i thank you for your courtesy. >> thank you, chairman dingell. i still haven't gotten used to seeing you on my side of the microphone. thank you for your testimony. our next witness is congressman ellison. i know what congressman ellison will say. we have divergent views on this issue but we try to maintain a cordial relationship. when he spoke in december about the possibility of being at the hearing i welcome his request and am pleased to have him here to explain and discuss his version and his analysis of the crisis confronting us. i recognize the gentleman from minnesota, mr ellison. >> thank you, chairman king for allowing me to testify today. the chairman and i do sometimes disagree including on the aspects of this hearing. i appreciate his willingness to engage in this dialogue. let me thank the ranking member, bennie thompson, for his commitment to homeland security and civil rights for all. it is a challenge to protect security at liberty but bennie thompson needs to strike the right balance. i would like to introduce gillat hamda hamdan

-- john dingell -- he credits mike with having divided the committee. that is where we are. is an extraordinarily interesting committee. it is a combination of some of the most difficult political issues that we have and some of the most complex intellectual. the financial situation is a very hard thing to do. it is complicated right now by the fact the we have some ideological differences but spencer is right that it does not get in the way of personal relationships and we do work to try and reach agreement. we will try doing it on others. in this end all of us would say and mike, and a great chairman -- of all the people i served with i must tell you i was most profoundly affected by henry gonzalez who was chairman of the committee and whose passion for fairness in this country was so enormous. when paul wolfowitz was no longer going to be head of the world bank alan greenspan invited me to be ranking member and it did seem to me as some of the snow he invited me -- he is ranking member and you better invite him. it seemed to meet inviting me had appe

dingell, mr. rush, ms. schakowsky, mr. markey, ms. degette and ms. eshoo. i want to yield back the time to -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady is reck noozed. ms. boe -- is recognized. mrs. bono mack: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from south carolina. mr. butterfield: we have no further speakers, i'm prepared to close. again, mr. speaker, i want to thank all the individuals, all the members and staff who have played a part in crafting this compromise. it's a good, bipartisan compromise we can all live with. i look forward to the president signing it into law after the senate passes it, hope any very soon, and hopefully our small businesses will be able to continue to be profitable. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. bono mack: i was to echo the sentiments of both of my colleagues who just spoke about the importance of the bill and thank them for their cooperation and the hard work they put

dingell who spoke earlier and next to mr. clarke from detroit as well and as you've heard we have the largest arabic population in the country, a very diverse arabic population with lebanese, syrians, iraqi, palestinian, jordanians, yemenis and many, many others and these proud americans make up a very important and vibrant part of our community and, you know, before i came to the congress, i actually had the great honor and privilege to serve as secretary of state which was two of my primary responsibilities was running the state elections but secondly serving as the motor vehicle administrator. i worked very, very closely with the arabic community to make sure they were registered to vote. if they were eligible and then issuing their driver's licenses and i remember running into a bit of a buzz saw when we had some female members of the arabic community who didn't want to have their driver's licenses photos taken unless they were completely taken. no, if you're going to have a michigan driver's license which is used as a fu