co-sponsor from h.r. 5144. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. o ordered. he house will come to order. the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one inute. the speaker pro tempore: the house will come to order. please take conversations off the floor.

the gentleman from washington is recognized. >> i'm joined today by my colleagues from washington state, mr. speaker, to ask you at the end of my comments, to ask for a moment of silence because on october 24, the marysville, washington, and talala communities were ripped apart by a shooting at the marysville high school. mr. larsen: as a father of two teenage boy, my heart breaks as i consider the families who were given the worst news imaginable as a result of this horrible event. healing is a difficult process, especially as we approach the thanksgiving holiday. marysville and talala and the surrounding communities have shown their strength and resilience by celebrating these young people and giving thanks for their lives, although these lives were cut terribly short.

these students. and a celebration even of the life of the shooter. our thoughts are also with nate hatch and his family as he continues to recover. we all want to thank our first responders in the mare -- and the marysville high school staff for their quick action on that sad day and we want to thank the talala community for their resiliency and the faith communities in the area for opening their buildings and their arms to the grieving population. everybody involved deserves our thanks and prayers. for our first responders, you put yourselves at risk to keep our children safe. i know i speak for our whole community when i thank you for yourer is vess and bravery. i want to commend the strength of the community leaders during this incredibly difficult time and my colleagues and i want to

continue to send thoughts and prayers to students, teachers, and families of the marysville and talala communities. with that, mr. speaker, i want to ask the house, we all ask the house, to observe a moment of silence as we remember these young people whose lives ended far too soon. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i do rise today in memory of union county sheriff's deputy sergeant jeff green who died yesterday in a tragic motor vehicle accident in monroe, north carolina. sergeant green was a 10-year

veteran of the sheriff's office that managing the offices of esponsible for gun permits and sex trafficking registry. he was also a veteran and served honorably in the united states air force and united states marines. he was a family man. i would ask my colleagues to remember his wife, april, his daughters, nicole and allison, and his five precious grandchildren in your prayers. sedget green was committed to serving his community both -- sergeant green was committed to serving his community both as a law enforcement officer and an active volunteer. he will be greatly missed. may we honor all like sergeant green and remember to pray daily for them, these brave men and women, who faithfully work to protect our communities. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to

address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> today i rise to remember retired alameda county fire chief bill. he lived to serve and served all who live in alameda county. he devoted his life to keeping us safe he took over as the first fire chief of the alameda county fire department in 1993. with bill at the help, the department took on new responsibilities and doubled in size he added new divisions, too, including a hazardous response team and water rescue team. when he passed away, he was still working to protect his community as regional director of the east bay authority. it provides for interagency community case. we should be thankful for his years of dedicated service. my deepest condolences go out to his wife, children, family, and friends.

thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, this saturday is national adoption day. a day which people and organizations from across the nation come together to bring awareness to a truly admirable cause and one that's become very close to my heart. last year, our family was blessed to adopt twin girls, ivy and lynette. they've become one of life's greatest blessings to my family and christy and i truly cannot imagine life without them. people come to us all the time and say, you're going to be such a blessing to these girls and i can tell you, these girls are a bigger blessing to christy and i than i can ever even say. right now our country is needing adoptive families. there are nearly 400,000 children in the united states without permanent home and 30,000 a year that will age out of foster care programs and face

unlimited hurdles and will limit their success. so this adoption day, i challenge members of this body to do their part, promoting awareness of adoption throughout their district. if we want to create a brighter future for our nation, ensuring that every child has a safe home and loving family is a great place to start. i believe this is a cause we can all agree is worth the effort. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? without objection. >> this is not the kind of vehicle you want to see cruising the streets of your

neighborhood. this is not a police cruiser. while walking the streets of your neighborhood you don't want to see these kinds of military garbed officers patrolling your neighborhood on routine patrol. r. johnson: and when you militarize your police department, you get a militarized response to peaceful and local citizen protests. and if you don't want to see the continued militarization of your police departments through the 1033 national defense authorization act program, then support my legislation to stop militarization of law enforcement act h.r. 17 -- h.r. 57 -- excuse me. h.r. 5478. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek

recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor an exceptional organization from he tampa bay area. recover from.iers a soldier inquired of them about and ost to travel home spend time with his family, and they replied how can you be charged anything when you have served your country? this inspired him to start troop rewards which helps them reintegrate with their families and a moment of rest and relaxation through the foundation's recovery vacations. with destinations ranging from maine to florida, returning

military troops have the opportunity spend time with their family, a reward they have rightfully earned. troop rewards reflects one of our highest priorities as a nation, to repay a debt for those who have sacrificed so much for us. i rise today to commend troop rewards and their many partners in this effort, including the resort in clearwater florida and the clearwater marine aquarium. may god bless these fine organizations and may god bless our troops. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? without objection. >> thank you. mr. speaker, i rise in reck in addition -- mr. langevin: i rise in recognition of november as epilepsy awareness month. each year, thousands of people are diagnosed with epilepsy, yet

research for this illness remain underfunded. we are extremely lucky to have organizations like the epilepsy foundation and the madie fund act nive rhode island. they raise awareness, provide support and improve the lives of children and families living with epilepsy. the madie fund is the product of two loving and dedicated parents who sadly lost their 5-year-old son mattie on mother's day, 2003, following a grand mal seizure. they honor their son's memory every day by continuing to raise awareness about epilepsy. i'm so proud to represent such an inspiring family. i hope everyone will take a moment to reflect on what they can do to support epilepsy awareness not just in november but every day of the year. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition?

without objection. ms. ros-lehtinen: mr. speaker, i rise with a heavy heart to recognize and remember a wonderful woman from south florida who was taken from this earth too soon, nieves oldenberger. she passed away last month at the age of 79 after a car accident. she is survived by her husband isaac, their children, and grandchildren. beyond her noted devotion to her family, nieves was a pillar of the south florida jewish community. she was a founding member and president of the inter-american chapter and was involved with the greater miami jewish federation than ehebrew academy. she will be greatly missed but her generosity and kind hearted soul will forever leave an enduring imprint on our

community. may her memory be a blessing. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize the new york state bar association's law, youth and citizenship program on its 40th anniversary. mr. tonko: in 1974, it was established to promote citizenship and law-related education in schools throughout new york state. imparting knowledge on 5,000 students per year for more than four decades. under the current leadership and the tireless efforts of director eileen garrett, it engages students in one of the premiere statewide education programs of its kind. though the institution officially turned 40 in october, this is truly a year of celebration as the school continues to meet its mission and improve communities in new york's capital region. along with the teachers, civic

leaders and students touched by this work, i congratulate the law, youth and citizenship program and wish them another 40 years of excellence in civic education. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? without objection. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, as a former rural health care professional for three decades, i rise today to recognize national rural health day. it's an opportunity to celebrate the power of rural by honoring the selfless, community-minded, can-do spirit that prevails in rural america. rural families and communities face unique health care challenges including accessibility issue, the lack of health care providers and the needs of an aging population suffering from a great number of colonic conditions. today we take the opportunity to showcase the efforts of rural health care providers, the state

office of rural health and other rural stake holders to meet those challenges. i'm proud to represent a congressional district that encludes rural communities in 24% of its land mass. rural communities are a great place to live and work, which is why nearly 62 million people call them home. our rural hospitals are the economic foundation of rural communities providing god-paying jobs and access to affordable, accessible health care. thank you to those that dedicate themselves serving the health care needs of their neighbors in rural america. mr. speaker, i yield back the alance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. fitzpatrick: mr. speaker, this saturday, november 22, we recognize national adoption day which is a time to celebrate over 4,500 adoptions out of foster care in the united states in the last year. while that statistic represents positive news for a number of

children and families, estimates show that there are still nearly 150 million or fans orlando -- orphans worldwide. additionally reports indicate that international adoptions in the united states have plummeted by over 62% in the past nine years as a result of our nation's broken adoption system. as a member of the congressional coalition on adoption, i have committed myself to working towards sustainable, pro family policies that help facilitate the process of giving a home to every child. one of the those policies is the children and families first act, h.r. 3323. this legislation aims to remove burdensome regulations that slow the adoption process and bolster our international diplomacy intercentered on child welfare and adoption. while congress may be entering the so-called lame duck period, it's my hope that leaders in both chambers will bring this important bill to the floor so we can begin the process of aligning our nation's policies with the fundamental truth that every child deserves to grow up

in a loving family. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, the american people have spoken and they have spoken clearly, they want congress and the president to work together in a bipartisan manner to deliver real solutions to the problems facing our country, one of which is our broken immigration system. so it is profoundly disappointing that the president has decided to ignore the will of the american people and act unilaterally to provide legal status and work permits to millions of people who have violated our immigration laws and are living in the united states illegally. we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. and so there is a right way to remove our immigration system and a wrong way. by passing congress, ignoring

the constitution, and issuing a unilateral executive order is the wrong way. mr. barr: and it is unfair to those who immigrated to this country legally for the president to fail to do his duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. the constitution and the rule of law matter. instead of issuing yet another overreaching executive order, the president should join good faith congressional efforts to solve this problem. the house has already passed bipartisan legislation to secure our border which is what my constituents tell me is the most important first step. so i call on the president to follow suit, stop dividing the american people, follow the constitution, and work through the legislative branch to reform our immigration system the right way. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? ms. ros-lehtinen: mr. speaker, i send to the desk a privileged concurrent resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the concurrent resolution. the clerk: house concurrent resolution 119, resolved that when the house adjourns on any legislative day from thursday, november 20, 2014, through friday, november 28, 201, on a motion offered pursuant to this concurrent resolution by its majority leader or his designee, it stand adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on monday, december 1, 2014, or until the time of any reassembly pursuant to section 2 of this concurrent resolution, which ever occurs first. and that when the senate recesses or adjourns on any day from thursday, november 20, 2014, through friday, november 28, 2014, on a motion offered pursuant to this concurrent resolution by its majority leader or his dess egg knee, it stand recessed or adjourned until noon on monday, december 1, 2014, or such other time on that day as may be specified by its majority leader or his designee and the motion to

recess or adjourn or until the time of any reassembly pursuant to section 3 of this concurrent resolution which ever occurs first. section 2, a, the speaker or his designee after consultation with the majority leader of the house shall notify members of the house to reassemble at such place and time as he may designate in his opinion the public interest shall warrant it. b, after reassembling pursuant to subsection a when the house adjourns on a motion offered pursuant to this subsection by his majority leader or his designee, the house shall again stand adjourned pursuant to the first section of this concurrent resolution. section 3, a, the majority leader of the senate or his designee after concurrence with the majority leader of the senate shall notify the members of the senate to reassemble at such place and time as he may designate in his opinion the public interest shall warrant it. b, after reassembling pursuant to subsection a when the senate adjourns on the motion offered pursuant to this subsection by

its majority leader or designee, the senate shall again stand adjourned pursuant to the first section of this concurrent resolution. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the concurrent resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? mr. ros-lehtinen: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today on a motion offered pursuant to this order, it adjourn to meet at noon on monday, november 24, 2014, unless it sooner has received a message from the senate transmitting its concurrence in the house concurrent resolution 119 in which case the house shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leave of absence

requested for mr. fortenberry of nebraska for today and mr. nadler of new york for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. kelly, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. kelly: i thank the speaker. today i rise because i want to talk about a piece of legislation i'm dropping with a colleague from the senate, senator rubio, it's h.r. 5746, he it's title is keeping america safe from ebola. i know a couple weeks ago ebola was in the headlines everywhere and we couldn't stop talking about it. every newscast was filled with more and more information about ebola. there was a great concern around not only our country but around the world about this disease that was so lethal and what were we going to do to stop it? i didn't know that much about ebola, what i decided to do is

go back and look and find out as much as i could about ebola and find out how we ever became even knowledgeable of ebola. i find out there was a doctor in 1976 by the name of dr. peter piot, a belgium doctor. he discovered the ebola virus in 1976. i went to my staff and said, ok, we know the doctor discovered ebola. we know he knows about this virus. let's find out from him the true information that we need to have . if this is such a dangerous disease, if this is such a dangerous virus, if it is so lethal, shouldn't we try to find out everything we can about ebola? so i contacted dr. piot, he he was in london. let me just tell you who he is. dr. peter piot is not only a doctor but he has a ph.d. he's a clinical microbiologist. director of the london school of

hygiene and tropical medicine. former undersecretary-general of the united nations and former executive director of unaids. he lives in london and has spent his entire life studying infectious diseases, despite the fact that when he was in med school and said i'm going to study infectious diseases, he was told you don't have to worry about infectious diseases. i don't know why you would even be concerned about infectious diseases. the world is no longer being troubled with these or being threatened with infectious diseases. dr. piot thought, that doesn't make sense. there's no reason for us not to continue to study it. so he did study. in 1976 i have already told you he is the doctor that discovered the ebola virus. now, you may wonder, what was your conversation like? i said, i just want to tell you here in the states we are very concerned right now about ebola.

in fact, we have written about ebola and said this is a paul revere moment when people have to really understand that there is something coming that we are not ready for. and he said to me, you know what, mr. kelly, i'm glad you called me because let me tell you a little bit more about ebola and let me tell you right now what the world is looking at, not just your country, but the world is looking at a dress rehearsal for the next great vie virus. it is true this one is very lethal. but this is tactile. in other words, you have to come in contact with it some way. but he says, it is constantly mutating, as are other viruses. i said, ok, doctor, because our idea was first of all you mice isolate those who have this disease. he said that's right. i can remember growing up if you had the mumps or chicken pox or measles, the first thing you were told you can't go to schoolment you have to stay home because you don't want to carry

this into a school. so we would stay home. they would isolate us from the general population. even though we were children and wanted to play, no. not until you're clear. it just seemed so basic. he says it's absolutely basic. we must contain it to west africa. we cannot let it get beyond those shores. because of who we are today and the technology we have today, we can be sitting in this wonderful house this afternoon, and we can be in rome tonight. we can be halfway around the world in a very short period of time. it's not like the old days where these diseases, these viruses were carried and it took months for them to get from shore to shore or country to country. it now can travel very quickly. it mutates very quickly. so i said to dr. piot, what else should we do? number one, isolate. number two, guarantee. i heard of quarne tees. you should have. back in italy when the bubonic

playing -- plague broke out they took people who were infected and put them on an island and they left them there for a quarantine or 40 days. they were allowed to come back in if they survived to enter the general population. isn't it amazing during those days everybody understood you must isolate, you must guarantee. why? so you don't intereffect the general population. -- infect the general population. it is so basic. yet we are trying to struggle today to find out how do we contain this disease. this lethal disease. what can we do? the answers, my friend, are so obvious. the other thing that he talked about, i want you to think about this, dr. piot discovered the ebola virus in 1976. fast forward. 1986, 1996, 2006, and now 2014. it has been almost 40 years since dr. piot discovered the

ebola virus. in those 40 years we have not developed a vaccine to inoculate people against the ebola virus. it is unthink -- unthinkable that at this time in human history we are still playing around trying to figure out what should we do. and the answer is, it better be politically correct. or we can't possibly do it. so we are going to risk entire populations, we are going to risk infecting people that have absolutely no contact but come in contact because somebody's able to travel the world freely, somebody wasn't isolated, somebody wasn't quarneteenched because it doesn't fit our political agenda. this makes no sense. this administration appointed an ebola czar. that's as far as it went. we've got an ebola czar. we don't have a genda, a strategic, we don't have --

agenda, we don't have a strategy, we don't have anything to combat this very lethal virus. what is it going to take to wake this country up? i would suggest, my friends, that while it's no longer a headline, it's still very important. much as to every citizen of this great country, but every citizen of the world. so the answer is to isolate. the answer is to quarantine. the answer is to develop a vaccine. the problem with developing a vaccine, there are at least four vaccines that are available right now. dr. piot told me the greatest advances have been made by our department of defense. the united states department of defense has made the greatest progress in developing a vaccine for ebola. why don't we bring it out? he said it has not been tested on humans. i said, well, that doesn't make sense. he said of course it doesn't make sense. that's how these infectious disease concerns work. what would the process be? we have tested them on monkeys.

