John Cornyn: “I was looking on our desks at the bill that is actually supposed to be the subject of this debate. It is 231 pages long.…”

“I was looking on our desks at the bill that is actually supposed to be the subject of this debate. It is 231 pages long. It provides an emergency appropriation to help pay for our ongoing global war on terror. I remind my colleagues that is the stated purpose for this Senate time. Indeed, last week 60 of my colleagues joined me in saying that national security demands the passage of this bill unencumbered by a premature debate on immigration reform. Listening to our colleague from Alabama and others who have spoken to this subject, we are getting a better sense of how complicated this issue is and why it is so important, as 61 of us said last week, that we proceed with this emergency appropriation for the ongoing global war on terror and reserve enactment of comprehensive immigration reform for a few months hence, after we have had a chance to go through the appropriate committees of the Congress, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship that I chair in the Judiciary Committee. Chairman Specter of the full committee has promised an expedited markup once we are able to go through the regular order and develop a comprehensive plan. Notwithstanding the sense of the Senate by 61 Members that we should not engage in this premature debate and risk bogging down this important bill to provide financing to our troops in the battlefield, here we are. What is it that the problem of this bill, the so-called AgJOBS amendment, seeks to fix?…”