Howard Berman: “the issue is, for me, far less the question of whether or not the rule is open than the question of whether there is…”

“the issue is, for me, far less the question of whether or not the rule is open than the question of whether there is fundamental fairness in the operation. I think what happened to me with respect to my amendment yesterday in the Committee on Rules was not fundamentally fair. In this case, by refusing to give an essentially technical waiver, four of which were already given in this rule, as has been previously discussed, by refusing to give me an essentially technical waiver from the Budget Act, an amendment that I had that would have addressed the question of the unfair situation where States and local governments in many parts of this country, particularly on the border, but also in New York and in Illinois and in other areas, are shouldering the entire burden of the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of felonies and who are housed in State and local prisons as a result of those convictions, people who should not have been in this country or in those States, except for the failure of the Federal Government to enforce the laws that we are supposed to enforce, and we have pledged to enforce. I proposed an amendment to provide a capped entitlement to guarantee to the State and local governments that they would be reimbursed for the properly expended costs submitted to the Justice Department.”