I appreciate the opportunity to bring greater attention to the unintended consequences of these provisions and the need for a legislative solution.

Again, I just want to reference at the close here the, again, the positive signal that the AFL and the Chamber issued recently in terms of their, you know, joint commitment to try and reform and improve this system.

Together, we believe that in order to be successful in fixing America's broken immigration system, any viable remedy must do four things: strengthen our national security, create a role for employers in an employment system that functions…

We are still spending $2 billion a week in Afghanistan.

If your request for BRAC does materialize and it moves at mach speed through the Congress, we are still hitting 2021.

I feel like we are kind of shadow boxing here because we are trying to get our arms around obviously critical issues.

My colleague here, Mr. Bentsen, said there were many studies that didn't find any connection, and that is like saying that there are many studies that didn't find Pluto until they found Pluto.

I particularly want to compliment you for organizing this hearing early in this Congress because there is no question that since the election last November this issue has suddenly gotten a lot more political momentum.

Prior to the 2012 election, real, meaningful reform of our nation's immigration policy seemed completely out of the political realm of the possible.

I am deeply encouraged by this progress and agree with the joint statement released by the chamber and the AFL that today's effort at comprehensive immigration reform present a historic opportunity for U.S. workers and businesses to work…

But nonetheless, the election has really changed the political dynamics surrounding this whole issue.

I hope today's discussion is the start of a productive debate on immigration reform--one that seeks to serve this nation's workers and employers.

We need to be careful about how we administer any temporary guest worker program to ensure that foreign workers are not exploited and that U.S. workers have a shot at available jobs.

I mean, your testimony, Ms. Bauer, really was focused a lot on, you know, some real horror stories of people who were sort of trapped under the existing system with an employer and nowhere else to go.

I think we have got to embrace whatever sort of traction we can get around this town.

It seems like a reform is going to have to do better, as far as data being available, again, to U.S. workers.

I think more importantly, those jobs would still remain as jobs that would then be available to, presumably, additional guest workers who would come in, and paid under the prevailing wage rate or paid less than the average wage rate, which…

the best way to assure that these global markets continue to stay global and you don't have local solutions to deal with this issue, is to do away with any impediments or fragmentation, and we see indemnification as an impediment to the…