Chuck Schumer

Famous Republicans like Presidents Reagan and Bush understood immigration.

It threatens our economy. It threatens our way of life. And it simply makes no sense.

This law is not immigration reform. This law is Government intrusion of the worst kind.

Now that migrant workers are fleeing Georgia, perfectly healthy crops have been rotting in the fields.

The loss of their tax revenue will be felt in Georgia.

These workers who do those jobs are a critical part of Georgia's economy.

The reality is this law will not solve the immigration problem in the State. It will only devastate local economies.

This is an issue that America aches for reform.

I prefer comprehensive and I am still working that way.

This is a very, very important point that you have raised.

I certainly think the area has to be fixed.

Well, in your region we have three great engineering schools, two of which are represented here--Cornell and RIT; there is RPI where I believe one of the witnesses attended--turning out engineers, and Lockheed Martin needs engineers in…

If we are going to continue to create these jobs, we need high-skilled immigration reform.

What we need to do is two things: we need to invest in education, and we need to address immigration.

I applaud you for seeking that balance.

It bothers me dearly that Lady Liberty's message of welcome no longer resonates.

The comprehensive bill we are continuing to work on would deal with H-1B reform in a very significant way.

Unfortunately, our broken immigration system actually discourages the world's best and brightest minds from coming to America to create jobs.

If we do not enact an immigration policy that continues to attract the world's best minds, we will cease to be the world's economic leader.

I believe there are two issues that will determine America's global competitiveness for the 21st century, and this is in the long term: Education and immigration.

That just makes no sense.

I would say to all the witnesses that when the 'Schumer Box' actually went into effect, it did bring credit card interest rates down because there was real competition.

Disclosure is how the economy is supposed to work.

Look, I went through this. For 10 years I tried to get the Fed to do a 'Schumer Box,' credit card disclosure.

We have seen in debates over funding for the SEC and CFTC some Members of Congress use the power of the purse, not just to hold agencies accountable--that is a good thing--but to undermine their mission and achieve deregulation through the…