On the recordDecember 4, 2013
There are many things that my good friend from Florida said that I agree with. I will be discussing some of the merits of these bills, but it is worthwhile to bring forward before discussing what these bills are, what these bills are not. It has been 159 days and 14 hours since the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill. This body's failure to act on immigration reform has already cost our economy nearly $6 billion. Each additional day, each day that we delay action costs $37 million in revenue; hundreds of thousands of jobs lost; failure to secure the border; failure to restore the rule of law to our country; countless families torn apart. While the Judiciary Committee has found the time to move asbestos bills and patent reform bills to the floor with ease, immigration reform remains stagnant. The Judiciary Committee has reported out four immigration reform bills: the Legal Workforce Act, the Agricultural Guestworker Act, the SAFE Act, and the SKILLS Visa Act. They reported these four bills out prior to the asbestos bill which was rushed immediately to the floor and prior to the patent bill which was rushed to the floor after a hearing in the Rules Committee yesterday.…





