[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      REPUBLICANS NEED TO JOIN DEMOCRATS IN BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I associate myself with the concerns 
expressed by Congresswoman Jackson Lee about those who have been 
affected by the hurricanes. They need not only our compassion but our 
help as soon as possible. I thank Congresswoman Jackson Lee for her 
leadership.
  I also associate myself with the remarks of others who have talked 
about the discharge petition here. This discharge petition will not 
only discharge a bill, it will discharge the realization of hopes and 
dreams and aspirations of so many hundreds of thousands of young people 
in our country.
  Just to put it in historic perspective, we did pass a Dream Act in 
2010, in the House of Representatives. We couldn't pass it in the 
Senate, because it required 60 votes, but it did receive a majority of 
the vote in the Senate.
  President Obama, as people know, issued an executive order. President 
Trump has rescinded that, but he said he would sign the Dream Act if it 
came to his desk. So we are asking our Republican colleagues to join us 
in this bipartisan legislation.
  Just to put it in historical perspective, the President said: I can't 
act. Congress must act.
  But even when Congress acted, President Reagan said: You didn't go 
far enough.
  So he instituted a Family Fairness initiative, which protected many 
more people than Congress did. President George Herbert Walker Bush 
continued that leadership and that courage, as did President Clinton; 
President George W. Bush, one of the best Presidents we have ever had 
in terms of his advocacy for newcomers to our country, realizing that 
they make America more American by invigorating our country with hope, 
aspirations, and dreams; and President Obama, of course, a great 
President in this regard as well.
  So this is the first President we have had who has put doubt as to 
whether we respect the contribution of newcomers to our country.
  He has said he would sign this bill. We trust his word. We just need 
our Republican colleagues to join in the discharge petition, and to 
appeal to the Speaker, with or without a discharge petition, take the 
initiative, take the lead, make America more American by unleashing the 
power and the patriotism of our DREAMers.

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