Rubén Hinojosa: “I disagree with the gentleman, and for the first time since I have been in Congress do I agree with the organizations…”

“I disagree with the gentleman, and for the first time since I have been in Congress do I agree with the organizations called Americans for Tax Reform and the American Conservative Union. In their report to H.R. 2359, they say that the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, that the undersigned organizations write to ask Members to vote against H.R. 2359 because this bill puts in place the mechanism for eventual adoption of a national identification system. They say, perhaps more importantly, section 3 of this proposed bill establishes the precursor of a national identification system by amalgamating data of citizens and immigrants into what is effectively a single database that would be used for multiple purposes. It is quite interesting if it is not going to do what the gentleman says, why they do not just put it through the regular process and let the committees debate it and discuss it and vote on it in committee instead of attaching it to another bill. All of this to say that it is alarming to see what is being done here by a group that is circumventing the process that has worked here for years and years in the House of Representatives.”