and put it together that group made a compact with one another and what i said is this represents the final real agreement and we've agreed with you and you've agreed with us and one the bill hits the floor if anybody offers an amendment that disagree with anything significant that you and i have agreed to we'll all get together and oppose it and you've heard him say it publicly on the floor repeatedly this goes against the agreement this goes against the grand bargain this is a killer amendment because we all gotta stick together we do we've got to stick together again except any change but let me tell you this is the united states senate the group  we're not the full senate i've had members of that grand bargain tell me jeff that's a good a minute but you know i can't vote for it because it's not in agri much while i agree with you at vote for that because one part of our agreement what kind of legislation is that so we got a double we got that factor going here and i'm getting a little tired of it i wasn't an all in that grand compromise i wa proceed with the amendments well i've been here since one o'clock and of a sudden now start speaking and they've got an agreement they want me to look at i've got my many minutes left i have four minutes and forty seconds well i'd like to finish my remarks and then i'll look at the agreement that that they are eyeing it would be alright  senator making any effort to join the democrats and republicans including this senator who are working on legislation that's present i think most of the new discussions were going on  that nature and we knew the deal the daily is just what all of you have agreed to if you're eighteen or god court you're committed to vote for the dale on the floor even if you would agree with the amendment this brought up i was not prepared to tie my hands in that kind of fashion and asked them aided ideas to you because out to some of the members of a concern about it i did n maintaining mabille to make an independent evaluation of the legislation that was produced that will assist the senator will deal for one more question i can understand that and appreciate why you wouldn't want to give up your independence and want to be bound by an agreement but i think the important factor is that you weren't excluded if you'd want to join under under those terms and the follow up question i have many views as there are to try to have a practical bill which would be percent of all the floor of the senate recognizing that this senator has said on number of occasions did have hearing it had a few hearings and did have a markup as you noted but i would tell you last year's hearings and mark were quite insufficient in my view enormity of the subject i would tell you what i would like what i believe need to be done missed a chance it is much closer to what you did as i just mentioned i think before you hit the floor with asbestos when you the effort to reform and fix a very big problem with asbestos and i was pleased to support you you travel all over the country you had hearings with judges and lawyers and interest groups we had hearing after hearing we had markup days and ray says and more market days we rode and we rode and people got it went on for months it was bought up on the floor knocked down brought up on the floor went on for months and we didn't quite get it done but i supported your view of it i thought it was good that's what we really need and i would say even though asbestos was exceedingly complex this is even more complex and even more significant for the average citizen so i think that's what we messed up i know this was a real attempt to get something done that we need to do something but do what and  fired one final question for the senator from alabama and i know the senator without objection alabama knowledge of the existence of a problem with the senator from alabama consider drafting legislation esteem colleague one of the most able members of this united states senate i have in my mind a framework i believe would work for immigration reform many a number of the things that i thought were critical hours might be in this new bill this year but the fine print convince me that it was not there i believe we have a problem with the american people  they want to make sure this is done in the open light of day so i'm not prepared to say at this point in time that i could meet and reach in our card on the overall difficulties with this bill in a matter of hours or days even though i think we need to start back over with an open process and myself maybe maybe something else could be accomplished but my own inclination is and believe let's get it out there that the american people be involved they will understand the difficult choices that i have to be made but they are also a principled faithful and i want to be sure that we do it right thank you senator specter for your efforts and later schip my time has expired the majority there i would sure like to be able to get this and i'm sent agreement here we've got you keep changing things around i've cited we don't need to have equal number of democrats with republicans let's just get what we can we got three republicans i hope lined up are all important moments that the republicans have and the democrats have hope we can get the s b if the center would withhold all  president i would like to take a few minutes to discuss a mammoth number of thirteen thirteen to this bill which is going to be scheduled for a vote later today before i do that i would like to recognize  the incredible effort that has gone into this bill i want to be able to support the bill i have enormous respect for our distinguished majority leader and the others who have put so much