we haven't tested them on humans. the biggest thing when it comes to a vaccine is what dosage should we give? you have to give the right dosage in order to defeat the disease. think about if we develop a vaccine, we can now talk to the medical providers, we can talk to those doctors and nurses that go into these infected areas and say we are going to inknock could you late you, you are not going to come home with this lethal disease. how basic is that? so the question is, what are we waiting for? why are we not dwhopping today? why are we not fast forwarding this? it's because there's a new headline. now we're going to talk about immigration. forget about ebola, that's by the wayside. the election is ancient history, we're not going to worry about that. we're going to worry about immigration today, we're going to turn our backs on a discovery that will save thousands and thousands of lives. we're going to turn our backs on

science that we know to be true and on a cure that we know is there. we are at the threshold right now. i want to read from dr. piot's book, because there are several things that really struck me. one of the thing he not only works on the ebola virus, he also worked on the aids virus he says, perhaps most important, i have seen over and over and over again how a catastrophe like aids brings out the very best and the very worst in the human species. regardless of whether a person s well educated or illiterate, these experiences largely compensated for the numerous, coming to a cure for aids, this is what he said. these experiences largely ompensated for the numerous -- just translate from washington into this, brain-killing meetings i had to endure during my tenure at u.n.h. where i learned not to be guided by the

modern plague, the quarterly result the short-term view but to focus on the ultimate goal of saving as many lives as possible. so what he's saying is, forget the poll techs. keep your eye on where it is you're trying to go. let's fix this problem. let's save as many lives as possible. book, dr. d up the piot finishes it this way, above all, the history of aids is one of refusing the nevittability of death because of the lack of treatment and moving mountains beyond familiar territory. it is perhaps the strongest example of global altruism out of a rational necessity in our ever more interconnected world. so as i talk to you today, h.r. 5746, the bicamera rah -- bicameral piece of legislation, crafted with senator rubio from the senate, all we're asking for

is to please wake up. understand that this is truly a paul revere moment for the world. and as i talked to dr. piot he said, mike, this is a dress rehearsal. and i'm going to send you my books so you can see why i feel the way i feel. the title of his book is "no time to lose." and how many times in our life have we looked back and we said if only i had known, i would have fixed it. if only i knew what was going to happen, if i didn't act, i would have fixed it. my friends, there is truly no time to lose. the vaccine is right on the threshold of being available to us. but it's not just ebola that i'm worried about. it's not just ebela that this country should worry about, it's not just ebola that the world should worry about, it is what is coming.

believe me, we have not seen the end of infectious disease. we have not seen the end of lethal viruses that will cripple us as a nation and could become the weapon of bioterrorists that would use it at any cost, without any regard to human life. we have the ability right now within our hands, within our grasp, to develop a vaccine in order to defeat this horrible virus. all that i would ask is that we come together in this house, the american people's house, not a republican house, not a democrat house, but the american people's house, once again conquer a disease that could infect not only our own american citizens but citizens of the world. mr. speaker, i thank you and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert is recognized as the ezzig knee for the remainder of the hour, the designee of the

majority leader. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. my dear friend, mr. kelly is exactly right. we haven't heard the last of ebola, it will continue to mutate. it will continue to be a threat. and as this president is sending around 3,000 or so of our ilitary members to west africa and they've been told they were going to be given gloves and masks and urged to wash their hands and feet several times a day, basically what that says is , the men and women who have sworn and pledged their lives to

protect ours are not going to be adequately protected by this administration. the rules of engagement already and nowmilitary at risk we're going to send them to ebola infested countries. the initial report said, initially, our military will not be seeing ebola patients. but they are certainly going to come into contact with people ho have had exposure to ebola. president, george . bush, a good man, smart man, witty, clever, gentleman, despite what some might say, but he asked after 9/11, in essence, who would have ever dreamed

someone would fly a plane into a ilding like a bomb -- and my thought immediately was, well, actually, tom clancy wrote about that several years ago. it was not a radical islamist as appened on 9/11, 2001. but the late tom clancy had quite an imagination but he did his homework in amazing fashion. some said his books had too much etail in them but one of his atter books had research going on in africa with the strain of monkeys that is the one strain that is believed and has support for having been transferred through the air instead of hrough liquid body fluids.

and in the novel, the fiction novel, clancy had somebody working to develop that strain into a mutated strain, since it mutates constantly into one that people could pass through the air and then it was used to infect our military or expose our military and many americans and basically in his fiction novel, allowed radical islamists to take over much of the middle east while our military had been exposed to ebola and much of it was quarantined. there are many things tom clancy has written about that i hope and pray never happen, that is one of them, but since some things tom clancy's mind dreamed

p as a novel or fiction writer actually came to fruition, we shouldn't think for a minute that if clancy could dream it up, our enemies could as well. i've been on the border many , ghts, all hours of the night people just as they finished crossing, first time i went, i expected i'd see people crossing in droves. not realizing the coyotes, the paid employees of the gangs, drug cartels, that bring people across, i didn't realize, they don't want to get caught because if a drug cartel or gang employee gets caught by one of

the texas boats run up and down, i say texas boats because our administration has not provided any federal boats in the area most crossed down south of mcallen, no federal boats down there. it's an area where texas has stepped up and provided a number of boats that are zipping up and down the river. you can hear them coming. coyotes don't want to be caught. they know if the texas d.p.s. catches them, they'll destroy the raft and that will put the coyote in very deep trouble for getting caught system of they don't want you to see them crossing. and as the state of texas has placed d.p.s. officers, texas rangers, game wardens up on the high bank, even the dark work just the least bit of light at all, you can see their silhouettes and coyotes won't cross, again if they think

they're about to get caught. once across, groups anywhere from eight to 90 will immediately look for someone to surrender to, unless, of course, they're like the people i've seen fleeing down there, apearntly had drugs or something, they didn't want to be caught with. but it is an open border. far too open. and now, before the border is secured, with talk of the amnesty and legal status that our border patrolmen have assured over and over again causes a massive surge, a massive influx of people trying , get to the united states just the president or anyone in washington talking about amnesty or any type of legal status

helps lure central americans and , girls totheir demise being raped, sold into sex trafficking, many make it across, some don't. so i would think the most compassionate thing that the government could do in the united states is number one, secure the border so families are not tempted to send their little children, little girls, up with other people, paying gang members to bring them up, who frequently rape them as they come. to the u.s. a good neighbor would not only secure their border, but then we

would help mexico, central american countries, as we did colombia, to overcome the drug cartels. colombia had made great strides, i think, largely in part, they had a president like president uribe, whose parents had both been assassinated and as one of our federal agents in colombia told me some years back, the toughest job they had back then was keeping uribe alive because he was so courageous and so determined to defeat the drug cartels. well, they kept him alive, with our help, british help, other help. the drug cartels were placed on the run. coca fields were eliminated. it's still anengoing battle they face constantly.

but if mexico elects the right leader, then the united states government should be a friend that helps them create an environment where people want to stay and work. many of the people come and they would love to remain in their country, if it weren't so dangerous and there were work. we can't take every person who elides in mexico, guatemala, salvador, honduras, we can't take every person without destroying the country that is the magnet, that is the shining light on the hill. nd as a very precious, wise, elderly west african told me, when i was over there, you know, we were so excited when you elected your first black president, but ever since he's been president, we've seen america get weaker and weaker,

at least from what we see, it appears you're getting weaker and weaker. we need you to spread around in washington that you've got to stop getting weaker because it doesn't just affect you, we know we're christians, we know where we're going when we die, but we have no hope of a secure life and a safe life unless america is strong. and is an intimidating force to the forces of evil around the world. forces of evil will not go away. they will be with us until the end of time. . america makes a difference when we stand strong. we don't even have to send people. just the threat when as a former ambassador from israel said, america is not a serious threat. to take out iran's nuclear

capability. quite the opposite. everybody realizes america now is no threat to iran. and since america is no threat to iran, and iran knows it, the world knows it, then israel is more at risk than ever before. it's true in west africa as boca had a ram -- boko haram gets more howerful. tsh-powerful. it's true in north africa, it's true in in the middle east, in in europe. sia, we need a strong america. and instead, though the official unemployment numbers have been shown to come down. but when you cook the books by

not including the massive millions of americans to are adults, who could work, who are not institutionalized, and they have given up hope of finding a job they tried so long, they are not counted in the unemployed. they are unemployed, but they are not counted as unemployed because they have given up looking. they have lost hope. that is absolutely tragic. mentioned article from september previously, but this report from cns news, september 5, says a 16 rd 92,269,000 americans, and older, did not participate in the labor force in august as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year he low of

62.8%. according to the bureau of labor statistics. well, the article goes on to mention that that has happened ix times in the past year, and again that matches the all time high of nonparticipation matching that set during the may lays -- may lace days of the carter -- may lays days of the carter administration. back then there was double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment officially, and double-digit interest rates. eople were hurting in america. now, people are still hurting. they are hurting across the country. that's why people are so

desperate for sales. no telling what thursday, thanksgiving, the day after will look like. people are so desperate for sales because the data indicates on average people are taking home less than they did when compared with the rate of inflation. so we have a president whose administration has tied the arter administration for the highest number of american adults who have given up hope of finding a job. and just as we get this news that the obama administration continues this year to tie the carter administration for the all time high of americans who have given up hope of finding a today, ant this story

article from the daily caller, obama's amnesty will add as many attorney workers as jobs since 2009. mr. speaker, think about it. over 92 million americans have given up hope of finding a job. that's tied the carter administration. when this president in this economy says to people who have come illegally into this country, i am going to grant you five million or so permits to this then it will put president in a category all by himself. he will no longer be tied with the carter administration as

presiding over the highest number of americans giving up hope of finding work. it willpropel him into a league all his own. because it only makes sense that if you're giving five million legal work permits to people who are here illegally, they will then be able to offer their union s cheaper than workers, other workers who are , and etting a proper wage it will displace millions more americans. from the jobs they currently hold. and you can anticipate that not immediately but in the months ahead if the president does this unconstitutional act, because

he's tired of waiting on congress to change the law the way he's dictated, he's decided to dictate new law to america. well, that's unconstitutional and it's illegal, but the good news for the president, it willpropel him out of the tie with the carter administration most americans giving up hope of finding employment, and getting to the all time high that will likely remain for as long as there's an america. this article from the daily caller today points out that president barack obama's unilateral amnesty will quickly add as many foreign workers to the nation's legal labor force as the total number of new jobs created by his economy since 2009. the plan's expected to be announced late november 20 will

distribute five million work permits to illegal immigrants and also create a new in-flow of foreign college graduates for prestigious salary jobs, according to press reports. obama's already provided or promised almost one million extra work permits to foreigners while his economy has only added six million jobs since 2009. under the president's new amnesty plan, quote, up to four million undocumented immigrants who have lived in the united states for at least five years can apply. an additional one million people will get protection from deportation through other parts of the president's plan. according to a november 19 report in the "new york times." the five million total was attributed to, quote, people briefed on his plans, unquote.

the times reports. the five million work permits will add to obama's prior give aways which have provided work permits to almost one million foreigners. since 2009, the u.s. economy has added only six million jobs, according to the international monetary fund. further, it says not all five million illegal immigrants will get -- who get permits will work, and many are already working under fake names or for cash. however, their new work permits will allow them to compete for jobs now held or sought by blue collar americans, including the many african-americans and latinos who voted for obama in 2008 and 2012.

it woo seem to me tsh-it would seem to me, mr. speaker, that if the president wants to do omething about the massively unfair, high unemployment rate for african-americans who are legal citizens, that the thing to do would not be to give five million work permits to people that are illegally here so that hey can knock more african-americans and more hispanics out of the jobs they legally currently hold because they'll work cheaper. probably without requirement for health benefits. my dear friend steve king invited me to iowa, i was visiting with a businessman there about their meatpacking

blant where they had felt like -- plant where they had felt like they had to have illegal aliens doing the work because they were just jobs that americans wouldn't do. nd after a raid on their plant and illegal aliens were arrested, he reported that it turned out those were jobs that americans just would not do at that price. but by raising the wages a couple of dollars, providing health care benefits, amazingly they could find americans who would do that job. so it seems that as this story is replicated around the country there are not so many jobs that americans won't do, it's that there are jobs that americans won't do at the market rate.

so that's why you see so many millionaires and billionaires, many of them massive democratic donors, who are -- and some republican donors, including the national chamber of commerce, local chambers aren't pushing like this, but they say we want, we need this massive influx of unskilled laborers to do these jobs americans won't do. they don't finish the sentence and say, these jobs americans won't do at what we would like to pay them. they require more in order to be hired, which skews the living wage that workers in america are getting paid and skews it downward. so that under the obama have tration, americans

really been hurt and that was reflected in the results of the election. i know there are many democratic friends who said they don't understand why americans that came out and voted didn't feel better about the economy. try talking to them, because they make it very clear. they haven't had a raise in years. they haven't-tsh they have lost health care benefits because of obamacare. they tsh-one told me mine went from $500 deductible which was really tough to $5,000 which i just can't ever meet because i can't spend $5,000 extra dollars to cover the deductible of my new obamacare policy. yeah, the old joke was always, i'm from the government and i'm

here to help you is one of the most frightening lines in america. it's no longer a joke. it is quite scary when you look at what the government has done to people. as this article points out, for , obama administration to using their terminology, create six million jobs, because as we know the president and also hillary clinton have said, you businesses, you didn't create those jobs. oh, no. you weren't the one that put your capital at risk, that took out a loan, that are paying more in taxes for the police, for the roads than anybody else, no. you didn't build that company that you risked your sacred honor and everything you hold dear on, you didn't create that. the government did that. we it that for you. that's the way socialists

generally start talking. and having been an exchange student in the soviet union back when it was the soviet union, i saw what happens to a country that has to live under that for decades. so even in the 1970's i could see, i don't want their health care, thank goodness we have free market health care. of course that was back before insurance companies and the government skewed the cost of health care. . so when i was being told this week by a parent that the bill they got for their child having stitches in a medical facility as $4,500, i did enough work with and for health insurance companies and people that had claims with health insurance

companies that i know good and well that the top health insurance companies they wouldn't pay $4,500. you get a bill for $4,500, they probably don't pay $500 for that bill system of why shouldn't an american who can't afford an insurance policy under obamacare, why shouldn't that american be table pay $500 cash instead of being hit with a $4,500 bill and then the health institution say, hey, since you're going to pay cash, we'll cut you a real deal. we'll knock off 20%. we'll save you a bunch of money. and you'll still pay several times more that be people with insurance. even though there are those who said republicans don't have any solution, one of the parts of my health care bill would require every health care facility and

provider to post the costs, and if you're given a different rate than the insurance company -- to the insurance company than you do to an american paying cash, you've got to post it and let it see. only then would you ever get back to having some competition. the doctors that we used to go in my hometown, passed away now, but my late mother, very, very smart, always looking for a bargain, one time i said, why are we going to this doctor instead of the one we did last time, well he, raised his rates and you know good and well this other doctor is as good as that one. when was the last time somebody said that? well, i'm going to a different doctor because the other one raised his rates. people don't even know what they charge because it's been so skewed. you want to fix the health care system, one thing that should be

required is to actually be truth in the charges of health care. we don't have that now. we don't know what the insurance company pays specifically, government rates are posted but that's also why many physicians, health care providers, like hospitals, they've gotten out of the business, doctors have told me they have seen that -- told me they have, seen that they have, we lost our second hospital in my district this past week, the announcement, at least. we want to help americans. it's not by more government takeover. the question keeps coming to me, i don't understand why my insurance is so much more, my deductible went way up, i'm covering things like maternity are i'll never use, and my premiums went up.

