Legislative Program

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the majority leader for going through the schedule and walking through some of the bills we are going to be taking up next week.

As we just dealt with disaster funding, I know the gentleman is well aware of the disagreements that have been expressed by many on our side, as well as the President and some Senators over there, about some of the things that weren't in the disaster bill, some of the problems regarding the crisis at the border, to help make sure that we can do better at addressing that crisis that is real and that is growing, as well as some of the problems that were identified in the agriculture funding that was included in the bill where it was identified that there are some problems in the language to help some of our farmers get the actual money that they needed.

A lot of those fixes have been negotiated, and those talks have gone on for a few weeks now.

I would hope that as the bill goes over to the Senate, the gentleman and his side would continue to work with our side--House, Senate, Republican, and Democrat--to achieve a bipartisan disaster relief bill that can ultimately get all these problems addressed and signed by the President.

Those conversations are ongoing. Hopefully, they will continue through the weekend, and when the bill gets over to the Senate, then we can try to get all of that resolved so we can quickly move that bill through the process to the President's desk.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, first, to address the comment that was made about reluctance on Puerto Rico, it is kind of hard to suggest there is reluctance to help Puerto Rico when we have appropriated more than $90 billion already and want to continue to make sure that Puerto Rico has the relief that they need. Again, over $90 billion of money from the United States Government has already been appropriated.

We have other issues that we need to address, including some problems with the money in the bill that was supposed to go to farmers. It has been identified that a lot of that money can't get to the farmers who need it.

Many American farms that are going under can't get the help they need. Those problems were identified, and we would like to get that fixed.

There were other issues, such as the President's supplemental. The supplemental was $4.5 billion of additional money that is needed to help with this crisis at the border.

I know some on the other side are in denial about the crisis, but it is real. We have had in recent weeks days in which on one day, a single day, more than 4,000 illegal crossings occurred multiple times.

Secretary Jeh Johnson under President Obama said that when he would get that report every day--it was the first report he would get as Secretary of Homeland Security--of how many people crossed illegally the day before, if more than 1,000 crossed illegally, it was a bad day.

Today, we are seeing experiences through Homeland Security where more than 4,000 people cross our border illegally per day. That is a crisis that has to be dealt with.

It is why the President sent a supplemental funding request, and we would like to see that included in this bill. We tried to start addressing that problem.

I know maybe there is an inability on the other side to look into this properly because there is so much fixation with collusion, Russia, and denial about the Mueller report that showed there was no collusion.

We just saw the Judiciary Committee come out with a contempt finding. I don't know if the gentleman is planning any floor time to bring contempt to the floor, the bill that just came out of the Judiciary Committee, but it would be unprecedented--probably the first time in American history--that somebody was found in contempt of Congress for not complying with the law, for not breaking the law.

The Judiciary Committee was, literally, asking the Attorney General to break the law; otherwise, they would find him in contempt. Unprecedented, probably, in our country's history.

This is, by the way, the committee that has jurisdiction over the border and the laws relating to our Nation's immigration laws.

So, while we have got a crisis at the border, you would think the committee of jurisdiction would be focusing on helping to solve the problem and bringing bills to the floor to solve the crisis at the border, instead of all of the things that they continue to do to try to harass the administration and maybe move towards impeachment, to which they have alluded, as opposed to solving the real problems that this country is facing.

So, I would hope that the focus would shift to solving this serious problem and to giving it the attention it deserves and looking at the President's request on the supplemental to fix this crisis at the border, so we can finally get control over it and help all those millions of people who are trying to come to America the right way.

The great part of our immigration law: We let in over a million people a year--the most generous nation in the world. Yet, we have got a crisis where, on some days, thousands of people per day are trying to cross illegally and are crossing illegally.

I would hope we can come together and agree that we have got to solve this problem, and that is what the supplemental request starts to address. It surely doesn't address it entirely. And we have had that debate over the last few months, and we will continue that. Hopefully, we can resolve that, too. But, in the meantime, I would like to see us address that problem.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, let's be clear. On the problems with our immigration laws, the gentleman mentioned asylum. We all know right now, somebody comes across the border on a daily basis--in the thousands on some days. And they come across and claim asylum, coming through illegal parts of our border, not the ports of entry.

The President has made it clear: If you are seeking asylum, there is a legal way to do it. Come through a port of entry and properly seek asylum.

Many people know there are coyotes, people who make money human trafficking people across the border, and they read from a script. They all know the script. Whether they are seeking asylum or not, they just read the script, and they are let in.

We see it all the time, and they know the game. It is a game, because it is a loophole in the law that we have tried to fix and haven't gotten any help from the other side.

But they know that if they read the script and they know--ironically, they have come through multiple countries that have offered them asylum, and they have turned down that asylum.

So that is not the right way to do it. The President said: Come the right way. Nobody said--you have never seen the President say get rid of immigration laws. He said fix the immigration laws, secure the border, have a legal way to come here, and get rid of things like the visa lottery system and turn it into a merit-based system to make this law work better for the people who want to come here and seek the American Dream.

And I know we have beaten this to death, and we will continue to debate it. Hopefully, we get some real conversations over the weekend to solve these other problems in the disaster bill that aren't included and clear up the number.

We have seen a number of $90 billion plus that has been appropriated to Puerto Rico. Regardless, clearly, it is well over 50, probably closer to 90. We will continue to talk about that as well and address this problem.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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