time into the bill and given us time here today to discuss some of these other amendments and i said i want to be able to support this bill and we're seeing some real divisions in the senate different provisions  and i feel confident and i feel strongly that the amendment that i am offering which is co sponsored by senator dorgan will address what i believe are crucially needed improvements in this legislation the first relates to what some people are calling amnesty where in the believe allies almost everyone who entered this country by the beginning of this year and the second improvement relates to what i believe  unworkable set of procedures applicable to those who are properly offered legal status and believe it's very important to the health and practicality of our system that we attempt to fix these two flaws in the bill would achieve three critically important goals it would create a fair and workable path to legalization for those who have truly put down roots in america it protects the legitimate interests of all working americans and it accords honor and dignity the cot to the concept true american justice if one accepts the premises of these three goals then i strongly believe that the amendment is the best way forward for us as a general matter i agree with my colleagues that the time has come for fair and balanced reform of our broken immigration system and when i say fairness i mean a system of laws of despair to everyone here in the united states and especially to our wage earner strongly support the  that strengthen our nation's borders i also support the sections of the bill that create civil and criminal penalties for employers who unfairly hire illegal immigrants creating both a second class population and undercutting american workers and as a point of reference i did not support the bill's creation of a massive new temporary worker program and i am pleased to see that a portion of that was adjusted by the  last night but with those points in mind i'd like to address my amendment which concerns the other major component of this bill and it's an area that has not really received the kind of examination that other portions of the bill have and that's the legalization program my moment reflects a proposal that i've been discussing with virginians ever since i began to campaign for the senate i've always supported tough border security and cracking down on large employers who hire illegal workers i also have always supported a path to legalization for those who came here during a time of extremely lax immigration laws who have laid down strong roots in their communities and i do not however they are the path for citizenship for everyone who has become who's come here as undocumented persons under the provisions of this bill fortunately all undocumented persons living in the united states would be eligible to legalize their status and ultimately to become citizens estimates are the number totals twelve to twenty million people this is legislative overkill it's one of the reasons that this bill has aroused the passions of ordinary americans who have no opposition to reasonable immigration policies but who see this as an issue that goes against the grain of basic fairness which is the very foundation of our society by contrast my amendment would allow a smaller percentage of undocumented persons to remain in the united states and legalize their status based on the depth of a person's rights in their community under my proposal undocumented persons who have lived in the united states for at least four years prior to the enactment of the bill could apply to legalize their status i note that this four year period is even more generous than the five year threshold that was contained in several bills in the past few congresses bills that were supported by senators from both parties and by immigrants rights groups after receiving the application the department of homeland security could evaluate a list of objective measurable criteria to determine whether the applicant should receive a visa and thus be allowed to get on a path to citizenship among these criteria our work history payment of federal or state income taxes property ownership business ownership here in the united states a knowledge of english accomplishment in schools in america immediate family members here in the united states whether or not the applicant has a criminal record and importantly whether or not the applicant wants to become a citizen these applicants would be given probationary status like in the underlying bill while the d h s s considers there is a visa applications and could  illegal immigration my amendment what also make the underlying bill more practical it strikes the bill's unrealistic touchback requirement you immigrants would have the money or the ability to return to their home countries on other continents most of these persons would lose their jobs leave their families in turmoil place further strain on our community services basic fairness and common sense dictates that these persons should be allowed to apply for a green card from here in the united states i believe that this amendment sets forth an equitable system that not only recognizes the can contributions of immigrants to our society but also introduces practical measures that will help us avoid the mistakes that were made in one thousand nine hundred sixty i've heard loud and clear from virginians and i have talked with people on all sides of this issue what i hear over and over is that congress should find a fair system that both protects american workers and respects the rule of law this amendment represents the fairest method i know to do so and to do so realistically i would ask that my colleagues