i don't get it. i don't understand why it's more expensive. well, one thing is very basic as part of that answer. if you're going to hire with alth care dollars 18,000 new i.r.s. agents, if you're going to hire millions more people for the government, that will never so much as put a band-aid or back teen or anything on a cut or -- or bactine or anything on a cut or help anybody with a real problem, your health care costs will go up because you've added huge amounts of government that has nothing to do with getting you treatment. they're government. they may make you sick to your stomach, they may cause you to get ill, they may scare you, but

they're not going to fix your problem. they're government workers. thank you very much. i was in the army for four years, and i know there were some good doctors there, i was friends with some. but wow. we did have some quacks. the last thing i want is to be forced back into a hospital where the government has total control. but that's part of the price you pay by being in the military. thank goodness congress has stepped up enough to provide our military with really the best health care when it comes to traumatic injuries. but as some have found around here if you've got a problem with your gallbladder you better go to a private hospital. if you get a traumatic injury, sure.

our military doctors and facilities are awesome. but i'll take my private facilities for anything else. well this article from the day -- from "the daily caller" points out, each year the nation accepts one million new immigrants, roughly five million new immigrants since 2009. that total includes roughly 3.5 million working age immigrants, slightly to the number of americans 4.3 million who turn 18 each year. also companies annually hire roughly 450,000 blue collar guest workers and roughly 200,000 white collar guest workers. most of these guest workers stay for less than a year but many stay for six years. that current population of roughly 600,000 foreign graduates is expected to increase if as reported obama's

plans allow american universitys to offer green cards to foreign tuition paying students. each year, roughly 4.3 million americans join the work force in search of good jobs. that total includes roughly 800,000 americans with expensive degrees in business, engineering, medicine, technology, and architecture. at least nine million americans are unemployed. and at least seven million have given up looking for work. employment rates aamong african-americans and latinos are lower than rates for whites and asians. since 2000, the numb of native american -- born americans with jobs has stalled, despite a growing population of working age native born americans. the surplus of domestic foreign job seekers also helps ensure that u.s. median wages, that's

average wages, have flatlined since 2000. economists including obama's top economic advisor, say that wages stall when the labor supply is larger than the supply of new jobs. down further, obama has already provide or promised about one million work permits to foreigners since 2011. since june of 2012, ao ba ma used legally questionable deferred action for childhood arrivals program to give work permits to almost 600,000 illegal immigrants. that daca number may go above 1.5 million. in may, 2014, obama's deputies announced they would provide 100,000 spouses of university-trained guest workers, used by brand name companies. in october of 2014, his deputies

announced they would accelerate he paperwork for 110,000 would-be asian immigrants allowing hem to -- them to begin working in the united states long before they were due to get green cards. this is bad news for american workers. it is really bad news for the american workers. and you would think it would come at a tremendous cost to the democratic party, which gets the huge majority of african-american and a lesser majority of hispanic or latino voters. o this action to provide legal work permits to as many as five million people who are illegally a slap in the face as

hard as a slap you could give to his pan exs and to african-americans whose unemployment rate is dramatically higher than it should be. because this action that the president is about to take, unconstitutionally and illegally, for political toposes, is basically saying the masses, the millions of african-americans and hispanic voters who are out of work, look, we know you're going to always vote for us no matter how much damage we do to your lives, your employment, your ability to pay your bills, we know you're still going to vote for us no matter what. because you haven't figured out that republicans, they want you to have a job, they want you to be able to provide for yourself, they want you to learn in english so that you can be

president of the company and not just a manual laborer for the company. we want you to live and achieve the american dream while the president is pushing a program that is going to push millions more, many of them african-americans and hispanics, out of the jobs they have and bring in cheaper labor and make it even tougher. why? we keep hearing it's a political move. of course it's a political move. well the only way it's a political move is if the democrats take the african-american and latino votes for granted. you're going to vote for us no matter how bad we mess up your lives. so this will allow us to eventually pick up the votes of people who have come in illegally because they want to reward those of us who helped them. i'll tell you mitigating circumstance office helps so

many hispanic families try to go through the legal route of getting family members here or people that are trying to get a loved one here, a fiance here, we help with those things. and of course there's no charge. and i've had a lot of people say , i don't know why we're working so hard and for all these years to bring this person in legally when i would have been better off just saying, come on across, you'll get an amnesty someday and we'll have saved all this frustration because we were try dog to -- to do what we thought was the american way, the legal way, when the president is about to reward lawbreakers by being a lawbreaker himself. "the new york times" reports today that officials of the

republican-led house appropriations committee have concluded that the government agency most responsible for implementing any new executive order, citizenship, and immigration services would not be hindered if government funds are cut off. it operates entirely on revenue it generates through immigration applications. in short, lawmakers have no physical leverage over the agency which could keep operating even if the rest of the government were shut down. now, we understand that. c.i.s., customs and immigrationer is vess, they operate with fees they generate. who allows them to do that? congress does. who created c.i.s.? congress did. who has the authority to prevent c.i.s. from implementing any illegal dictate that comes from

the white house? congress does. so even though c.i.s. is funded by fees, we have the ability to do what democratic congresses have done post watergate, you want people out of vietnam immediately who are americans, then no matter where the federal money comes from, you make it a crime to spend any federal revenue, no matter where it comes from, to have people in vietnam. you want to prevent america's -- americans from helping the contras keep communism off our southern border and out of central america, they pass a law. it's easy to do. you pass a law saying it's a crime to use any federal funds, no matter where they come from, for this purpose.

that's one thing we can and should do. and i deeply regret that our embers were told, we're done until after thanksgiving, when the president's ability to announce this lawlessness -- about to announce this lawlessness and then we're hearing secondhand from leadership of the republican party, well, there's not much we can do. gee, they get their own funds. yeah, there's plenty we can do we ought to be here right now passing a resolution that thorizes a lawsuit, an injunction, i've signed plenty of injunctions. there's a standard you have to meet, but it can be done. . ifs you have a president acting lawlessly, just like you have a mayor acting lawlessly or a county judge or commissioner or a governor, somebody that's

adversely affected ought to have standing, bring a lawsuit, get an injunction to keep them from violating the law when they're supposed to be enforcing the law. but it makes sense that as an administration acts more and more lawlessly, you have the consumer finance protection bureau which was created by the democrats, by an all-democrat house and senate majority, signed by president obama, created this entity that was supposed to protect americans from unscrupulous banking practices. well, it turns out now that's being used to gather debit card and credit card activity on americans. the government shouldn't be able to get that information without a warrant or without permission from the american. we don't need a federal agency

that goes snooping, getting material that should require a warrant, and only after the government has shown probable cause that that american has committed a crime. officers would come to me. i've signed orders ordering the disclosure of bank records like that, but the government had to establish probable cause or i wasn't going to sign the warrant, and yet we create this monstrosity that in the name of helping us poor, stupid, ignorant americans, they'll just monitor every bit of our financial activity while the n.s.a. is watching over our emails and we're having our phone calls, all the logs from them going to the government. for heaven's sake, is it any wonder that we get a report this week -- there's an article from "the washington examiner,"

reports under obama u.s. personal freedom ranking slips below france, for heaven's sake. we ought to be the freest country in the history of the been and we have previously. as peter sellers used to say, as the pink panther, not anymore. yeah, we're -- how sad is this, united states and the personal freedom rankings for 2014 is number 21? well, is that any surprise that our freedom is under attack and our freedoms are diminishing and going away when the government is looking at every private aspect? and you look at the control that was taken by obamacare over all aspects of our life. it allowed the federal government to have all of your

most personal secrets that should be only between you and your doctor. how many times have we heard that from liberals? and yet they passed obamacare without a single republican vote, that puts the government, not only in their bedroom, as they have previously objected to, the government's in your bedroom, your bathroom, your garage. they're in your dining room, your refrigerator. they're on machines you buy food from. they are everywhere now. so as i've said before, the obamacare bill was not so much about health care, it was about the g.r.e.. obamacare was about the government running everything and holy cao, are they actually -- holy cow, are they actually doing that? quite interesting, as our government is going to put another four million, five million hardworking americans out of work and turn those jobs over to people who came in

illegally, displacing -- i guarantee you when the smoke clears, there will be a disproportionate number of african-americans and hispanics who have lost their jobs because of this action the president's going to take. new zealand, norway, australia, iceland, canada,ure gay, denmark, -- uraguan, denmark, costa rica, finland, france, austria, malta, portugal, those are all ahead of us in the personal freedom rankings for 2014, and there we are down below portugal. well, tonight, it's also reported in "the washington post," that the president's announcement could he insides with the lat -- coincides with the latin grammy awards. rticle points out that the 15th annual latin grammys, which begin at 7:00 p.m.

thursday on spanish language tv network univision, they'll take a break from the president's announcement. so clearly it is political. clearly it will make points with those who are rewarded with legal work permits for .oming in illegally but it's going to be a disaster for many latinos, for many african-americans to keep their job, they're going to have to start making less than the living wage that they had before. well, we need to be about the business of stopping this. we can. we have the will, but it's kind of tough as we approach thanksgiving for many americans

to be thankful. this is still the greatest country in the world. but we're losing what we had. losing freedoms, losing revenue, losing control of our lives to the government. but it was george washington followed by every single president since who have said this time of year for all we have, for all we've been given, those that do believe the bible know all good gifts come from god and for god be the glory. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. mcgovern, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. mcgovern: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, on

november 6, for the second time i participated in monty's march, which is a 26-mile walk from north hampton, massachusetts, to greenville, massachusetts, to raise the awareness about the problem of hunger, not only in our community but throughout funds for to raise the food banks in massachusetts. it is held by monty, who dressed up by evel knievel to attract some attention, a very unique personality, but somebody with a heart of gold who has been doing this now for several years. joining us on the march was dave, the northwestern district attorney, andrew moorehouse, the executive director of the food bank of western massachusetts, aircrafta congressional cooper of williams -- erica connell cooper of williams, massachusetts, sean berry, who runs four seasons liquor store,

who was with us last year when we marched. a great guy. dan finn, a pioneer valley local first. a group called mutt and me, a medieval performance group, who walks with us with a big portion of the walk. brian, steve, "the hippy" findell, a local activist who is well-known in the community. and natalie blaze and keith barncal of my staff in north hampton. it was a cold and rainy day when we began our march at 6:00 in the morning at north hampton. we were greeted by the mayor of north hampton who walked with us to the border and wished us well and we had many stops along the way. we stopped at the bible center and met with the executive director and her incredible crew. the emirates survival center is a place where people go to get

food, to get -- sometimes to get clothing, to get support and advice and even sometimes medical attention. it's an incredible place, but when you visit there you realize the fact that there are so many in our community who are struggling. we had a brief stop at chandlers restaurant in south deerfield, massachusetts, and met with the chef who prepared this wonderful meal for us. we then continued our walk and met with gordy and barbara woodward of richardson's candy. it's also in deerfield. probably the best chocolate you're ever going to taste. we were given some. we were also greeted by emily and oliver rich from tea guys, which is this remarkable business in wavy, massachusetts, where they blend teas from all around the world and blend teas to your personal liking but they met with us on this cold and rainy day with their crew to keep us going. it was very watch welcomed.

we ended in greenfield at 6:00 at night at a -- kind of celebrated our achievement at seymour, the public, a new public dub the pub, a new pub in greenfield. and we had the best pizza, from mag pipe pizza, also in greenfield. we did this, again, to raise awareness and to raise funsdz. and i want to -- my colleagues to understand for me even though the march was physically grueling, it was unbelievably inspirational. because along the way people would stop their cars and hand us donations for the food bank. they would tell us their stories, stories in which many people struggled to put food on their table and how they got through it. is was all broadcast live on 93.9 f.m., and people called in constantly making pledges and

telling stories and offering their support. it made me realize what a generous community that i have the privilege of representing. and it was really uplifting on a whole number of levels. but, mr. speaker, what happened on november 6 with monty's march, you know, is not unique in the fact that there are people all over this country that are trying to raise funds and are trying to help people put food on their table. we live in the united states of america, the richest country in the history of the world and close to 50 million of our fellow citizens are hungry. it's unconscionable. we should be ashamed of that fact. and so there are people like monty belmonty and others who are doing their part, but what i worry about is that those of us in this chamber are not doing our part. as we come -- as we bring this congress to a close, i think

it's important that we reflect on the fact that when it comes to the issue of hunger, this congress has done nothing, absolutely nothing. in fact, we've made it worse. time and time again, we've had members of congress come onto this floor and attack the programs that provide people food, whether it's snap or w.i.c. or summer feeding programs or school feeding programs that have come under attack by member after member on the republican side, in particular. and we have seen an attack on poor people that is really disconcerting. the war on the poor, mr. speaker, has to come to an end. we've had debates on snap, which used to be known as food stamps, where members of congress would come on the floor and said, well, we can cut that program because it's wasteful. it's inefficient. when the reality is it's one of the most efficiently run programs in the federal government with a record low error rate and a record low

fraud rate. i wish the department of defense had that kind of record when it comes to procuring weapons systems, you know, and other things that they utilize. we ought to hold them to the same standard that we hold the agency that oversees our snap program. we've had members of congress come on this floor and demean poor people and insult them and belittle their struggle. and maybe it makes it easier for those members to vote against programs like snap when they demonize and belittle poor people, but it's wrong and the fact of the matter is that more and more people are utilizing food banks and food pantries. they are going to their churches and their synagogues and their mosques trying to get the resources and the food to put on their table for their families. and here in washington, what the response of congress is is to cut it, more cuts, more cuts.

