mr. burgess. mr. burgess: thank you, mr. chairman. thank our witnesses for being here today. just on the issue of the process . a little less than two years ago, we had a committee hearing in our energy and commerce committee dealing with health care. people were really excited about it. we had a lot of amendments offered and we went straight through some 29 hours, at the same time the ways and means committee went through 18-20 hours in the markup. my former colleague, ralph hall, ralled to me that the markup of the clean air act took eight months. so it's truly important public policy. it can take longer than a day's work. oftentimes we don't have that process in the committee. we are bound where the rest of e congress is -- if we short kirkt it the rett of the circuited. short let me ask a question, you introduced a bill that creates a fusion center focused on preventing violence through proactive information sharing. was that something you thought of offering as an amendment to this bill? >> we have and offered several things in c

mr. burgess? >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you for the witnesses for being here today. on the issue of the process, a little less than two years ago, we had a committee hearing in our energy and commerce committee dealing with health care a lot of people really excited about it. we had of lot of amendments that were offered and we went straight through with 29 hours, the ways and means committee went through with the markup. our former colleague, ralph hall recalled to me one time that the markup of the clean air act and the energy and commerce committee took eight months. it's truly important public policy. it can take longer than a day's work and i offered that for everyone's consideration. oftentimes we don't have that process in the committee and we are bound by the rest of the congress, if we short-circuit it, for the rest of the congress for not having exposure to the ideas and to the debate. let me ask a question of mr. collins. you've introduced a bill called the mass violence preven

mr. burgess: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for the recognition. i spent the last several hours in a hearing on the energy and commerce committee, a hearing called by the democrats on the eversight and investigation subcommittee and the hearing was evaluating the fail yours they have trump administration on the child separation policy. let me share with you some of the statements of the witnesses, these were pediatricians, these were aclu lawyers. statements like, the trump administration policy was intentionally hurtful. that it was an incredibly difficult position that people were in. that parents have a right to eep their children safe. and that this was nothing more than government sanged child endangerment. look, i want to share a story with you, just like mr. walker, i had a guest here at the state of the union. the other night when the president was here. my guest was chris from keller, texas. he sat up in the gallery right behind us here. i met chris probably a year and a half to two years ago. he came to see me one day, brought in, actuall

mr. dur jess. -- the gentleman from texas, dr. burgess. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. burgess: i came to the floor to urge members to vote against this ill-advised resolution to disallow the president's declaration for an emergency funding on the border. look, in 2006 i was in congress, congress voted for the secure fence act. secure fence act under president bush, 400 miles of border fence was built. under president obama, an additional, a little over 100 miles was built. now president trump had asked for a little over 200 miles to be built to provide security for america. now, sit a national emergency? i will tell you, i had as my guest to the state of the union someone who is referred to as an angel dad. this is an individual who went and put then uniform, fought for his country in iraq, while he was there, unfortunately, his wife got ill and died, he came home and now he's a single dad. he's taking care of his only child, a daughter. and that daughter unfortunately was hit on the street by

mr. burgess is recognized. >> thank you to our witnesses for staying with us. it's been a long and important day. clear on sure that i'm a couple of items. as we've heard throughout this bordery, problems on the during the trump administration, but it may have predated the trump administration. 2014,mber going down in 2013, i think in the height of the surge of unaccompanied immigrant children in 2014. i remember because the border patrol individual giving me a day,e, we pick up 1300 per we process 1300 or day, we have 90 beds. --y have subsequently they've got more resources down there. it was a big problem to have to manage. that point, children were being held at a reclaimed barracks in san antonio at the air force base there. was aclu involved in any of those cases? >> congressman, i would like to distinguish between two types of unaccompanied children. the first is what you are talking about, kids who were genuinely unaccompanied. they came here without apparent and they need someplace to go. that presents one issue. what we are talking about here that is

burgess for the remainder. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think it's important for contextual purposes for us to at least acknowledge that united states accepts over 1.1 million people per year into the country on a legal basis, has done so for as long as i have been in congress, which is over 15 years, and that number has actually increased during the first two years of the trump administration. this makes the united states the most welcoming country to immigrants of all the countries in the world. 2012 president obama announced the deferred action for childhood arrivals. after that the word on street in central american countries was that if you can get to the border, you will -- and arrive in a -- across the border you can get a slip of paper and you will be allowed to stay and ultimately the president will give you amnesty. and that brought the onslaught in 2013 and 2014. i first became aware of this problem in 2014. i didn't even know the office of refugee resettlement existed before 2014 but i've made multiple trips down there and le