support this amendment when it comes up for a vote in the senate later today without a you'll forms  the senator from missouri thank you mr president i am i rise to talk about the issue of illegal immigration in this country in a very simple way as a prosecutor it's about following the law as an auditor it's about following the money and i would stay for my colleagues today that so much of this problem is about following the money you have crimes you can deter in this country and you have crimes you can't deter now let me tell you a crime we can deter we can stop the hiring of illegal immigrants in this country if we prosecute the people who are hiring them in this country because other business owners will stop hiring illegal immigrants if they see business is being held accountable this administration has not been interested has not been interested in forcing the law against employers now it's hard to deter our families that are trying to feed their children and the wall yes i support border enforcement of course as a former law enforcement official i support in forcing the law against anyone who breaks the law but let's be realistic about this as an auditor i want to be efficient and effective is it going to be an efficient and effective to think we're going to solve this problem at the border it's not the border that's going to stop the people that are coming into our country illegally it's what's on the other side of the border it is the promise of that job and the hungry mouths they're trying to feed so when i look at the raid that occurred in springfield missouri a few weeks ago when over one hundred illegal immigrants were arrested i kept watching the news for some word about that employer sila all the raids that have been occurring recently i think because of the administration's anxiousness to try to to to get this bill across the line i have yet to hear one word about an employer in this country going to jail for hiring illegal immigrants now i know i know they're going to say the employer down at near springfield at the chicken processing plant you know these people had fake i d s they had fake social security numbers if anyone believes that employer did not know they had illegal immigrants working there i've got a bridge want to sell you of course they knew and you give a good prosecutor a couple of investigators you send some people in undercover and you will gather the evidence in short order that dozens and hundreds and thousands of them of employers in this country are not playing by the rules now is that fair no it's not fair and i'll tell you it's not fair to many of my colleagues and seven is not fair to the american worker can you it's not fair to it's unfair to the businesses that are playing by the rules it is fundamentally unfair that many businesses in america are requiring the kind of documentation that assures them they are paying withholding they are following osha standards they are they are doing all the things they must do while other employers are paying cash under the table to pad the bottom line follow the money mr president i've got to tell  you employers right now under current law can serve up to six months in prison if we would do some of those prosecutions in this country it would do more to shut the flow of illegal immigrants frankly than all the legislation we could ever pass  this in this chamber because they would send a message to american employers that you're not going to be rewarded with more profits by breaking the rules a lot of the money behind is that there are so many people behind this bill who have hearts that are full of compassion and i certainly mr president think of you and your family is i make difficult decisions on this bill but i've got to tell you i've got to tell you there are a lot of people behind this bill that it's all about the money it's all about the profit and if we want to stop illegal immigration in this country we've got to get serious about the magnet that's drawing it to our country and that is we look the other way when people hire illegal immigrants and until we stop looking the other way to doe's businesses who are not playing by the rules we will never affected we deal with immigration in this country let us bring in legal immigrants for a work force that we need but how do we know what workforce we need as long as we're not holding those who are breaking the law accountable for hiring illegal immigrants i have an amendment that would also bar  any company that is found to hire illegal immigrants from participating in federal contracts i would hope that that would become part of this legislation i know there have been enforcement measures added to this bill but frankly six months is plenty mr president you put it owner of a business in jail for six months in a federal penitentiary for hiring illegal immigrants and let that we're go out across america and you will do more to clean up this problem without us than another dime of taxpayer money that anything else we can do that with this president is serious about illegal immigration in this country i suggest that he call his attorney general and he say to his attorney general we know that they've given them instructions we've heard about it in traditionally committees about priorities of their administration tell this attorney general we want employers who are hiring able of illegal immigrants by the hundreds in this country to be prosecuted under the law and disappearance spend some time in jail and that would get to the bottom of the problem thank you mr president  the majority leader we've been told the republicans are interested in more amendments we finished about two hours and fifteen minutes ago or something like that