and then i read in a publication this morning that the republican majority next year plans to go after these plans even more, even more. let me just say to my colleagues that those who benefit from places like the food bank of western massachusetts are not just the homeless and not just the unemployed. increasingly, their increasingly, their clientele include people who have jobs, but their jobs pay so little that they can't afford to pay their bills and put food on the table. the minimum wage in this country is so low that if you go to work, you still live in poverty. we can fix that, but unfortunately in this last congress, the republican leadership refused to allow us even to bring a minimum wage vote to this house floor for a vote. we could have lifted a bunch of people out of poverty and we could have helped make a big dent in the hunger problem if we increased people's wages but we

were told, no, we're not going to do it, and not only are we not going to do it, you can't even have a debate and vote on it in the people's house of representatives. it is outrageous. mr. speaker, the fact of the matter is that hunger is a political condition. we ought to be talking about how to solve this problem. and it is solveable. there are some problems i'm not sure how we solve. this is not one of them. what we need is the political will. what we need is the inspiration. like those who marched with martin belmonte from north hampson to -- hampton to greenfield. i hope that that spirit is contagious so more people in this chamber will take this issue seriously. there is no reason why anybody in the united states of america should go hungry. there is no reason at all. and i have called on the white house to put together a white house conference on food and nutrition so we can come up with a holistic plan to deal with this issue and i have pleaded

with my colleagues on the republican side to stop their assault against the poor in this country. and we're going to continue to battle them next year, unfortunately, because it seems like that's the direction they want to go. but you know, as we recess today to go home for thanksgiving, we're all going to go back to our respective districts, have a nice turkey dinner, enjoy our families, you know, and enjoy the day. but for millions and millions and millions and millions of americans, they don't have that luxury. they don't know where they're going to get their male tonight, never mind on thanksgiving. so i would urge my colleagues, you know, to visit their local food banks. to visit their food pantries. to talk to people who are on snap. to talk -- to talk to families that are struggling with hunger. listen and learn and then come back here and act. it may not fit into a particular

ideology that the -- that some of my colleagues subscribe to in this chamber but the fact of the matter is, we have a moral obligation to deal with this issue. these are our brothers and sisters we're talking about. and their children. we cannot ignore this problem anymore. so i just want to say, mr. speaker, that for me, joining onty's march, on november 6, was an incredible experience. because at the end of the day, they raised over 65 -- over $65,000 for the food bank of western massachusetts. people will be fed. that is an important thing. i wish everybody in this congress would do something similar. i wish that when we come back next year, when we deal with these safety net program, we

deal with programs that provide people good food and nutrition, that we approach these issues with the intent to help people, not hurt people. and i will just close with this, mr. speaker. you know, hunger cost this is nation very dearly. lost productivity in the workplace. kids who are hungry and go to school don't learn. senior citizens who take their medication on an empty stomach because they can't afford the medicines and their food and end up in emergency rooms. and there's also a link between food insecurity and obesity because the cheapest food available is usually junk food system of we are paying dearly for hunger in america. so when people say we can't afford to deal with this issue, my response is, we cannot afford not to deal with this issue. this is something that we can solve. and so to my colleagues who seem only concerned about the bottom

line, who say we can't invest in anything because we have a deficit and a debt, i will tell you that the lack of attention we're giving this issue is costing us. is adding to our deficit, is adding to our debt. if all you care about is the bottom line, you should join with me and join with others and join with those who do marches like monty belmonte across this country and make a difference. get up, get together, let's make it our mission next year to come together in a bipartisan way and end hunger now. that is my hope and that is what i will pray for during this holiday season and i look forward to seing my colleagues when we come back. with that, i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the chair recognizes the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, for 30 minutes.

mr. king: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, it's my honor to be recognized by you to address you here on the floor of the united states house of representatives in this great deliberative body that we are. and i come to the floor at a time when america is anxiously awaiting to see the specific language that will be delivered presumably tonight at 8:00 in the president's press conference. he has announced as of sometime yesterday, he is going to do a national message to the nation at 8:00 eastern time tonight and that message will be as they have long dangled this threat out here that the president is prepared to grant some type of executive amnesty to a number of people that are estimated by the -- to be 3.5 million people, to

five million people, probably not as many as nine million people that has been part of what has been floated out here over the last few months. first, mr. speaker, i will assert that if the president could have found a constitutional way to grant executive amnesty he would have done so by now. he said six -- he's had six years to comb through this constitution, six years with an almost unlimited amount of staff and lawyers that can comb through history and case law and statute and i'd like to think they would actually read the constitution first as the supreme law of the land and try to find a way that he can do what he wanted to do, policy wise. but what has hatched here is that the people have spoken. the people of the united states go to the polls and the president has famously said, you know, i won the election system of the elections have consequences. i would remind, mr. speaker, i would remind the president were i addressing him, elections have consequences. yes, they do. and they have benefits as well.

in 2010, after actions in 2009 and into early 2010, obamacare was pushed to the president's desk where, about march 22 or so, the president signed the obamacare legislation. it came through this floor. and it passed through in two different versions in the senate, one on rescission and one not, i said on this record a number of time, they passed obamacare onto the american people by hook, by crook, and by legislative shenanigan. and they did it in a partisan way without a single republican vote. it was thomas jefferson that said, large initiatives should not be advanced on slender majorities. what would be the slenderest of majority would be barely squeaking by with enough votes to pass it in two different versions in the senate packaged together and this version in the house, i guess two versions in the house too, with people's arms being verbally twisted up behind their back, democrats

that wanted the president to succeed but had reservations takeover of our health. mr. speaker, obamacare itself is a takeover of the second most sovereign thing we have and are. the most sovereign thing we have is our soul. they haven't figured out how to nationalize our soul yet but the federal government stepped in with obamacare and nationalized our health. our skin. and everything inside it. it's a usurpation of god given liberty, it tramples on our constitutional right, it was a huge initiative and it was passed on the slenderest of majorities directly against thomas jefferson's advice and look at what happened. in the fall of 2010, there was a wave election and we welcomed 87 new freshman republicans into the house of representatives. every one of whom ran on the floge come here and repeal

obamacare. every one of whom has voted for the full 100% rip it out by the roots repeal of obamacare and every republican seated in the united states senate has done the same. and that was the wave election of 2010. then the president was up for re-election in 2012. the lines were not as distinct. the debate was, i'll say, less easy to draw those lines between president obe ma's position and those of mitt romney. but the election was decided. the president was re-elected. i think that that's on the american people. they made that decision. and of course elections have consequences. and so, we were not able to repeal obamacare in 2013 or 2014 as we so eagerly anticipated that we might. but elections have consequences. we abide by the inability to repeal obamacare, knowing that we didn't have the votes in the senate and we didn't have a

president that would sign the full repeal and so, a lot of us stood up, about 14 or 15 months ago, and we said, i'm not going to vote to fund obamacare. that was our pledge, mr. speaker. and we held our ground. and that message came out in about june, a year ago last june, late in june or july. we're going to hold our ground. we're not going to fund obamacare. we went to this floor time after time after time, mr. speaker. we appropriated the funds too keep the government open. actually dollar figures we had agreed to between the house and senate and sent those appropriation bills over to the senate and over to the senate but not with the funding to fund obamacare. we were elected to repeal it. we were elected to rip it out by the roots. and we made a valiant effort to cut off the funding to obamacare but the president insisted he would have his name sake piece of legislation and policy in the

form that he wanted it and if he couldn't get that from this congress, then he would shut the government down. and that's what happened, mr. speaker. time after time after time here in the house, we voted to fund the government. and we funded the government without fund og ba macare in every configuration that we could come up with, that we thought could be effectively keep those functions of the government open. and the president resisted and harry reid in the senate resisted and it brought about that time when there was a shutdown for 17 days. now during that time, when there is a shutdown, then all essential services continue continue. and the nonessential services cease. that's the simplest definition of when you run out of money and there's a shutdown. well so we now have a definition of what essential services are. about 87% of the government was essential services and about 13% were nonessential services.

we had a new essential service never defined before that was delivered to us courtesy of, i think a petulant barack obama. and that was since there had been a shutdown in 199 , the people in this country put their money together, pooled their money, private money, to build the world war ii memorial. and that world war ii memorial is is a glorious memorial that sits down on the mall. it had never been closed down in its history. there was no reason to. it, like many of the other memorials are open air memorials. the world war ii memorial that of course the outside of the washington monument, not so much the inside, the lincoln memorial, wide open at all times. the vietnam wall, ep at all times this korean memorial wide open at all times. but the president decided there was a new essential service, that essential service was, call people off of furlough and rent barricades with money

theoretically borrowed from the chinese to barricade the public, including our world war ii veterans coming in on honor flights out of their memorial, out of the world war ii memorial, out of lincoln's memorial, out of the vietnam wall, out of the korean memorial. all barricaded out on rented barricades with parks officers called off of furlough, a new essential service, we couldn't have american citizens and tourists walking through these memorials if 87% of the government is shutdown. we have to have a new service created. that's how spiteful our president was. but in that period of time new york that process, now we have identify what had is essential and what is not. and the essential services, the 87%, essential services. the 13% that are not, we can go back and look through the records and put that list together, we presume and i think rightly so, that if we should be forced into that situation and if the president were to shut

the government down again, we would be in a similar circumstance. we could pretty well predict system of i want to fund all of those appropriations bills and departments, save those that he's likely to direct to violate the law or the constitution when his -- in his press conference tonight, his statement to the american people, and by the way, we're not going to see the language of this, either, tonight. i think what we'll hear is a very carefully crafted speech with lots of ambiguities in it, lots of nuances in it, and there will be very little information in it and we'll have to divine what it is that the president has said and sometime after they have their meeting in the school with harry reid in nevada, then i think there will be a document that will be releetsed or floated that will more -- released or floated that will more precisely define what the president is trying to do. then we can weigh in on the constitutionality or the lack thereof that we anticipate is

going to be the case tonight. ut mr. speaker, mr. speaker, if he were prepared to abide by the constitution sometime in the last year or so, he would have repeated the things he said in the previous five years of his presidency and probably many times in the classroom as he was teaching constitutional law at the university of chicago, a stellar law school in this country. want my money kids was of my learning con law from the president. a high school in washington, d.c., where he said, you want me to pass the dream act by executive order. i don't have the authority to do that. because, he said, my job as president is to take care of the -- we enforce and execute the laws. and the judicial branch's job is to interpret them and it's

the legislature's job to write them. congress writes the law. the executive branch enforces the laws. judicial branch interprets them. pretty simple. pretty compact. pretty concise. pretty accurate. there's no question the president understands this. on multiple occasions he's made remarks that would seek to restore the separation of powers, but they've been missing from his dialogue for a long time now. and that's just about how long it is that he's been planning, made his decision that he's going to go forward and now try to rationalize, try to justify nd he'll try to rationalize an unconstitutional act that put it in quotes, legalizes, closed quotes, 3 1/2 million, five million, seven million, as many as nine million people. and this congress has the enumerated power to set naturalization and by a good number of case law also

immigration policy. no one ills sets the immigration policy. the united states congress does. there is a statute that exists that directs when immigration enforcement encounters someone who's unlawfully present in the united states and says they shall place them in removal proceedings. the president has already ordered that they not place them in removal proceedings. he's created four classes of people and said under his prosecutorial decision process, he decided to waive the law against people who have broken their laws, most of whom are criminals by definition of the laws they have broken. that's the president of the united states. and seven times in the document that was actually signed by janet napolitano, then the secretary of homeland security, they referenced on an individual basis only, on an individual basis only because they know that the executive branch has prosecutorial discretion. that's how you decide -- that's

the term for how you decide which resources, how you prioritize your resources, where you apply those resources and it is reasonable to -- if you don't have the resources to enforce all of the laws, it's reasonable to apply them where the greatest danger to the american citizens are. i agree with that. but when you send out a memo that says if you have not committed a felony and if you have not committed any one of these three mysterious misdemeanors or these three serious misdemeanors, as they would say, then we're not going to enforce the immigration law against you. that says you can break into this country and you can live in america as long as you want as long as you're not -- if you don't become a felon or we don't catch you at it and as long as you avoid these three serious misdemeanors, then you can stay in america for the rest of your life and we're not going to bother you. that's directly contrary to the law, the statute that requires immigration enforcement

officers, i.c.e. in particular, to place them in removal proceedings. congress has written the laws, and that's what we do. that's article 1. that's the opening sentence in article 1 of the united states constitution. and yet the president believes, apparently, that he can write and rewrite law at will. this will come tonight, we'll look at the language and when we look at the language, there will be constitutional scholars all over america, most of the judges will read the statement and reflect upon the application of the constitution, the restraint of it, most of the lawyers will too. and a lot of the americans that understand that this document -- you don't have to wear a black robe to understand what this means. our constitution, mr. speaker, is written in plain english. it's real clear. and there's lots of the language of the constitution that comes out in the language on the streets of america because it's very, very close to our heart. but article 1 of the constitution grants the

legislative power to the united states congress, not the president of the united states. i do know a little bit about this. on a similar circumstance at the state level, we had a governor who believed he could just simply by executive order -- happened to be executive order number 7, write law and insert language into 19.2 of the civil rights section of the iowa code. i read that executive order and the smart lawyers all told me, no, you don't understand. this is -- this is nuanced and it's carefully drafted. so it's going to be constitutional and the governor can do this. so i took the language and i put it into the code. strikes throughs and underlines like we do when we write legislation to see how it changes and it read clearly to me that the governor was inserting language into the code. so i filed a lawsuit. lead plaintiff. i spent some money out of my kid's inheritance to pay the lawyers and came out of that on top. i've been through these

arguments. article 1, section 1 says all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the united states, shall consist of a senate and a house of representatives. that's here, mr. speaker. it's down through the rotunda to the united states senate. we join together and write legislation. the president signs it. then that goes into law. that's the federal code, and it's the executive branch's job to enforce it. he has no authority to waive it. t carte blanche, prosecutorial discretion, but that's not what he's talking about and what he's likely to daca group, the the deferred action for childhood arrivals, which is another constitutional violation, those several hundred thousand that he's issued work permits to in another unconstitutional way and say -- and remember they have our sympathy because they

were brought here, according to a lot of people -- and i agree, at least some of them, due to no fault of their own. little babies that are carried across the border by their mother or father, they're not aware of where the border is or what's right and what's wrong day. 1 it's not their fault. that's the argument that's been made time and again. and so we shouldn't enforce the law, even the letter of the law against people that were not aware that their parents were causing them to break it. now, that's an argument that i'll take some time at another time, mr. speaker, to rebut, but there's always been then, what about the people that caused the daca kids to break the law, their parents, presumably? weren't they aware when they snuck across the border with their children, age 1 day or 15 years and 364 days, weren't they aware that they were breaking the law? of course they were.

and the president's prepared now to reward the family members of daca recipients. why? because he doesn't want to break up families, is my presumption, but these are the people that are breaking up their own families. they put themselves in that condition. they're leaving a lawless land and bringing lawlessness to this land and we have a lawless president who doesn't want to enforce the law and won't abide by his oath to the constitution. so we're put in this fix, mr. speaker. it's a fix of, this congress is now hopefully recessed, not adjourned, at the call of the chair, i hope, expecting to go home for thanksgiving on a calendar that we publish early enough that the president and his mignons at the white house can look -- minions at the white house and can look -- i suppose they can see who owns a plane ticket where, but you can look at the flight schedules coming out of dulles and reagan

and you can look at the schedule and see when it's likely almost everyone has gone from town and gone home for thanksgiving. well, 95% of us are going to be out of town tonight by the time the president has his conference and speaks to the american people. we shouldn't think it's timed that way by accident. it's strategically timed, mr. speaker, so that members of congress have just left town, anxious to embrace our families and celebrate thanksgiving and so he drops this bomb in the middle of us that will be, it will -- the president is prepared to do this, mr. speaker. take this constitution -- and i can't bring myself to actually do this -- take this constitution, separate out article 1 of the constitution, the legislative authority, tear that out. that's what he'll do tonight at 8:00. he will tear article 1 of this constitution out of this document.

