On the recordNovember 9, 2015
on another topic, you can't serve in the Senate without some level of patience. It takes forever to get things done around here--that is, the big things. Fifteen years ago, I introduced a bill called the DREAM Act. That was 15 years ago, the year 2000. What were we going to do with these young people who came to the United States--brought here as babies, infants, toddlers, children--when they finished high school and were looking to the future? The DREAM Act said that if they have no serious criminal issues, if they have finished school, we will give them a chance--a chance to work their way toward legal status and citizenship. I introduced that bill 15 years ago. It has had its ups and downs. At times it has passed in the House; other times it has passed in the Senate. We have never been able to align those two bodies to pass the bill at the same time. It was June 27, 2013--almost 2\1/2\ years ago--when it last passed in the Senate. It was part of comprehensive immigration reform. Sixty- eight Senators voted for that bill--14 Republicans and 54 Democrats. It was a bipartisan bill, comprehensive immigration reform. We took the bill and sent it to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and they refused to call the bill or even debate it on the floor of the House of Representatives. It was frustrating. A group of us had worked for months to put that bill together.…
