Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “Mr. Speaker, it has saddened me to see issues unrelated to the funding of the Postal Service and the Treasury…”

“Mr. Speaker, it has saddened me to see issues unrelated to the funding of the Postal Service and the Treasury Department, those two extraordinarily important Federal agencies that must be funded, and that is our responsibility. Before we get out of Washington, we must fund the Federal Government. I am saddened to see collateral issues put in jeopardy this rule. If this rule goes down, the underlying legislation will not be able to be reached tonight. As my colleague from south Florida stated, there are 40,000 political refugees in this country, most of whom fled Haiti after the 1991 coup there because of political persecution, and they are looking at us tonight with an extreme amount of hope and faith, and I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to remember those 40,000 human beings who are watching us tonight. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek) and I want to thank all of those who have worked on this legislation. I want to thank Jeb Bush in my state of Florida who has called our leadership time and time again and made it a top priority of his to get this legislation for justice for those 40,000 human beings passed. I would say to Members, let us not bring this rule down and not be able to get to the underlying legislation. It is a fair rule, it is fair legislation. There are 40,000 human beings looking at us that need this legislation to pass.”