Xavier Becerra

But if we gauge in a discussion and find that the legislation does affect and the law as it exists does affect those civil rights protections, would the gentleman be willing, or I ask the two sponsors, will they be willing to then…

Let me explain my amendment briefly. We have entered into a debate through the amendment by my colleague and friend from California (Mr. Waxman) on the issue of what happens when a particular bill or a piece of legislation has the effect…

how sweet it would be if what my colleague, who just spoke, said were true; that we are a society based on equality of the laws and application of those laws. But the reality is we are not yet there, and if my colleagues do not believe it…

Mr. Speaker, today something tragic is about to happen. Again. Like so many debates before this House, we are about to allow the politics of fear to trump policies of reason. Logic tells us that if you have a problem and you can identify a…

I met with folks from the Citizens Committee to save Legion Park on Friday night, and I had a chance to briefly speak to them. I said this morning, meaning today, we are going to be debating campaign finance reform, but I said, do not hold…

I come here with some reservations about this bill, but with some confidence. This bill as it will leave this House and go to conference will not contain a provision which when it comes back from conference I guarantee you it will have…

I say to the gentleman, he forgets that there are a lot of black Americans in this country who came to this country from Haiti, African countries, and are now American citizens but came as immigrants. And there are many, many, many Latino…

I must say that I continue to have the greatest of concerns with regard to the work on the census. I see no reason why we could not have sent this directly to the President and said, Mr. President, tell us what the experts say we should do…

Mr. Speaker, first let me make it clear to anyone listening, this motion to instruct says we must insist on the House's position. The House's position is to eliminate section 245(i). It does not talk about coming up with some modification…

I wanted to add my words on behalf of a friend and someone who unfortunately has left us, Mr. Walter Capps. Walter, as most folks also remember, ran earlier in 1994 for election and did not win. He barely lost. And in 1996 he did win. I…

I hope this is well-reported, because it is time for the voters in Orange County to know what evidence there is that their Congresswoman, Loretta Sanchez, did not really win this election. Unfortunately, in the hour or so that I have been…

I hope we are very careful how we use words on this House floor. When we talk about criminals, that means someone has in a court of law been convicted. ... It is not accurate to say that there are criminals. There are people under…

I want to read from a document entitled ``How To Use The Language of the 21st Century'' by a pollster often used by a number of Members, mostly Republican Members. It states as follows, regarding Hispanic Americans: ``Our majority is at…

I happen to have been one of those ``nasty'' attorneys that on the other side we have heard mentioned so many times. When I had the privilege of graduating from Stanford Law School back in 1984, I took a job working for Legal Services in…

If the Committee on Rules is thinking of taking up this House Resolution which would call upon the Department of Justice to initiate criminal proceedings on an organization that believes its constitutional rights may be violated if it were…

If I may direct a question to the distinguished chairman from the Committee on Rules, the chairman may know or others may know, there is a grave amount of concern brewing on the part of a number of Members of Congress with regard to the…

now almost 1 year and a half a million dollars later neutral observers are saying what everyone in this House has been saying for the longest of times. The people of the 46th Congressional District in California voted Bob Dornan out of…

Mr. Chairman, certainly needle exchange programs will not reduce the use of drugs. But all the evidence and all the research out there tells us that needle exchange programs do reduce the spread of HIV. The National Institutes of Health…

If the gentleman looks at it closely, for a student who attends a low-cost public college with tuition somewhere around $1,000, under our plan, under the Democratic plan presented by the President, that HOPE credit would be $1,500. But…

It is my understanding, and it has been a while since I was in college as a graduate student as well, that these graduate students, we are talking not about so much the business school and law school and medical school graduates, but the…

We are talking about higher education here. Graduate education, which is postsecondary education at the highest level, where we have our chemists, our scientists, our teachers coming out of our schools, that is extremely important as well…

The tax that is being imposed on students who earn, say, $10,000 or $12,000 is not going to help provide other opportunities for other people going to college, it is there to help pay for the cost of these tax breaks that mostly well-to-do…

By not providing for that tax credit for employers that try to provide education to some of their employees, what we are doing is saying if an employer has decided that it would be good for that employee to get further trained, that no…

Reclaiming my time, they are taxing graduate students and they are collecting $430 million in taxes as a result of doing that, and at the same time they are giving corporations a tax windfall and not asking them to pay any taxes. Does that…

I know it is not fair to Robin. I am fortunate, I got myself a good education, I am making a decent salary. She is working just as hard as any one of us, and there is no reason why she should not be able to take advantage of that.