On the recordJune 20, 2013
Mr. President, I thank my colleagues, first from New York and Tennessee, for the good work they have done. My Gang of 8 colleagues--seven of the Gang of 8 colleagues who are my colleagues, we are working real hard to get a bill done and it is not easy. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done as a legislator. But we keep making progress and we keep improving. Today I think is a breakthrough day. Let me go over it. First, speaking on behalf of the Democratic Members of my bipartisan group, let's say this. There is still some drafting of the legislative language to be completed. We are continuing to inform all our allies on our side about the contours of the proposal. But barring something unexpected, we are extremely enthusiastic that a bipartisan agreement is at hand. I know there have been a number of news reports this morning. It is accurate. We are on the verge of a huge breakthrough on border security. With this agreement, we believe we have the makings of a strong bipartisan final vote in favor of this immigration reform bill. From the beginning of the floor debate on this bill, we have known there were a group of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle who were inclined to vote for immigration reform but first wanted to see a strengthening of the bill's border security section.…
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