Pete Sessions: “I thank the Chair. Why would we not include this simple requirement? Well, let me tell you, the American people want us…”

“I thank the Chair. Why would we not include this simple requirement? Well, let me tell you, the American people want us to do it, overwhelmingly, and I think the leaders of this body know that. So a clever plan was hatched. I began to get the feel for it when I began to offer this amendment. Three or four times I offered the amendment. Many amendments were voted on on the floor during this debate. The leadership was most proud of that: Oh, we had a lot of votes. But some did not get voted on. This was one that did not. Why? It passed the House last year. One part of my amendment was passed on a floor vote of 407 to 2 to extend the E- Verify Program, which is set to expire in March. The other part was accepted in the Appropriations Committee, without objection, and that part would say that if you get a contract under this jobs bill, you would use E-Verify. So the House passed it. It was in their bill. All but 11 Democrats voted for the overall bill, so they voted for the E- Verify provision. And I am sure that the Republicans and the 11 Democrats, had they been asked to vote on just this provision, would have voted for it too. So it was virtually unanimous in the House. So I kept pushing it here, and if it had passed here, using the same language our House colleagues used, it would have--absent skullduggery, which sometimes happens--been in the final bill because it would have been in the House bill and the Senate bill and become law. So the House Members are most proud.…”