mr. gutierrez: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gutierrez: i rise to pay tribute to my friend who passed away this weekend in puerto rico. victor served as undersecretary of housing of the commonwealth of puerto rico from 1972 to 1976 and was an excellent engineer. his wife has been a math teacher for many years and they rised five children, all who graduated from prestigious universities. and i want to say to his family and to all of those who are going to miss him dearly that we are saddened by his passing and his death. to the family, we know that many people talk about infectious smiles. victor's was truly an infectious smile. he always had something positive to say, always contributed to helping everyone else and never asked for anything for himself. i don't know what more you can say about a human being. i know he's resting in peace and i know that i look forward to being with him when i, too, leave this world. thank you, victor, for all ou've done and [speaking spanis

mr. gutierrez, for five minutes. mr. gutierrez: mr. speaker, there is no area of foreign policy that produces greater concern of american citizens than a nuclear armed iran. whether independent, democrat or republican, there is remarkable unity across the spectrum that we must do everything in our power to prevent that outcome. we have heard the steady drumbeat over the years that iran is moving closer and closetory achieving nuclear capabilities. we have seen the regime engage in dangerous provocations and offer support to hezbollah and other militant groups and have threatened the stability of the region and across significant concerns from our allies and friends. the obama administration worked with our international partners to improve crippling sanctions on iran. those covered iran's banking, energy, shipbuilding, insurance, broadcasting and even gold and precious metals. now, after decades of tensions between the u.s. and iran and after sanctions and isolation, we've seen positive steps in relatively quick succession. after the e

mr. gutierrez, for five minutes. mr. speaker, on sunday morning i tweeted out a message to 30,000 people who follow me on twitter, the tweet said the g.o.p. doesn't determine when the fight for immigration reform ends. we will continue to fight for a bill in 2014 because it is what is right, what is fair, and what is best for the u.s.a. i sent this because many in the pro-immigration reform movement thought they heard speaker john boehner giving up on immigration reform for 2014. in a is not what i heard, but many in the community and press heard it that way. i wanted to make it clear that the immigrant community and the huge movements behind immigration reform, business and clergy and everyone else we are just not going away. we are not taking wait, maybe, and no for an answer. by now every time speaker boehner says anything about immigration reform the press and pundits go crazy, even if it isn't clear, a good percentage of the press writes out and -- goes out and writes an obituary. what i heard was getting immigratio

mr. gutierrez, for five minutes. before i begin, i'd like to enter into the record this article written by reverend ethan castillo who wrote an article that appeared tuesday entitled "god often reminds us to welcome the stranger." mr. speaker, yesterday i participated in another do-nothing judiciary committee hearing of the do nothing congress but this goal was to make sure that the president was a do nothing president as well. it's not enough for the republican majority to be setting records for how little they're doing. no, ignoring immigration reform is bad enough, let alone minimum wage, unemployment benefits and the environment. so the do nothing congress held a hearing yesterday entitled enforcing the president's constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law. the intent was clear, attack the president. and it was held in the judiciary committee which has your diction over immigration. here was lots of discussion. this is where the president has power to temporarily suspend the deportation of people who came

this week on the floor of the house, democrat luis gutierrez made a point. >> mr.er, you can't ignore your way out of this or blame your way out of this or blame president obama out of this. you thought super bowl was a blowout? wait until 2014. you can tell the babysitter you'll be home on election night. it's democrats and the white house by a landslide. >> kayton dawson, isn't that true? if they don't do immigration reform, they're in serious trouble in terms of the numbers? >> we have to skpant our numbers, there's no secret there. it's an independent vote. they're taking a look at the tone of the debate, what it is, and the concerns, and it's very personal. and i've been with people -- so if the republicans -- now, we said it earlier. if the republicans don't first enact something, and i think speaker boehner will set up that in '15, and change our tone, we're going to miss our last big chance in a federal election. >> the problem is you talk about in the primaries the negative tone is what's necessary. the anti-american rhetoric is what -- >> it's a tough thi

mr. alan gross. this is my staff member, rosemary gutierrez who went with us on our trip and made sure what i was hearing was correct in terms of spanish since i don't speak spanish fluently. mr. gross, as you know, has been in prison now for over four years. i am hopeful that he'll be released soon on humanitarian grounds. i'm going to be working with our government to engage with the cuban government in serious and sustained talks to resolve his situation and other related issues. i might just add what we're holding here is a little, what he does in his spare time, he puts things together out of bottle caps, plastic bottle caps. he's now serving a 15-year prison sentence. i spent over an hour with him. i think he's holding up pretty well under the circumstances. obviously he's not very happy. who would be happy being locked up like that? he's confined to his room for 23 hours a day. but he's allowed outside. he told me he walks 10,000 steps a day. he does 50 pullups for an hour each day. so he makes these brace lets out of the rings out of water bottles. he reads he watches television. he says he has a