[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4856]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              LET'S PASS COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

  (Mr. HIMES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because today the Democrats will 
present a discharge petition to force a vote in this House on something 
that so many Americans know to be absolutely essential, which is 
comprehensive immigration reform.
  The Senate has weighed in with 78 ``yes'' votes. This is a Senate 
where you don't get 78 votes for just about anything--bipartisan 
support for comprehensive immigration reform.
  The reason I rise today, Mr. Speaker, is because yesterday in 
Financial Services we had a very interesting hearing on why debt 
matters. We talked a lot about what we need to do to continue to put 
our country on a sustainable path and to help this recovery be 
stronger.
  We had David Cote, CEO of Honeywell; Alice Rivlin of Brookings; Doug 
Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum; and Jared Bernstein from the 
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. They agreed on one thing 
enthusiastically: that one of the most important steps we can take to 
spur growth in our economy, and to help our fiscal situation and 
balance our budget, would be to pass comprehensive immigration reform. 
The Senate has done so. It is time for this House to do the same and 
stand up for the economy and American families.

                          ____________________