mr. ratcliffe: mr. speaker, this legislation would strengthen the important role and work of the directorate to meet both the scientific and technological security needs of our nation, so i urge all members to join me in supporting this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to support h.r. 3578, the department of homeland security's science and technology reform and improvement act of 2015, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. jackson lee: thank you so very much, mr. speaker. first, i want to say to the gentleman from texas, thank you so very much for your leadership. again, we have a great opportunity of working together along with your ranking member, mr. richmond, and the chairman of the full committee, mr. mccaul, and as well mr. thompson. and i believe

mr. ratcliff. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for holding this hearing. you know, the 700,000 texans that i represent are certainly concerned about the impacts of illegal immigration in this country and what many see as an environment of lawlessness created by this administration when it comes to the enforcement of our immigration laws in frankly the inefficiency of our immigration system. one of the things that highlights that is the fact that was related by the chairman, the fact that there are approximately 459,000 immigration cases waiting for action right now. and you know, it would appear that that type of backlog of cases really amounts to de facto amnesty because allows individuals in this country perhaps illegally to remain here without any repercussion as their cases are stuck in administrative limbo. so i'm anxious to hear your testimony today about plans to reduce that backlog. one of the cases that i want to ask you about in terms of contributing to a backlog is one of the judges in the houston immigration court, the judge mimi yam. are you f

mr. ratcliffe, three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for three minutes. mr. ratcliffe: i thank the gentleman from kentucky for his leadership on this important issue. mr. speaker, every day washington hits the american people with more regulations that hurt families, but very few will hurt these families more than president obama's so-called clean power plan. according to the u.s. energy information agency, the average electricity cost for a texas household each year is $1,800. which is already 26% higher than the national average. to put this in perspective, almost half of all texans spend more than 15% of their annual household budget on energy costs alone. to stand up for middle income families, we have an obligation to fight for policies that will keep energy costs down. but unfortunately the administration's new regulations do exactly the opposite. which is why i introduced resolutions to combat these regulations immediately after they were announced and garnered the s

mr. radcliffe. mitch ratcliffe: director rodriguez, i want to follow up on a point raised by the chairman in his questioning. it is about your stated testimony that your top priority is to implement the president's executive action on immigration. i know you are a former prosecutor. we both took an old to defend the constitution. i was one of the first that question the constitutionality of the president's actions in that regard. while that may not matter to you, what should matter is the opinion of a federal judge followed by the opinion of a federal circuit court of appeals which ruled that the constitutionality of the actions still remains in doubt. for you to make what appeared to be a highly questionable and likely unconstitutional action your highest priority is troubling for me. this is especially true when there is little doubt that it was the president's action in that regard that was the catalyst for the 2014 surge of unaccompanied alien children across our southern border. even early courts have now issu