hurdles that are always present in the Senate.
  A vote to proceed is a vote to open debate, not shut the door on it. 
If a new agreement is reached, it can be offered as a substitute 
amendment to this bill on the floor at any time. If a new agreement is 
not reached, we can legislate the old-fashioned way--taking out what 
people do not like and putting in new stuff. We can offer amendments to 
the existing bipartisan bill to make it even better than the one we 
passed last year. Either path leads to progress that is long overdue.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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