Filemon Vela

I would urge the Committee to once again include the San Francisco Bay Restoration Act in the upcoming infrastructure package with the same authorization level included in HR 2--$50 million annually over 5 years.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation to protect our domestic agricultural economy from the entrance of illegal agricultural products.

I and the produce industry strongly support the Protecting America's Food and Agriculture Act of 2019.

It is clear that USDA wants to find efficiencies, but is USDA prepared to make the changes needed to successfully deliver these important services, even if that means increasing, not decreasing, staff and resources?

It is our job on this Committee to ensure that these programs are structured and implemented in a way that can quickly, efficiently, and most directly serve the farmers, ranchers and small towns who need them right now.

Most of us on this Subcommittee represent pretty large swaths of land, and I can't go to any farmer in the 270 mile stretch of south Texas that I represent without hearing about how difficult it is for farmers to get loans and financing…

I want to be clear that I think additional action will be required from this Committee, from this Congress, and from this Administration.

The stakes have never been higher than they are right now.

You cannot have a successful national economy when such a vital component hurts the way our farmers are currently.

States are willing to sacrifice their own political power to do harm to minority voting rights.

I must say now I get it. Your--your testimony has been so compelling and shed so much light on the battle that you consistently wage to protect the very people for which the Voting Rights Act was passed.

I am hoping that we can move forward and do the right thing for the citizens of this country who face obstacles in exercising the right to vote.

The idea that we're at a place in this country where there are people that think we should make it more difficult to vote when we should be doing the exact opposite is just striking, and it's unfortunate.

The Federal Government has a significant role to play in building capacity, resources, and synchronization among communities.

Human trafficking is one of the most profitable forms of transnational crime.

This is a horrendous idea. As with many of this administration's justifications for misguided border security actions, context and strategy are completely lacking.

To say that the border is lawless is a lie.

As I stated on the day this deployment was announced, this is a horrendous idea.

To say that immigrants are overrunning our border is a lie.

This is not who we are as a country. Our legacy--and the future we hope to leave to our children--call on us to be a Nation that welcomes and defends the rights of the most vulnerable among us.

How we treat refugees seeking safety is not a test of our National security, but a test of our National character.

The administration's practice of refusing to process asylum seekers and forcing vulnerable people... to remain outside the gates of the ports of entry is unconscionable.

Asylum is not a 'loophole,' as the Trump administration would like the public to believe.

We urge Congress to reject the policy proposals the Trump administration continues to offer as solutions as they will do nothing to address border security, but will instead endanger vulnerable people and call into question our Nation's…