Zoe Lofgren: “This bill is a step in the wrong direction in so many ways. I wish that we had had an opportunity to sit down, reason…”

“This bill is a step in the wrong direction in so many ways. I wish that we had had an opportunity to sit down, reason together, and come up with a plan that really serves our country. That didn't happen. Here is what the result was: The Chamber of Commerce has just reported that the Niskanen Center that they have relied on indicates that, if this bill became law, the U.S. would lose $319 billion in GDP. That would be the impact, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for adopting this bill. And I wonder what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are really doing by turning every undocumented person in the United States, currently a civil law violation, into a crime. We are now creating 11 million prosecution opportunities. At the same time, The Washington Post is just reporting, this is the headline: ``Trump Administration Will Stop Prosecuting Migrant Parents Who Cross the Border Illegally with Children, Official Says.'' What are we doing here? We are doing a bill that would incarcerate families and children to pursue a policy that the administration now says they don't intend to pursue. Now, I don't have a lot of trust in the Trump administration because it changes daily. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.”