Amy Klobuchar: “we are debating this historic comprehensive immigration reform, something that as a member of the Judiciary Committee I…”

“we are debating this historic comprehensive immigration reform, something that as a member of the Judiciary Committee I have worked long and hard on, and actually worked back in 2007 when I first got to the Senate. I can't tell you the difference it is doing this 5 years later than it was back in 2007. This time we have a coalition that is incredibly strong, that has withstood a lot of different questions and issues about this bill, that has been able to accommodate concerns raised within the Gang of 8 and then on the Judiciary Committee level, and now after last night's vote adding other requests and other things Members have. But I want to emphasize why this bill is so important from an economic standpoint. When we were in the Judiciary Committee, we had hearings and we had a number of people testify about the bill and what this bill would do in terms of the debt--something I know the Presiding Officer cares about very much. We had a number of Republican economists come forward and talk about how this bill reduces the debt. There were some early figures out there. Then I held a hearing on the Joint Economic Committee and called Grover Norquist as a witness. I was the first Democratic Senator I know of to call Grover Norquist as my witness. But he came forward and talked about the effects this bill would have in terms of reducing the debt.…”