José E. Serrano: “I started out in life with English as a second language. So even though I speak more English in my adult life than I…”

“I started out in life with English as a second language. So even though I speak more English in my adult life than I have spoken Spanish, I still have to pay close attention to make sure that what I hear is correct. I heard that this decision was made through an ``informal conference.'' I tried that in Spanish--(the gentleman from New York spoke in Spanish). I tried it in English, ``informal conference.'' Both ways I come up with no conference at all. In other words, an informal conference is a couple of people getting together and deciding there is something they do not like in a bill and then destroying that bill, taking that out, and then presenting it to us as an insult to the will of the House. Let us be clear. The House said that on one particular issue, the issue of our future relations with Cuba, we would begin to change our behavior. In one particular instance, with 301 votes in favor, the House spoke on that issue. But we knew, those of us who support that issue knew, that somehow we would figure on the other side a way to kill that. We had to. How could we listen to 301 Members? How could we listen to the majority of the American people? How could we listen to the American farmer? Are you kidding? So this bill is before us today as an attempt to accomplish many things, but in particular to get two amendments that continue to punish a country and ignore the will of the American people. This is not the end of this issue.…”