Xavier Becerra: “I wish to add my congratulations and applause to the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Clyburn] and the gentlewoman…”

“I wish to add my congratulations and applause to the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Clyburn] and the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton], for their efforts to have this special order on the issue of welfare reform. Mr. Speaker, I think it is tremendously important that we have a chance to discuss the issue since we will hopefully within the year be able to discuss meaningful reform. And I want to emphasize meaningful reform, because it is time for us to talk about meaningful reform and not political reform when it comes to welfare. Mr. Speaker, clearly it is time to change our welfare system, clearly the things that have been discussed this evening are important to all of us, making sure people are actually getting jobs and not staying on welfare, making sure children have a chance to be educated, all those things are very important to us, but I also believe we have to make mention of a number of issues that are becoming very controversial and very concerning to a number of us. Let me address, then, the issue of using immigrants to pay for the cost of welfare reform.”