Political Quotes

“I want to congratulate our good friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) who has labored with this bill along with other Members over the course of this year. And although the gentleman from North Carolina has a worthy alternative, I think that the bill we have before us is an agreed-upon bill between the House and the Senate and the administration. It is time to move this issue forward. There are probably a lot of people in America who wonder why we have guest workers, why we would bring these special H-1B workers in. I think it is important to note that over the last 18 to 20 years, the American economy has grown to be the most competitive economy in the world. If Members will recall, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we were losing quickly our ability to compete. What has happened over the last 18 to 20 years is America, because of the information age, because of the advent of new technology, has really become the most competitive Nation on the earth. The only problem is, our workers, a lot of them, we do not have enough to fill these very highly skilled positions. That is why we have this temporary guest worker program. While I support the program, I support what we are doing here, we also have to keep in mind that we need to do a better job of making sure that we have the educational resources and the options available for U.S. citizens to gain the skills and gain the education to fill these positions long-term.”