probably fold it one time, tuck it into his shirt pocket and say, i'm also the legislative branch of government and don't interfere with me because i'm the president. that's what you're going to hear at 8:00 tonight, mr. speaker. and i'd like to tear that out and show you what it looks like but i can't bring myself to do that to my constitution. excuse me. also, our choices that we have, alternatives to deal with this, i'd make this point. not only have i said the president takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, make sure that the laws be faithfully executed, we also here in the house of representatives and the senate take an oath to the constitution as well. 535 oaths to the constitution between the seated members in the house and senate that have a vote that represent the

people in this constitutional republic. 535 oaths. we have an oath -- we have an oath to keep our -- to keep and protect this constitution as the president does. i expect he will violate his oath again tonight, mr. speaker. we have an obligation then under our oath to restrain the president's extra constitutional activity. i think it's prudent for us to do the minimum necessary to restrain the president. i think it's prudent, and so the limitations on that are they go from one end to another. it's a pretty broad list of things that we have an opportunity to do. but the easiest and the most gentle would be a resolution that would, i believe, with some level of comfort pass here in the house of representatives, there would be a resolution of disapproval for the president's actions. if we bring that resolution of

disapproval, we do so in a language that is -- let's say it doesn't start a big debate, that it just simply lays out the facts. we've done that when we disagreed with a supreme court, a resolution of disapproval comes to mind on the kilo decision. we can disapprove as a house. we can perhaps do a concurrent resolution or joint resolution. doubtful that harry reid would allow it to come to the floor of the senate and doubtful it would pass, but in any case, the house can act on its own with a resolution of disapproval. that may not be strong enough to cause the president to come to his constitutional senses. so the next step would be, in my judgment, then a resolution of crensure for the president -- censure for the president. i will not define it more precisely until we actually see what it does. but nobody in this country can

paint the picture on how the president can expand amnesty and still be restrained by the constitution because of the statutes that exist and the restraints that he has that are built into the separation of powers. and so a resolution of disapproval, number one, a resolution of censure, number two, and if perhaps that resolution of censure will bring the president to his senses and the president could look at the outrage of the american people, which i believe will boil over by tomorrow morning, i believe it will boil over, that outrage and perhaps he will realize that he's got to rescind his order. now, here's one of those examples. when we were all promised under obamacare that we would have a -- we would have conscience protection, right of conscience that obamacare wouldn't compel us to fund abortions and of course we found out that it did and after two weeks of the religious community being critical of the president, the

president finally stepped up at the podium at noon on a friday -- another finally calculated time of the week and he said there have been some complaints from the religious communities. i'm going to make an accommodation to them. now i'm going to require the insurance companies to provide these services for free. well, that's the president also legislating by press conference. it's not the united states congress. but i stand in the middle of the united states congress right now, and i'm hearing some of my colleagues say we don't have the tools to restrain this president. well, the next tool after a resolution of disapproval, after a resolution of censure, the next tool then is to cut off the funding to implement or enforce his unconstitutional executive amnestyiedic and we can do that in this -- amnestyied ict. and we can do that in this congress. that's how we must restrain him. i don't want to go down that path, but if we do let's

appropriate the funds into the departments that are not relevant to this subject matter. . send those appropriation bills down the hallway to the the senate, get them to the president's desk, one at a time. let him pick and choose. they can sit there for all of us. justice and the department of homeland security, those two will be necessary for us to pass out those pieces of legislation by exempting from funding those components of the president's edict. some have said that we could always pull that money back in a rescissions bill. the simple answer to that is, no. we wouldn't be able to do that because p even if we got a rescissions bill to the president's desk, he would veto it. some have said we can't cut the funding off to implement what we anticipate to be the president's act because it's fee based under uscis, united states citizenship immigration services.

that's fee for service, and that would be authorizing on an appropriations bill. i would remind people that this congress has multiple times done just that. they used the rule when i wanted to cut off the funding of obamacare. i brought it before the rules committee, february 14, 2011. i was advised i shouldn't have put them in that position. they were going to have to say no to me even though they agreed because we couldn't affect policy in an appropriations bill. of course the answer is yes, we can. we can do anything we choose to do. i start with this. in the constitution it says, each house may determine the rules of its proceedings. we set the rules here. in the rules resolution we waive continually the provisions that might be -- here's one, all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. all points of order of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. the previous question shall be

considered as ordered and the bill is amended on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion. that's an example of a rule. the rule itself waives points ofoid here on the floor. we can write what he we choose to write into legislation that would cut off the funding to implement or enforce lawless and unconstitutional act and those that say we can't do it, i'll read you the language that does soment none of the funds made available in this act nor any user fee and other revenue may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the documents described, and we describe the documents. this is not rocket science. are we going to allow the president to violate the constitution and say our rules in the house won't let us restrain the president? i call that another red herring. red herring number two. there will likely be another one or two. this congress, mr. speaker, must do its constitutional duty.

it must adhere to our oath to the constitution. we will be called to do that at 8:00 tonight. i will be prepared and so will millions of americans. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair will remind members from engaging in personalities towards the president. for what purpose does the gentleman from iowa rise? mr. king: mr. speaker, i have a memo that says pursuant to the order of the house of today, i move that the house do -- parliamentary inquiry. is the adjournment resolution ore broad than this? and the reason i'm asking is because if we have an emergency are we able to return at the call of the chair?

the speaker pro tempore: the house as adopted an adjournment resolution earlier today. mr. king: mr. speaker, i appreciate the clarification. i'd like to to in a full throated fashion say pursuant to the order of the house of today, i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. accordingly, pursuant to the previous order of the house of today, the house stands adjourned until noon on monday, november 24, 2014 unless it sooner has received a message from the senate transmitting its adoption of house concurrent resolution 119 in which case the house shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution. that is the presid's

announcement on facebook. here to talk specifics on what to expect tonight, michael shear

is the white house correspondent for the "new york times." you talked about how the president is going to treat the 4 million or so people who are your illegally. what is in the plans for them? the majority of those are undocumented immigrants, people who are here illegally, but have a connection to somebody who is here illegally. most likely in most cases it would be a child who is a u.s. citizen -- to somebody who is .ere legally most likely in most cases it would be a child was a u.s. citizen. if you aren't undocumented immigrant and have a can -- if you are an undocumented immigrant and have a connection like that, you have to have lived here for five years or more and you cannot be a criminal. if you beat those criteria, you can get -- meet those criteria, you can get a permit and live

here legally. and there are others that might get some protection. how will that happen? guest: what we think that will include are a couple of things. there's the smaller group of what they call dreamers, the children who are living here in the country illegally and mother were brought here and junk children, some engine as one or two years old. brought here as young children, some as young as one or two years old. there is a limitation on that program and what the president will announce is an expansion to include more people. that is one group. and then there is another group of people who are spouses or other family members, of folks who are here legally. maybe you are a u.s. citizen and you've married somebody or you've had a relationship in some other way with somebody who's not legal. there have been restrictions on

how many of those people could become legal and what it would take to do so. the president is going to ease those restrictions to allow more people to become legal. the entire thing is premised on the idea that what you want to avoid is deporting somebody that is part of an established family in the united states. you don't want to pick up families. that is what the president is trying to do. host: you also spell up mate -- people who may not be covered and you point out form workers. why would that fall under another type of group? guest: generally speaking, if you don't have a family member in the united states or you have not lived here for at least five years, you will generally not be covered by the president's order. the reason i singled out form workers is that there's been a real push by the agriculture industry and some in congress over the years to try to deal with that group. there is about a million undocumented farmworkers.

and everybody on all sides would like to get those people legal, because it's terrible for the agricultural industry to sort of be relying on a group of people to do all of this work and yet they are sort of under the cloud of possible deportation. the problem that the white house confronted with it is if you pick a single group and say, ok, we will do this for farmworkers, then the construction workers ask, why not us? or the people who work in hotel industry or the people who are day laborers. from a legal perspective you could not single out a group that is employed in a particular industry and say, ok, this group will get protection and not another group. shear, one of the things you talk about in your story of those that might be protected as if they were going to be covered under the photo care act. how will that be handled? guest: i've talked to some officials in the last couple of days and the great likelihood is the folks who will get this

, those who removed from a completely illegal status to a more legal status, they will be able to work in this country legally and not be under the threat of deportation, but the administration decided it doesn't make sense to give them access to government subsidized health care either through medicaid or the formal care act, which of course, you get subsidies if you are under a certain income level. that is a disappointment to the activists and the immigration community. but it would really inflame the debate even more than it already is. conservatives are truly opposed to the idea of giving that kind of benefit to anybody who came to the country illegally. host: the president had to make -- dinner with democrats last night to lay out these plans. what was the reaction? guest: the dinner was primarily an effort to kind of rally everybody behind him as he goes and makes this announcement.

folks who came out of the dinner laid out the reasoning behind it and basically, asked for their support. what you will see in the next days and weeks is not only a defense from the white house itself of this executive action, but also all of his allies. you will hear democrats on capitol hill all singing the same tune, but also folks in the advocacy immunity, the groups that have been lobbying for this. they have their own lawyers and on legal briefs -- and their own legal briefs prepared. see, the white house hopes, the unified message of defense going forward. michael shear with the "new york >> igsspigsd tock a fairly short speech tonight. we'll have it for you live here on c-span. c-span radio and c-span.org.

throughout the day on our facebook page we have been asking you to share us what you hope to hear from the president this evening. bonnie says -- what is wrong with obama? why is he so against working together with congress and compromising? as a conservative i'm becoming more and more offended by his irrational acts of division. children sharon post, i support this president. real lives are on the line and deserve to live in this country. congress has been given a chance to act now. the president must. and you can find more at bb.com/c-span. we welcome your thoughts. house democratic leader nancy pelosi this morning reiterated her support for the executive action on immigration that the president is expected to announce tonight at her weekly briefing she also introduced the democrats selected at committee rms for the next congress. -- ranking members for the next ongress.

>> good morning, everyone. i'm very honored to be standing here with a full array of or ranking members of the house -- for the house democrats. as you can see very proud of our leadership that is demonstrated here. as you know i have taken great pride in saying that our house democratic caucus is a majority of women, minorities, and lgbt community members. i'm also proud to say that that is the same when our ranking members come to the table. it's self-evident to you here. it's not to say to the american people everyone in our country recognizing our beautiful diversity has a voice in congress. not only do they have a seat at the table, they have a seat at the head of the table.

in each of their committees. i'm very proud to be standing here with anita lowey, chair of appropriations, ranking member appropriations committee. chris van hollen, budget. frank pallone, newly elected ranking member of the energy and commerce committee. maxine waters. i'm not sure what the order is. but maxine ranking member of the financial services committee. louise slaughter, committee on rules. sandy levin, ways and means. collin peterson, house committee on arkansas. adam smith, not with us because of another matter. house armed services committee. bobby scott, chairman of the house education and work force. er we are so excited about that. eliot engel, house foreign affairs committee. bennie thompson, committee on homeland security. john conyers, house judiciary committee.

elijah cummings, house committee on oversight and government reform. eddie bernice johnson, house committee on science, space, and technology. lydia velazquez, house small business committee. peter defazio, house transportation and infrastructure committee. corrine brown, house committee on veterans' affairs. bob brady, house administration committee. linda sanchez, health ethics committee. carolyn maloney, joint economic committee. raul grijalva, new ranking member of natural resources. i always said in my own district in san francisco, california, the beauty is in the mix. the strength is in the mix. and we are so very is, very, very proud that our seats at the table of the ranking members represent not only the beautiful diversity, they not only look like america, they live like america. they understand the challenges, the aspirations of all americans

who are very, very proud. i could talk for a long time about each and every one of you, but you will see and you know already and some of the cases of members who have been serving how excellent their leadership is. how principleled their policies are. how deep their values are. we are very proud of our members. today we are excited about the president's announcement coming up on immigration. it's very exciting. he will make his own announcement as to what it contains, but the action the president will take this week, i'm so pleased it will be before thanksgiving, about securing the border, holding undocumented immigrants accountable, and again reassuring everyone making sure that everyone plays by the rules, pays taxes, and the rest. the president will be taking a very -- making a very special announcement and i'm very pleased to have been invited to

join him on that trip. as i said to you before, there is -- the president has great authority in the law to take these actions and great precedent of so many presidents from eisenhower on just to go in that span of time. every president has moved to protect people in our country. it's of interest to me that president ronald reagan, even after congress acted, said not good enough. and took congressional action with the initiative to keep families together. so this is pretty exciting. it's bold. it's courageous. it's as good as it can be under the law. that doesn't mean we wouldn't like to have a bill. some of the provisions will have to take a little time to be implemented. there's plenty of time for the republicans, in fact even two weeks when we come back, to pass immigration bill, the senate bill or some version that they

want to put forward. but in the meantime, i'm so happy that the people -- so many people in our country will be enjoying a happyier thanksgiving. because family values is what we are all about. we still want legislation. we still want legislation, but when you look at the constituency for this, the bible, the religious community all say this addresses our values. the business commute saying this is good for our -- community saying this is good or four economy. the chair of our caucus called for a c.b.o. report that said this would save almost -- so much money over time. so it's good for reducing the deficit, but it's also good for job creation in our country. we have the business community, the bible, and we have the badges, law enforcement saying let's do this right.

let's do this right. and that's what the president is doing. we commend him for that. as ay event, another score californian -- not going to talk about -- we had our words two days ago. i do want to talk about the fact hat last night mr. costa and mr. barrett's races were called for the democrats. that means of the 14 race that is were outstanding after election day, 13 of them have been called for the democrats. we have one more that we are waiting for in arizona. but just as a californian, i'm proud to say when we first started down this path in the year 2000 in order to win the house for the democrats and for the american people, we were in california 26-26. even. we made the fight. the goal to taking the house

right now we are 39 democrats, 14 republicans. picked up one more in redistricting, that would have een linda sanchez. a silver lining, a thread in california, is even though there was an assault on our state to say we have a new leader on the republican side, he's going to take back some of these seats, going to make it a priority, we not only won all the seats, we bicked up a seat with congress to be aguilar. that holds for the whole west coast. we didn't lose a seat. -- we picked up a seat with congressman to be aguilar. that holds for the whole west coast. yes, ma'am. >> on immigration, what's your response to republicans who say that the president's actions are going to make them more mistrustful and lesslike to work

with the president and with you on comprehensive immigration reform? >> for a number of years, many of my colleagues who want to speak to this, please step forward. for a number of years the republicans have been saying to us, we are going to pass a bill. we are going to pass a bill. we are going to pass a bifment don't get excited we are going to pass a bill. give us a chance to establish our principles. they did that. they ran them up the flagpole. we saluted. their members topped down the flagpole. then it was just wait until after the primaries. the primaries came and went, no bill. we want a bill. the senate passed a bill. over 500 days since the senate passed a bill. and still no action by the house republicans on anything. some small bill, bigger bills, whatever. nothing. nothing. this is a dereliction of duty not to address the broken immigration system in our

country and what it does to our economy, first and foremost to our families. what i would say to them is, look to ronald reagan, your hero. look what he did. to keep families united and to protect people in our country. look at every president in a lifetime of most members of congress have acted upon protecting people. our op-ed that goes into detail on that and we have so much back up on it. that is an excuse. that's not a reason not to cooperate. it's an excuse for them not to cooperate. and this is something that we have a responsibility to do. we have am path, bipartisan, almost 2/3 of the senate in a bipartisan way passed the bill. it's certainly not the bill i would have written, but it's a bill that can pass and it's a bill that we should take up or substitute something for. i think that we cannot have the

public be misled by the fact that the president is acting as presidents do because we are not acting as legislators do to pass laws. >> you think they don't have a case when you say what the president is doing is unconstitutional? >> absolutely positively not. are we making that same accusation of ronald reagan, gerald ford, richard nixon? george herbert walker bush? george w. bush to name a few of their friends. nobody was better on immigration than george w. bush. he was absolutely good. >> are you disappointed or see an opportunity to address the fact the president's likely not to include health care or access to the affordable care act system to those who gain some legalizations in this process? a heat's let the president make his announcement and see what the -- what it does. there are certain things that have to be done by law and the president has been meticulous in acting where he has legal

authority to do so. i'm not going to go into the particulars of something he hasn't even announced yet. >> keeping on immigration. there's this whole saying that history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. you mentioned every president from eisenhower to busch over the past couple days here. are those -- republicans say, wait a minute, these aren't legitimate -- these were different circumstances. is this -- >> absolutely not. >> why not? >> absolutely not. when ronald reagan, president ronald reagan said when congress passed an immigration bill that's not good enough, you're not keeping families together. so he protected a million and a half more people by keeping families together in the family fairness initiative. i have voluminous legal standing for the president, which i'm happy to share with you, but the

