[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING BILL

  (Mr. BEYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to raise my concerns about the 
upcoming Homeland Security funding bill.
  The tragedies in Paris reinforce how critical it is that we keep DHS 
strong and appropriately financed. Unfortunately, the majority 
leadership has decided to play politics with our national security. The 
appropriations package is littered with amendments which would 
undermine what little progress we have made to our broken immigration 
system.
  Our family business just lost one of our most valuable employees, 
Cesar Arias. He may have originally come to Virginia without proper 
papers, but in the Reagan years, he found a way to stay here, raise his 
family, and open and close our store 6 days a week for more than 20 
years. Cesar is one small, powerful example among millions of new 
Americans who have helped our economy grow and kept our democracy 
strong. He believed it was long past time for comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Republicans to bring a clean bill to the 
floor without the anti-immigrant amendments. We need to invest in 
homeland security, and we need a real conversation about immigration 
reform.

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