John Culberson: “We face a record national budget deficit in this country. We face a record national debt of over $7 trillion, which we…”

“We face a record national budget deficit in this country. We face a record national debt of over $7 trillion, which we cannot leave to our children. We face in Harris County, Texas, spending over $100 million a year providing health care to illegal aliens. This bill that the gentleman from California has filed, which I strongly support, only requires hospitals that are seeking reimbursement from that billion dollars to identify whether the individual in question is a citizen or not. A hospital is not eligible to be reimbursed unless they are already treating somebody who is an alien. The gentleman from California's bill, and I have read it very carefully, requires that this question be asked of everybody who is presented to a hospital for medical treatment if they are an alien. The gentleman from California's legislation is based on common sense. We must make sure that we balance the budget in this country. The budget deficit is now over $500 billion. Uncontrolled immigration is a national security issue. We must control our borders. It is a financial security issue for the sake of our kids and our grandchildren. I think the gentleman from California has come forward with a commonsense proposal that we can move forward on to the Senate and that we could deal with in conference committee. If opponents of this bill have better ideas, let them offer them as amendments.”