president -- every time we ask him can you give us a clue? he said i cannot do more than i'm allowed to do. he was very meticulous about that. my colleagues, did you want to say anything? >> there are 3.8 million undocumented that are either spouses or parents of u.s. american citizens. i think that if you want to discuss specificity, you got it right there. these people will be entitled for their children to petition for them, but we don't have the law. so this will bring the republicans to act and bring a bill to the floor that is comprehensive and will address some of the other issues that are not addressed within the executive order. >> i hope that there will be a rethinking of this by the republicans in congress. certainly people in the country think that we should have comprehensive iming gration

reform. -- immigration reform. they are trying to put in the well by saying the president shouldn't do this for reasons that you mentioned. but the fact is is that i think that many of our colleagues here understand that we have to do this. anyhopefully they won't use appropriations bills or anything lse too move -- to move to a shut down of government when all they are doing is what they did. and not as much as what they did in the senate. i'm very excited about what the president did. i think you'll see that there's an understanding even among people that might be disappointed because one thing or another is not included, but just couldn't do it. so they embrace what he is doing and we'll see what that is more formally tomorrow. >> do you think there's any legitimacy to the republican argument people just elected a

new larger republican majority and the president should wait until next year and try and work with congress? >> the president has been trying to work with congress. and congress has responded by passing comprehensive immigration reform, 2/3 majority in the senate. strong bipartisan support. we know that for the bill that we have in the house we could pass it if the speaker would give us a vote. it mirrors much of the senate bill, a little different. it has mr. thompson's -- on the border issues. and that was bipartisan unanimously passed in his committee. do you want to speak to that, r. thompson? >> the republicans are saying they had an election, but the country had an election. obama was elected with great -- giving him the right to run the

country. he can't get any help to do that. he has this other avenue that he and many presidents, many of them three times more executive orders than he's ever signed. i don't know why you are so obsessed with that notion because i bet you you know yourself he's perfectly legitimate for him to do it. and make no outcry of any sort with anybody. it's because it's obama. >> let's get back to the fact that we want to work together to get something done. in the manner that the senate did. we would hope that we would have bipartisan support. that the case has to be made to the american people or else these false claims fall on fertile territory. remember, president lincoln said public sentiment is everything. so the public has to -- i wish the republicans could give the public a chance to listen to what the president is trying to

do. and also does the public know that the emancipation proclamation was an executive order? people have to understand how presidents have made change in our country. congress catching up and in the case of ronald reagan, improving upon what congress has done. again, there's some things that i may want to see in this that may not be there, and the reason they are not there is because they don't meet the test of the president having the authority to do it. and he was very, very, again, very strong on that point. you going to give me a clue what might be happening? he said it's not going to be as much as you want. but in any case it's going to be good. i think he said this is the last question. i'm told by my staff when it's the last question because our colleagues now -- >> leader pelosi from earlier today. we'll leave the last few minutes and take you live now to the national press club where a variety of civil rights groups

have gathered for news conference to announce their support for executive action by the president on immigration, just getting started. live coverage here on c-span. >> i want to give special thanks to my esteemed colleagues who made a tremendous effort to be here today and to join us in unity. i think that it is both a testament to the importance of the issue and the common principles and agenda we share even though we represent many different communities in our country. our original goal for today's event was to urge as a united voice the president to move forward on executive action. so i for one am very pleased that given the president's address tonight we are gathering instead to support and express our support for the actions that e president is about to take

not for our communities but for our country. so we know that this is an important moment. and this is not just about one community as the leaders here can attest. this is about millions of american families who will rest easier tonight. this is about a president showing of courageous leadership and resolve on a challenge that has lingered far too long. this is about an action that will help families and workers and bolster our nation's economy and national security. we are also united in our belief that the president has the authority and the necessity to act. and we commend him for taking a bold and critically important step on the path to reforming an immigration system that works for all of us. but this is just the beginning of what we hope is a more constructive and thoughtful process that will at long last enact legislation and

comprehensive immigration reform. the ball as always has been and continues to be in the house majority leadership's court. it is up to congress to ultimately have the final say with the president's signature in signing a bill that can be made into law. and we hope that that will be the ultimate outcome. and as you can see, we have many distinguished speakers and i'd like to get us started. it is now my privilege to introduce reverend al sharpton of the national action network to lead us off. thank you, reverend. [applause] >> today is a day of victory for the american people. segregated o be a victory. and act as though this is for one group. this is for all groups which this press conference represents.

many of us have marched and lobbied and petitioned and said that the government must deal with the needs of people. and we are glad to be together to see and hear tonight that the president has heard the cry of the american people. this will be an historic move forward. it will also show the world that the humanity that is demonstrated by the symbol of america has been in many ways brushed off and illuminated by what will happen tonight. i began this morning with a breakfast, it was already scheduled with rand paul. i said to them on the other side of this question, pass a bill. but while you are deliberating, the president is acting. and activists are with the president. you have a collection of some of the leading activists that are

saying that it is time for action and it begins tonight and it will relieve a lot of disadvantaged people who are disadvantaged because they were locked out that now we are beginning to undo those locks and open america up for everyone. this is a great day. >> it is my pleasure to now have maria kumar, the president and c.e.o. come to the podium. thank you. >> thank you, janet. thank you to the members of the press for joining us today. we stand here united in our purpose and closer to fully address the civil rights issues at our doorstep. today the premise -- president promises to alleviate the pain for some of those caught in a broken immigration system. the president is moving forward today taking the first step towards immigration reform by proposing to defer deportations from five million aspiring

americans. the president's move is legal and morally just. but our work is not complete. while politicians will focus on the politics and their optics, we must remember the people's few tures or hor on the line and moral authority as a country is as well. immigration reform is about the people who are caught in an injust system that exploits their labor, where they can't fully realize their potential, our economy, and communities sufficient suffer as a result. this isn't about the construction crew who build sky keepers, care for ourerederly and children. immigration is in desperate need of repair. it doesn't discriminate socioeconomically as many believe. it's felt deeply in the field, in our churches, in our military, in our schools, across industry. there is a young man four years ago that called. he just finished boot camp. he was on his way to be deployed to iraq but was going to

surprise his family on christmas eve only to learn that his father had been detained. not in north carolina where he lived. but he was being processed in illinois and being sent to a detention facility in texas. on christmas eve overnight the family lost a breadwinner and their son sacrificed for this country and got deployed. we need to fix this for him. instead of engaging in hateful and political rhetoric, it's time we show grace and be grateful for those who help make our trains run on time, for millions of immigrants who sustain our economy and beautify our streets. immigrants are entrepreneurs who all like all of us believe in america's ideals and have internal hope that with grit and drive achieve that is possible. shame on congress if we continue wasting talent and relegating scientists to cabbies and to line cooks because of broken policies. for those who qualify for temporary leaf and millions more who meet -- may not meet the strict requirements of the new program, we stand here today to

remind congress over and over again that its work is not done. a permanent solution can only come from congress. they could choose to act today by voting on the bipartisan bill hat the senate passed 511 days ago. immigration reform is not about the president. it's about the millions of americans and their families. congress' handling of reform will define the moral character of our nation at this moment in history. i stand with you today before a coalition of americans who rightly believe that immigration is a solution to our future that defines us and that together we can define ourselves. thank you so much. hank you again, janet. >> my name is janet, president and c.e.o. of nclr. what a pleasure it has been to work with these incredible leaders. and it's now my distimmingt accomplish sure to ask cornell william brooks, the president and c.e.o. of the naacp to come

to the podium, thanks. >> good afternoon. the naacp strongly and unequivocally supports the rights of immigrants and has called for comprehensive immigration reform for decades. we applaud president barack obama for using his executive power to begin, to begin fixing our nation's unquestionably broken immigration system. the depth of the need for this type of decisive action by the president is only matched by the diversity of the problem. from haiti to honduras, from sin gallon to st. croix, family members hoping to reunite with loved ones and refugees working to build a new life in the united states deserve our attention and executive action. this issue is not merely a

matter of the economic status workers, but also a matter of compassion for families. we believe that it is crucial, indeed critical to provide documentation for the 11 million immigrants that live in our country and contribute to our society. the naacp stands with civil rights and human rights organizations, faith and phil lanthropic leaders, a diverse chorus of voices within the business communities calling for comprehensive immigration reform. by way of example, more than one million african and caribbean born immigrants obtained u.s. permanent residents between 2000 and 2012. in addition to being one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the united states, immigrants from african countries also among the most educated among american workers. the naacp remains committed to advocating on behalf of americans and those seeking legal citizenship to establish an immigration system that

protects all workers and guarantees the safety and security of our nation without compromising fundamental civil rights, human rights, and civil liberties. this executive order is an important critical first step on the road to comprehensive immigration reform. this afternoon i'm reminded of a young baptist preacher by the name of rend dr. martin luther king who called upon a young president by the name of john fitzgerald kennedy to issue an executive order to address the nation's civil rights wrongs. that call failed. but the civil rights act lived in its wake. today we call on our president, barack obama, he's answered. we expect the executive order and we also expect comprehensive immigration reform. [applause] >> thank you, cornell. next is my privilege to ask chad

griffin, president of the human rights campaign, to come to the podium. >> thanks so much, janet. thank you for your leadership. today thanks to the activism of my colleagues here on the stage and to the bold leadership of our president, millions of undocumented immigrants will soon have access to greater security, safety, and hope in the country they call home. the president's actions are particularly important for many undocumented lgbt people and their families. lgbt immigrants face the same legal challenges that other immigrants do. but they often face even graver challenges. sometimes risking deportation to countries where they can be arrested or even killed simply because of who they are. that's why an action by president obama to bring hope and relief to these families is so critically important. and that's why the human rights campaign is proud to stand in

coalition with each and every organization here today and we join together in thanking the president for his commitment to urgent action. while these executives orders and measures by president obama have the force of law, it's important to remember that they don't have the permanentence in of law. a future president, principle, could begin the process of rolling back these measures on day one of a new administration. it's also important to note that the president's action is limited. while thousands of lgbt undocumented immigrants will be protected, we always have to remember that many thousands more or less living in the shadows and unsafe detention facilities and facing deportation. and that's why congress must seize this opportunity to fulfill this nation's commitment to fixing our broken immigration system. the senate has passed a broad comprehensive immigration reform bill by the way with strong

bipartisan support. the house has the votes to do the same. it's merely an entrenched house leadership that is blocking lasting immigration reform from becoming law and from reaching our families across this country. today's lesson is that we must keep fighting, fighting with greater urgency than we fought before. because there's no excuse for further delay. the president has taken bold action. the groups here today have been taking bold action. and now more than ever it's time for congress to he'd -- heed the call of history and heed the call of the american people and once and for all do their jobs and pass comprehensive immigration reform. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, chad. it's my pleasure to have melanie campbell, president and c.e.o. of the national coalition on black civic participation join us. thanks for your support.

>> thank you, janet. today i join my colleagues representing the national coalition on black civic participation, the black women's round table, and black youth vote. to stand in solidarity with our civil rights and social justice organization leaders thanking them, president obama for taking immediate action to fix our country's immigration system. we believe president obama's immigration proposal is fair for all americans, workers in our nation. and includes a fair road map for undocumented immigrants to gain the opportunity to become full tax paying citizens of these united states. for those of you who don't think immigration impacts the african-american community, speak about the fact that 1/4 of the black population in new york, boston, and miami are

foreign born and more than three million u.s. immigrants are from african descent including caribbean, african, and african latino immigrants. also, repairing the broken immigration system will stop enabling employers to exploit immigrants and african-american workers which will aid the fight for jobs in this country. the black woman's round table represents millions of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, families, and mentors from across the country. we believe that continuing to have an immigration system that separates children from their parents is morally wrong and goes against the rich history of the united states as a nation of immigrants. and you-all know the great city of florida. i grew up a stone's throw from an immigrant worker camp. my bible teaches, teaches us in

matthews 25:30, i say this to congress -- 25:40, i say this to congress, what we do, paraphrasing the bible, for the east of these, we have done it unto him. sometimes i say her. therefore we believe fixing our broken immigration system is not just the right thing to do. it's not just the american thing to do. it is the righteous and just thing to do. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. now i'd like to welcome a very important partner in this coalition and someone who has stood in solidarity from the beginning, my good friend, president and c.e.o. of the national urban league, mark. >> first of all, good afternoon.

honor to follow melanie and matthew. first of all on behalf of the national urban league and urban league movement, representing millions across the nation and over 9 o cities and -- 90 cities and 300 communities, i stand together in solidarity with not only the men and women and organizations represented here, but with millions and millions and millions and millions of american people. because we share the notion that we are all immigrants. some forced. like my ancestors. others who come voluntarily. so whether 100 years ago you or from italy or ireland

eastern europe, or in recent , ys from nigeria, or honduras r mexico or guatemala or korea or china or thailand or the hilippines we share the idea that we are a nation built by people who have come to these shores with an aspiration for freedom, justice, and equality. i want to make a few points. 39 esidents have used executive actions over the past 60 years to advance the cause of immigration. this president, this president is utilizing a consistent, time

honored, well tested, legally sufficient method to advance the cause of the people who these executive actions will help. numerous times in the last eight years this coalition has waited. has waited for congress to act. 2007, in 2010, in 2012 not only did they fail to act, on a number of times one house of congress refused to even schedule a vote. todayle is a welcomed time for action. and this step by president obama is but a down payment. it's a down payment on the need for there to be a comprehensive approachle to one of the great challenges that this nation faces.

