Political Quotes

“I appreciate Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden's work on this bill, and agree that this bill provides accountability and transparency. On immigration, I have expressed concerns every step of the way about the executive branch negotiating changes to immigration laws through trade agreements. Even before I became chairman of the Judiciary Committee--in fact, when I was chairman and ranking member of the Finance committee--I opposed previous administrations' attempts to include immigration provisions in trade agreements. Because of that, I demanded that the Judiciary Committee be consulted on anything related to immigration. That has been done, and that has helped stop the administration in recent years from including provisions in trade agreements requiring changes to the immigration laws. During consideration of this bill in the Finance Committee this year, I asked USTR Ambassador Froman about this issue, and specifically if they were including anything on immigration in the next agreement, specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He gave us assurances that they were not. Ambassador Froman was clear that other countries are making offers to each other in the area of temporary entry, but that the U.S. has decided not to do so. Nevertheless, Chairman Hatch and I wrote him a letter after he testified, and he wrote back with more assurances.…”