Political Quotes

“very briefly, I regret that my colleague has gone down the road of questioning political motives here. The reality is, in a bipartisan way, the Senator from Florida joined with us in February of this year to provide legislation that would provide TPS for Venezuelans and the United States. The House of Representatives, which has a Democratic majority--and he mentions the Democrats--passed a version of this bill in July of this year with the support from dozens of Republican Members, a bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives. At the end of the day, it doesn't take undermining TPS--dramatically changing TPS--in order to give Venezuelans temporary protected status. That is something the President could do without having the House of Representatives or the Senate act, but he has chosen not to. There are those who want to try to create an excuse for the President, but he has chosen not to do it, No. 1. No. 2, the reality is, if we wanted to create TPS for Venezuelans, we could immediately do that right now by accepting my unanimous consent request because the House of Representatives passed it with broad, bipartisan support. We could do it right now. It would be on the way to the President, and then, of course, he would have to sign the legislation even though he could do it on his own right now.…”