, and m, justice, equality economic opportunity are the hallmarks of this great nation. so we stand together today to unite this nation, to unite it around the principles upon which it was founded that successive generations have honed and shaped and improved. we will not waiver because we will continue to work. i thank everyone and i especially want to thank janet for her great leadership and for all the work that so many have done over the last few years to get us to the point where we are but today is a beginning. a new beginning on a new future for great nation. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mark. now it's my pleasure to introduce mia m ow. . > the asian american justice certainty. president and executive director

and very incredible champion for our immigrant community. thanks. [applause] >> first melanie, matthew, mark, and now me. want to thank so much for bringing us together today and including the asian american voice. this is going to be a memorable day and i'm so proud to stand here with each and every one of you. of the 19 million asian americans living in the united states, more than 11 million are immigrants. the faces and stories of asian immigrants are often left out of the national immigration conversation. but asian american families face similar hardships caused by our broken immigration system as other immigrant groups. the media may not report on this, but asian americans are being deported, too. 1.3 million asian americans are undocumented. more than 250,000 asian

americans have been deported in the past six years. and many of these are political refugees like myself who fled to the united states after the wars in cambodia, laos, and vietnam. they have little or no family connection to the countries that they are being sent back to. until congress gives the fix we need, the president has acted to stop these deportations. perhaps not affecting all the population talked about, but he can certainly ensure and he has taken that step that the government exercise its discretion before deportation, ensuring that no one has to go back to a country where they have lived in fear and fled persecution. we have also asked president obama as he prepares for the announcement today for solutions for the unreasonably long wait times for family sponsored visas. nearly 1.8 million people from asian countries are waiting for

a visa. talk to any asian american and chances are they have a visa backlog story in the family. it's incredibly painful to wait decades to see your children, brothers, sisters, and parents. and in many cases it's financially difficult to support the families both in the united states and abroad. so today as we hear the details, as we finally hear the president act, we hope that the president provides relief for the many immigrant families who live, work, and contribute every day to our country. but fear of being separated. we hope that as the details come up that he prodevidse as broad a leaf as possible so that all families can stay together. asian americans are the only racial group to be explicitly excluded by u.s. immigration law. we are still living those consequences today. our immigration experience has taught us how it feels to be denied access to opportunity and equal footing.

the president has a chance today to open the door for more immigrants to contribute to america. until congress gets its act together, we applaud the president who is providing us the relief we desperately need. [applause] >> thank you. now i'd like to have hector sanchez, the chair of the national hispanic leadership agenda, a broad coalition of over 30 hispanic groups, please come to the podium. thank you. >> what a great day and what a great honor to be standing right here in front of you with so many people that i admire. we have been working on this issue for so long i don't know if it's real or not, but it's great day to really move forward in a progressive agenda. we face a great moral crisis on immigration reform. the immigration system has

devastated our communities and made hardworking latinos into one of the most exploited work force thes in the country. for too long immigrants have suffed sexual harassment, injury, and even death in the workplace because of obsession with cheap labor. today we are relieved that the president has decided to take administrative action and protect those aspiring americans that continue to work in inhumane conditions. we hope the president's announcement will enable workers to finally stand up for the rights on the job and include a strong workplace protection to ensure workers are not fired, demoted, or face retaliation because of their new work status. we stand ready to help the president and his administration implement his administrative action in the most effective and efficient manner possible. le to receive

protection for this. speaking in spanish] >> thank you, hector. now it is my privilege to have the executive director, tremendous friend and partner, ben, come to the podium. thank you. >> thank you. thank you to all of the partners

. this is a very special day it's hard for me to even start my remarks. i came to this country 37 years ago. i came undocumented. nd i know the feeling, feeling incur. not knowing if i was going to be able to go home and see my kids. oday i have tears of happiness because what the president has done or is going to announce, expectation it's going to be great for our community. i can go home. , look at my sister and say you don't have to worry no more.

you can go to work. and expect to come back. you just have to go and apply. at the same time, i have tears of sorrow because i know that not everybody is included. but i want to make sure that those who are not able to be included in this packet, they know that we all are going to be working together because we know the solution is not administrative relief. we know the solution lies in the congress and they need to do their job. republicans, please act. our people need it. this is not a political football. you need to meet my sister. you need to meet my nephew and nieces. every time that the police had to stop my sister for a traffic or whatever, they panic.

this is not the country that i have been working hard to build and i feel honored to be a citizen of this country today and will continue working. thank you, president. you have delivered. congress, we expect you to do the same. thank you. . >> thank you, ben. we appreciate your comments, and you capture what's of many in our community are feeling. i am want to make sure we are able to ask our partner and president in rock the vote heather smith to come and voice. >> thank you so much, janet. thank you, ben. so as the chairwoman of the

board of directors at rock the organizationan dedicated to building political power for young people. it is an honor to stand here with made many friends and colleagues who we have been working with ray long time to vote for comprehensive immigration reform. i stand here on behalf of our staff and our entire board in solidarity with all of you. rock the vote is here because immigration reform is an issue to greatly impact the lives of young people in this country. the millennial generation we work with each day is the largest, numbering more than 90 million, and most diverse, nearly half identifying as nonwhite, generation that this country has ever had. ouracing our broken immigration system is a top concern for these young people. impacts manyhe

of them in their lives. you have heard many of those stores today. for many other young people, it is about something bigger, about the kind of america and culture we want to and can build as a large and parable and -- powerful and diverse generation. the millennial generation is best defined by consistent commitment to quality an opportunity. they are eager to make change and solve problems, and this is one of the problems they are focused on changing. i want to applaud and thank all the young people who have been on the ground fighting around this issue a after day, all across the country. you have helped us get to this point today. thisorganizing around executive action to the dreamers and they are brilliant work, to those registering voters initiative that i know rock the vote and voting 19 oh worked on this year. i want to say we are encouraged by the pending executive actions by the president, what we expect

to be good news for many today, as it will provide relief for young people and their families. it also sends a message that change can happen in washington, which is something we desperately need to convey to the american people. while we celebrate this pending action tonight, we will continue to call for moving past this partisan gridlock and passing comprehensive immigration reform. so thank you. yay. >> thank you. we have three more speakers let. i would like to ask the representative, the director from the naacp legal and defense fund to name nelson to come forward. tardes.s good afternoon.

ee nelson. jen it is the nation's first civil rights legal advocacy organization. held this country to its ideal of equal opportunity for all. it is no surprise that we stand here in solidarity with our colleagues and friends to applaud president obama's decision to use executive authority to begin building a framework for comprehensive immigration reform. the president's action is a positive first step to address the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the united states, many of whom are children who are forced to live in the shadows through no fault of their own. the president's action is an

opportunity to give current meaning to the hallmark of our country, a place where no matter where you come from, the american dream is expected to be within reach. comprehensive legislation on immigration has been bogged down in congress for too long. actions areama's consistent with unilateral steps taken by previous presidents, republican and democrat, to protect persons from deportation. in those cases, congress later and wed those decisions, call upon congress to do the same now. fixing our immigration system is not an option. it is a necessity. unilateral immigration measures not only have ample precedent, but are absolutely fitting for these times. in taking these steps today, president obama lifts up our nation's core values of inclusiveness and opportunity

and refocuses the lens on the debate around immigration on keeping families gather. -- families together. immigration is not only a issue but also for non-immigrant communities, including african-americans who were hit especially hard by the recent economic downturn. i fixing the immigration system, it will be harder for employers to ignore some of the most small rubble citizens in our economy, especially african-american workers by avoiding the payment of fair and livable wages. this issue is directly linked to the living wage debate. this courageous step forward on immigration paves the way for a more just economic system that marginalizedarious communities and finding their footing in the american economy and society. i have every confidence we will look back at this historic

moment and call it a grand success. thank you. janai.k you, now it is an honor to ask someone who has demonstrated incredible personal courage in his effort to achieve the reforms in our broken immigration system, someone who has been a voice in many ways for this with been directly affected. the cochair of defined america. >> i really thank janet for her model leadership of inclusivity. thank you for that. i was so nervous in the past few days that i flew on a redeye and i got sent between two guys. i wrote my speech i printed it out and then i lost it. but it is here. about been really anxious

what the president will say tonight, like the rest of the 11 million of us who have been subjected to the politics of the moment and whose lives seem to be treated as mere ponds in a chess game. let me start with this. more than three years ago, against the advice of most lawyers, but inspired by dreamers, by people like gabby, cesar vargas, i risked everything and outed myself as one of mike country -- one of our country's 11 million undocumented. i bow to the altar of james baldwin he taught us to find entity. in the past years, i have crisscrossed this country, been to about 350 events in 44 states coming getting arrested in one come in texas, and the goal of

this travel has been to ask my fellow americans how do you define america. all i can think about right now, hours before president obama's necessary and historic exec at a order, is this is how we move forward. this is how we become more inclusive, more just. as far as i'm concerned, tonight president obama is defining america and asking replicas in congress to do the same thing. on a day like today i think of my mother in the philippines and the ultimate sacrifice of putting her son i acclaim and i was 12 and not having seen him for 21 years. i think of my family that i was blessed, my filipino family, i was blessed to be born into, my grandparents, who literally paid for me to come here with every ounce of their energy and their sacrifice. i think of the family of mentors and friends i was born and was

lucky enough to find, the teachers and my mentors at the high school in california who did not need pieces of paper to consider me as one of their own and to treat me with dignity. and i think of the millions of undocumented immigrants. we call us undocumented americans, because to me we are the americans that are living up to the eye deal of hard work and resilience and optimism that makes this country, and i think about all the other many of my friends whose families may not be covered by this executive order. again, they are subjected to the politics of the moment and for what is convenient for many of our congress members. you know what i think about when i stand here, i cannot believe i'm standing here, is our common struggle at a time like this. reminded by the godfather of the gay-rights movement who stood in front of

the white house who said gay is good. this is in the 1950's. i think about james baldwin and martin luther king. i think of the allies and the need for allies, and that every civil rights movement in this country, the african-american come lb gt, and all the immigrant rights movement, need allies. this is not the only a latino or asian issue, it is an hi issue that impacts what people. it is an american issue. you see the pledge civil. when i got here when i was 12, i had to memorize the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance. i thought it say, o, jose, can you see -- [laughter] at me andake looks

said we are not talking about you. then i see this thing called the pledge of allegiance, and i have been pledging allegiance to a flag that that's not recognize me and does not recognize us. tonight we will get closer to that. this, whatever the president announces tonight is is farmporary, and it from comprehensive. but it is a step in the right direction, and we must keep fighting for each other, standing up for each other like we are doing here now, to build a better, fairer, more inclusive, and more just america. people forget to be undocumented means to not have pieces of papers. so when i was here 10 years ago, and woodway bookstore called kramers, and i bought a pocket constitution. when i was reading this 10 years ago at dupont circle, it said we hold these truths be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the created with certain

unalienable rights -- i thought they were talking about me. i hope and tonight that happens and we need more than ever for allies, we need you to pledge or support for us, and we need you to stand up and be counted and join us. [applause] so the two closes outcome i cannot think of a better leader, someone who represents an organization that really is the breath of this coalition for civil and human rights, wade henderson, the president and ceo and great champuion for immigration reform. >> thank you, janet. good afternoon, everyone. this is a great day for america, and i am honored to have been asked to close out this presentation. as dennett said, i am wade henderson, president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights, the nation's leading civil rights coalition with over 200 national organizations working to build

an america as good as its ideals. this year our nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1964, thets act of single most important and transformative as a station of -- transformative legislation of the 20th century. it was also 90 years ago that our nation outright banned indians from, immigrating to the united states, and severely restricted africans, jews, and southern and eastern europeans from coming here. of 1924onal origins act represents a backward, xenophobia, and shameful low point in our nation's history. that is why it is a special honor to stand here with my

divers colleagues in the civil rights movement to applaud our president for taking action thatht and demonstrating there is no longer a place with such vitriol in our society. then as now, immigration reform humanfining civil and rights issue of our time, and we are here today to make clear that this is not only a latino issue, is not only an asian issue, immigration reform is an american issue. earnedncipal behind citizenship is the same printable that has guided every civil and human rights movement throughout our nation's history, and that is that people who work hard to make our country a better place deserve to be treated fairly and to have an equal chance to share in the american dream. most americans believe this, but there are some who have already

begun to seize on the president's actions as an seeds ofty to sow division among us. they will fail. that is because the president's announcement later tonight to help bring millions of immigrants out of the shadows of society and into the bright sunshine of human rights is consistent with the most fundamental values we share as a nation. and the world is watching to see how we respond to this challenge. action will not fix our broken immigration system. that can only be accomplished by congress. this is, however, a desperately needed lifeline for millions of families who live in constant fear of separation. we applaud the president's willingness to act where congress has failed us all. we stand behind his decision to help build a nation as good as

its ideals. and we call on congress to live up to its responsibility and enact comprehensive immigration reform. thank you so much. [applause] i know we had some representatives from some of the other organizations, moms ris ing, and others, but this will be the close of our program, and we appreciate everybody being here. i cannot thank these leaders enough for their solidarity. as you have heard, this is not an issue that just affects one community. it is about the future of this great nation, and we are very much looking forward to the president's announcement this evening which we think will be a very important step forward as we seek to reform our immigration system and to ask congress to intervene and to do what they need to do to put out a permanent solution for this

issue. so i want to thank you all. i appreciate it. folks will be able to stick around to take impressions. i know other folks have other places they need to get to because there are other briefings occurring. thank you all very much. we appreciate it. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

be insident obama will las vegas today to announce his executive action on immigration. where heat the school delivered remarks on immigration reform in january 2013. it is reported his plan would shield 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. we will have the address to the nation scheduled for 8:00 p.m. eastern. live coverage and taking her taking -- taking your phone calls. marketing your thoughts on the president's executive action for tonight. ricky says -- harry writes the daysdent has waited 511

for john boehner to bring an up or down vote on the bipartisan reform bill. share your thoughts. c-span, we plan to take you live to the senate intelligence committee for the confirmation hearing for counterterrorism center nominee. this will start just past 3:00 p.m. eastern time. before that, take a look at house minority leader nancy pelosi at her weekly briefing to introduce the democrats, the senate democrats, who were selected as ranking members of committees for the next congress. she would talk about president obama's pending maneuver. >> as we visit with you here today, it is important to

remember what this issue is all about. it is not about democrats versus republicans. it is about families all across america who worry every day about being torn apart. it is about saying too good law abiding people you do have to spend another holiday season wondering if this is going to be your last together. it is not about telling mothers and fathers, sons and dollars, and is relegated to the society -- it will tell children they will not be pulled away from their parents' arms. i have seen this firsthand in nevada that has torn families apart, sometimes forever. victory.ot a political it is a victory for families. we know this decision is not a permanent solution. it is a first step. way, the it our president would be signing a

comprehensive immigration bill into law instead of an executive action. he cannot sit idly by waiting for republicans to act while homes are being broken up all across this nation. days.ted 511 all the house would have to do is take up the bill and it would pass. passed overwhelmingly. virtually every democrat would vote for it. it would pass. republicans keep saying give us more time, give us more time. 511 days is enough time. we have given them this time, waiting patiently. four of us will fourrt this historic step family stability, and that is what is all about. as indicated in a meeting last night at the white house, where we told the president and we are telling before all these tv cameras, you have got his back.

senator durbin? >> i want to thank senator reid, and i want to especially thank president obama. he has accepted the responsibility for moving this nation forward to fixing our broken immigration system. we tried in the senate. senator schumer and i were part of a group of senators that came up with a comprehensive immigration reform, one that addressed every aspect of immigration. we passed at with an overwhelming vote in the senate, and send it to the house of days ago.tives 511 since then hate they have refused to call this bill or any part of. now the president is stepping in with executive action to try to do with accountant -- with accountability when it comes to immigration. the critics will call it amnesty, but as senator rubio has reminded us, doing nothing, leaving the current system in place is amnesty. what the president is calling for is accountability. he is healing to those who have

been here at least five years that they need to step forward, register with our government, pay the filing fee, summit themselves to a criminal background check, peter texas. are they entitled to government programs? no, but they can legally work in america. ist is what the president proposing. that to me is humane. he is looking to those families where there are already citizens as part of the family. senator reid has said he has seen these families. i have seen them, to. -- too. every friday morning in illinois and bus -- i have been there. i've been there with many people who stand individual as they are being sent away. i have met these families. it is a heartbreaking situation. these are not felons.

these are members of families. these are not criminals. these are children. what the president is saying is set a priority to keep america safe. let's make sure we go after those with a criminal record and tell them they have no place in america. that's make sure we go after repeat offenders and make sure place in no america. when it comes to families with citizens and household, if they have been here five years, we given a chance to come out of the shadows, be held accountable, and the president believes that by doing this weekend to vote even more resources to a safer border between the united states and mexico. that is a good outcome for america. republicans who are criticizing the president for this action aid nor the fact that 11 previous presidents have done exactly the same thing. using their executive authority to address the issues of immigration. this president is going to use his authority to solve a

problem which house republicans have re-freeze to address. it is a right move for mecca. disit is a first step. the president is doing the right thing for america. >> ok, senator schumer. >> ok, well, over the past several weeks house republicans have said everything is on the table to stop the executive orders the president is going to issue tonight. they have talked about defunding immigration service that would make a broken immigration system more dysfunctional. they have talked about passing only short-term funding bill, setting the stage for another round of economic brinksmanship that middle-class families cannot afford. they have talked about shutting down the government and wreaking havoc on the daily life in cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the country. when they look on the table at

all their options, there is one more option that would stop the president dead in his tracks while actually improving not hurting our economy. passing the bipartisan senate immigration bill. now, senator mcconnell this morning said if the president moves forward, congress will act. good. congress should act. i agree with senator mcconnell. congress should act. but rather than choosing to throw a tip or tantrum and shut down the government, herding millions of middle-class families, republicans should chow know they're a -- should theirl there and -- anger and pass the bill now. the bill before them includes patrollion, border agents come from texas to san diego, every half-mile, a complete defense across the order, and drones, surveillance

drones that can see anything that crosses the border and distinguished between deer and people. the bill would grow the economy, according to cbo, by 5.4% over the next 20 years. they want to reduce the deficit? the bill would reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion over the next years. they want to get rid of amnesty? doing nothing continues amnesty. but passing a bill like ours does the following -- it makes people register. they then have to work. they have to pay back taxes. they have to admit wrongdoing. they have to learn english. they have to pay a fine. that is not amnesty in anybody's book. criminal background check as well. so republicans should not get mad. they should get even. they should nullify the president's executive order bypassing our bill and passing it now.

if the republicans want to stop this executive order, they have an ace up their sleeve that would do the trick, a common sense, bipartisan immigration reform bill. all they have to do is play that card and the whole issue goes away. i'm having trouble here. i'm still trying to get over my dinner last night. nation'sed to fix our immigration system is not a new issue. the something we have been debating an arguing about. for too long of us has not been able to get anything done, and that is not for the lack of trying. has been more than 500 days now that a real bipartisan coalition of democrats and republicans passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would finally start to fix our broken immigration system. it improves our security, provides businesses with

certainty they need, provides a real path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants who are forced to live in the shadows, and it was good for our economy. the congressional budget office estimated the senate will would reduce the deficit by nearly ney a trillion dollars over two decades. and best of all, and when we set this legislation to the house, the speaker had all the time in the world to pass it. the same thing that was true then is true today. if the speaker brings us the senate bill, it will pass. we are that close. it is that simple. he has made it clear he is siding with the tea party and i believe our country deserves better. real reformk toward for all of these years, millions of immigrant families who have played by the rules and have paid their taxes and raised andr children have waited

waited for action. they have organized, they have hoped, and they have prayed and trusted the system would work. thanks to the house republicans, the system has failed. so now it is time to act. will takeobama administrative action to improve the immigration system. and we support his decision to do that. his constitutional authority is clear. it was one president bush and reagan took similar steps during their administration. we all know this is not a long-term solution. the only way for us to permanently fix our laws is through legislation. administrative action is a band-aid. it is better than nothing and nothing is what the house republicans are offering. we are going to support the to taket's decisions

action, but we will not stop working toward a real long-term solution to comprehensive immigration reform legislation. >> yes. president has said several times he has done everything he can on immigration and that only congress can ask the immigration system. was he right then or is he right now? >> he has said on a number of occasions this is a first step. it is a first step to bring some degree of hope to these families who are desperate for help. need comprehensive immigration reform. nothing the president said changes that. you have been clear you support the president. one of the things he is doing of course is going around congress. that is usually the kind of think that bothers folks like you.

so in terms of the expansion of executive authority, are you comfortable with that in the balance of powers act? even though you support the policies, have you seen the legal analysis that makes you comfortable it will survive court challenge? is sost of all, this obvious he was going to do something. so obvious. continue to have no action on a number of issues, i have no choice but to take my own action. that is what he has done. now in the secret bowels of the white house, did he meet with the staff? no. go back to dwight eisenhower. 39 executive actions since eisenhower. giving millions of people the relief president obama is doing with the action he is taking.

anything that is unique. it has been done many times. here is how i feel. my personal feeling. we have had four years of republicans opposing everything. actually it is six years. for four years, they have stopped everything. surprise is the president waited as long as he has to do some of these things. >> some of your more conservative members have expressed to some level of discomfort with this. if a bill is advanced to overturn it, would you be able to defeat to that? >> why don't we wait and see what they are going to do. the republican leader on the floor today said he was going to do something and he said he would take aggressive action. i do not what that means. let's do what they do.

we believe we are in a good place and it is up to the republicans to react and i hope they react in a way that is not harmful to the country. this is not permanent. it is temporary. how do we know a lot of these families are not going to be reluctant to ever participate in the system may be fearful it becomes a deportation list? how is this not viewed as an empty gesture for the people -- >> the meeting we had last the head of the hispanic caucus, the black caucus, everyone was telling the president we've got your back. immigrant groups from all over america, catholic bishops, the mormon church. that is thething right thing to do. opportunity, some

i want thisll say changed. i wish that person luck to tell these millions of people and many unitedes, states citizens, it would be hard to rescind this first step. >> are you disappointed about the scope of the action that it does not include the parents of dreamers as you articulated this week? broad programery that time will -- that will allow some 5 million people to have their status readjusted. one of the dreamers i have , she was on a talk show in las vegas last night with a couple of people who did not like what is going on. she did well. she is a dreamer. that is asibling

citizen. so it is easy to say, this was not done. i'm satisfied with what was done. i'm very happy. senate democrats from earlier talking about the president's plans on immigration. it is reported his executive action will be announced tonight, shielding 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. we'll have it live tonight at 8:00 and you can join us on radio or online. and coming up, we plan to take you to the senate intelligence committee for the confirmation nicolasof nominee rasmus in. that could begin after votes, sometime after 3:00. now on thee voting second of five votes and you can

see the action on our companion network, c-span2. as soon as they wrapped up, we could see the committee come together for that confirmation hearing. we will take you there when that begins. byore the hearing, remarks rick perry. he talks about the presidents immigration action yesterday and that texas might sue the president over any executive action. at the annualnel meeting in florida yesterday. the governors also talked about partisanship. government shutdowns, and the 2016 campaign. as you can see, i'm going to

put this up. these are the only governors that expressed an interest in running for governor in 2016. that is why they are up to. here. ? did that joke work for everybody? going to kick things off in a minute. one of the things i want to be able to do was there should be some notecards. we are not going to have people stand up and ask questions. people on that side will collect them as we go. we are going to go for about an hour. we are going to kick off talking with the issues of the day. there is some news on immigration. i want to start with three of our five governors who have served in congress. governor k-6, let me start with you. you have served in congress. how should leadership respond to

the president's action? what would you advise the leadership to respond? view is they should have been at this right away as soon as they heard he was going to do it. they should have asked him to put it off and make it clear they are not going to listen to the people that have no interest in a solution. we looked at problems and offered solutions, which is what we did and had a gratifying win. that is what i would have done. have been trying to do something. >> we have some common things. let's hammer this out. us, we donot include not need to poison anymore wells. maybe they could make the plea to him. we are not in a position where we are going to roadblock you

and have unrealistic solutions. ,e are going to take a look ronald reagan came up with a try toou really want to work with the president, when you can. it is a mistake for him to move forward like this. heads need toler prevail. it is never too late until it is too late. you are in house leadership. a lot of stuff is being talked about. a showdown that could make for ugly politics. is that where you are at? >> it would be a mistake to immigration law with the stroke of a pen. i truly do. issues of this magnitude should always be resolved with the consent of the governed. and thete passed a bill

american people changed the majority in the senate. what the president a should to do is what john kasich said. that is the president should sit down in january with the new republican majority in the senate and the large new majority in the house, and search for common ground. we do as governors every day working with our legislatures. we hammer it out. signing an executive order, giving a speech, barnstorming is notthe country leadership. the likes of which we practice every day. i would employ the president to reconsider this path. and to demonstrate the kind of leadership the american people longed to see and that is that this administration would sit down with the republican ground, and find common border security, a series of

reforms that could be advanced in this congress that would be in the long-term interest of the american people. >> governor, you have washington experience. -- would the republicans be in a better position had they passed something last year, started this incremental -- that is what the white house says. we have waited. there is nothing the house has done. this president, he purposely -- he was playing about this. i'm going to wait until after the midterm elections knowing this was going to be unpopular. us, my policies are going to be on the ballot. the americany

people rejected those policies. going to delay taking action. he loses and instead of listening to the american people, it is the height of arrogance to ignore the constitution and do what i want. he is not the first president to disagree with congress, but he may be the first to ignore the separation of powers. you don't have good democrats of conscience who say i might agree with him, but this is not the right way. we are setting a precedent. imagine a republican resident who says, i am going to ignore the congress, pick what laws i want to enforce, take what parts of the affordable care act to enforce -- i think it is the height of arrogance. he had a super majority and the senate.

he had the majority in the congress. he got obamacare done and his stimulus done. he said this is a priority. he could have done this. this is politics. if you are serious about negotiating with house leadership, he would be sincere about securing the border. the president is the one that bears responsibility. >> you don't think republicans have any responsibility? for not passing anything. >> i say that we have to be a party of solutions and reforms and the immigration system is broken. we need to make it easier for people to come here legally. we need to say the president, how can we trust you when you are not securing the border? you are not doing what you could be doing. he has to be a trustworthy negotiating partner. if he wants to build up goodwill and want to have a productive conversation, as john and mike said, he has to secure the border. he can do that. it is not hard. i would define the border as secured when border state

governors say the border is secure. that is how you know. it is not based on a thousand page senate bill. perry, if basically codifying the executive order, the reality that is already there. we are not deporting these folks. there seems to be consensus nobody wants to break up families. aren't we arguing over something nobody was ever going to enforce anyway? >> no. me address your question about the republicans in congress, from my perspective. one of the reasons they did not you will see this president is going to take this that isomorrow

unconstitutional, in his own words. >> we don't know that. he said this words was not legal for him to do. he did say that. he admitted he could not do what he is going to do tomorrow. it is badlso add public policy and that the american people are not for this, then you start building a the republicans in the house and soon to be the republican majority in the senate will come to him with what is most important to the american people, to secure the border. thoughtful bill that doesn't fact fund the needed personnel, the technology, the fast response teams, the fencing -- the lot of that was in senate bill.

>> that addresses the issue. singularly. you will not get americans to support an immigration reform together, butt until the border is secure. going toamericans are be open to a conversation about dealing with these people. not to until then. isa matter fact, it interesting, the farther i get the more the border, intense people seem to be about securing the border. >> i agree with you. what does that tell you? there is a different conversation about immigration in the middle of the country than here in the state of florida or in texas.

>> the american people want to see the border secure. when the sheriffs, the police chiefs come up to me and say, governor, thank you for deploying your national guard to secure that border. we are having to pay inordinate amounts of money to prosecute individuals who are in this country that are committing crimes against our citizens. so i think the president is taking a major political chance with what he is doing. he is putting his party in jeopardy. he is putting members of the senate and house in jeopardy. care.he does not i would suggest if he goes through with this, and he sticks the finger in the eye of the american people, with no thought about it other than this is what i want to do and i'm going to do it, he jeopardizes long-term the

democrats ever to get back in power in washington, d.c. > governor walker, i want to pick up on something about a singular bill on border security. will put republicans something up. the conversation could be different right now if there was a bill the republicans passed. >> could be. in this case, i'm cynical about the president. this president who campaigned in my state before the election in a ward that was 99% for him in the last election, he went in other states, he was in maryland, others in michigan, across the midwest, i think this president -- it goes beyond immigration. soundlyican people

rejected the policies of this president and he desperately wants to get the top of changed from the issues we were elected on. we did not get a majority of the or as governors, we are not elected for or against immigration. it was a big topic in some races. >> not in the governor's races. states like colorado, the new senator elect to actually did well among hispanic voters without being for an aggressive immigration policy. i would say this president does not want us focused on things like a north american energy policy, repealing obama care, he does not want us to balance the budget or reduce the national debt. those are the things republicans were elected to do in the house and the senate. they are the things we are doing. that is why he is making a big deal about it right now to weeks after the election.

he wants to divert attention from the things americans empowered republicans to do in washington and in the states. some of in congress in the most turbulent times and the most successful times. andent through a shutdown after we won the 1994 majority had to thee, we shutdown and the chairman to of the budget committee, the clinton folks beat us up badly. officent feelers to my to say, hey, it is in our interest to get a balanced budget. the same is true on this issue. this is emblematic of the town inamerica today -- tone america today. the country is divided. you've got your stuff, i've got my stuff. when we finally were able to work through many tough issues,

we got a balanced budget in 1990 seven, the first time since man walked on the moon. we had prosperity. did i like everything bill clinton was doing? are you kidding? but good people needs to be committed to solving problems. he says no border bill first. maybe it can't be worked out. everybody knows we have a problem in the country. they may not like his solution, but they want this fixed. people want problems solved. you've got to be careful with the rhetoric because you get too far out on that, and people don't want to deal. you've got to talk to him quietly. youve got to find out, are interested in solving this problem. we are. we will make some compromises. that is what i would have suggested. >> do any of you think you

should go to the congressional leadership? let cooler heads prevail. do you engage in the budgetary aspect and force a shutdown? >> i would not place a shutdown. i think you go to court. i think there is a compelling argument. >> who is the aggrieved party in this? i assume there is going to be a court challenge. who is the aggrieved party? >> the american people. it is interesting. bill clinton did not say the republicans in congress are not going along with me, so i'm going to do an executive order. >> the government got shut down first. there was tremendous animosity. >> he did not issue an executive

order after that. >> he vetoed welfare reform. >> isn't it that the difference? set aside immigration. he isresident has said the president, not an emperor. illegal.his is he defended it time and time again and said he could not do this. now he's going to take action. only a partisan democrat would not say this is illegal. that is a difference from saying i want some give-and-take. there is no gift. newt gingrichve and bob dole at each other over a shutdown, it was not easy. my point is i don't like what he is doing. i think he is making a mistake. what i will say is this is emblematic of our we are going as a country. are we going to deal with the problems of health care,

immigration? dividedlems of a country. one thing i learned in congress thehat if we had not gotten clinton people to the table to negotiate, they did not get everything. we did not get every in. had we not done it, we would have never balanced the budget. nothing gets fixed without bite -- bipartisan support. you've got to look for the places -- look, i did it. ofas one of the architects that budget. i know what it was like. it was not fun. madalyn albright talks about foreign aid. that is enough for a lifetime. ok? [laughter] on what youa limit would advise house leadership to fight the president? >> the power of the congress is the power of the purse. good, in an odd

way you are making the case. that it worked. happen when only you have one catch all bill. i have every confidence speaker boehner and leadership will get out of this lame-duck session and will keep the government moving forward. i'm also confident the new republican majority in the senate and in the house, for the first time in seven years, are going to write a budget and then they're going to go through a regular and orderly process of appropriations bills. when i talk about the consent of the governed, that is where the american people work their will. if the president were to go he is actingthis, outside the consent of the governed and is not providing leadership to solve this issue facing our country in the way

the american people would expect a leader to do. they can object by d funding and preventing funding and implementation. president, with the stroke of a pen to announce policies and travel around the country defending those policies, i want to say again -- it is true of every one of the governors, that is not the leadership we practice. that is not the leadership john kasich was experiencing and that is the leadership the american people long to see. a president and congress who sit down and figured it out. >> governor perry, who is the aggrieved party? >> i will speak from our perspective in texas. some $12 million a month on border security. we are also, the numbers are just out in harris county, some

3000 additional students from central america have been absorbed into their schools. the cost to the people of texas is an extraordinary amount of money that this president is exacerbating with his announcement he is going to allow for this executive order. >> you believe it will cost texas money. >> i don't believe it, i know it. --re is probably >> the state of texas versus the u.s. government? >> the new incoming governor of texas, who is going to be a fabulous governor, his job description over the last six years when he was asked, what do you do? he said i go to the office, i sue obama, and i go home. [laughter]

you believe the state of texas will have standing to challenge the implementation of this executive order. >> i do. >> i want to build on something scott and john said. congress can sue under -- undern uphold separation of powers. the president has a decision to make. does he want to continue to demonize republicans, or does he want to roll up the sleeves and do the hard work of governing instead of trying to distract us this election, people went to the polls and said they do not want a government-run approach. they do not want eurocrats in there when it comes to health care.