and then trying for i think i repeat it's time for the president and his folks to get involved in that this is the president's down this is the bill that we came up with democrats and republicans working in unison with the administration came up with a bail we want to help no one has worked harder on the president's bill than i can agree feinstein sala i would sure hope that we would get some help we can't have republican members sold on if they won't let us call them  it just not appropriate that the minority can have it both ways they want these amendments but don't allow us to call them up it's a self fulfilling prophecy come the end of the day when we have a college not just a waiting game or amendments that this bill is going anyplace but it's not our fault i repeat this is a bill that was go shaded in good faith by democrats and republicans and it's a president's bill he says he wa yes why can't we get this agree on there my friends here this president i see on the floor my distinguished friend from alabama and i've told him personally i'll tell him publicly and he's i've said this before there are times i don't agree with him but just sessions you have never have to guess where he stands on an issue and i appreciate that and we know where he stands on this issue of immigration but having said that and we do this agreement i was looking i'm saying we don't i'm not going to be a bunch of amendments get thrown out here and voted out but we have no time to actually know what's in them and the senate is to have a little stand there of either maybe i don't think this is important have you ever gone through a process just to say we had a bunch of votes that's one thing but i think we need an intelligent discussion about these matters mr president majority leader yeah you see it's obvious here that we're not going to really the majority leader would yield for a moment we have to yell for kind of the my from pending i'm sorry the regular order is the amendment by senator dodd which has been pending since before the memorial day break so any argument that members have had a chance to take a look at this moment they could have taken it home over memorial day and read it almost every day and be ready to debate it right now i don't want to speak for senator dodd no one could and i think it might be appropriate well there you see on the screen a whole bunch of the leaders on this immigration bill as you probably know the senate for the last couple of weeks with that week of recess in between working on immigration we're not quite sure how they're going to proceed this afternoon after that vote to limit debate failed by a pretty substantial margin and you can see some of the builders there kind of in the center of your screen that senator specter looks like senator reid the majority leader with his back to the camera i think that's senator kennedy leaning in on the left there so what we expect is that the leadership will figure out how they want to proceed next here this afternoon and then perhaps let us know from the floor what what to expect as the day moves  and again we're waiting for the senate to get back underway here as you can still see on your screen a number of the immigration bill managers that's senator ted kennedy there to the left the gentleman with the white here you can see kind of over on the right part of your screen senator spect again trying to decide how to proceed this afternoon here's what congress congress now is saying an article written today by beth crowley of their staff she says architects of a senate immigration compromise insisted today the deal was not dead despite an unexpected snag over substance and procedure however senate majority leader harry reid told reporters today that if senators fail once again to invoke cloture quote the bill's over with close quote congress now goes on to say that mr reid also put the onus on republicans and president bush saying he told homeland security secretary michael chertoff a key negotiator during the crafting of the compromise to quote tell the president he'd better get his republican colleagues to help on this bill this process makes the process a look relax senator arlen specter according to the article senator specter a key player in shaping the compromise legislation and senator specter going on to suggest that lawmakers who work past midnight last night were in for a long  quote i think we're going to go later tonight later tomorrow and who knows how late on sunday senator specter said that again according to that crowley staff writer there at congress now cantwell again you can see a number of senators quite a large number of senators on the floor of the senate bill leaders bill managers senate leaders they're trying to work out how they're going to proceed on this immigration bill that's been a couple of weeks with that intervening week of recess there that the senate been on this measure you saw that cloture vote a vote to limit debate failing by a fairly substantial margin a bit earlier today and now we see somewhere in that group of senators there is majority leader reid i believe that's assistant  the system of the assist his assistant senator durbin standing next to him there bill manager bill managers involved trying to decide how best to proceed so we will watch and listen and find out what this afternoon holds here on the floor of the senate right again we're all watching the senate floor trying to understand what will happen next in this immigration debate you can see most of the a republican senators that were there a moment ago is now at least walked out of camera range whether or not they're still somewhere on the senate floor we're not sure nancy the majority leader senator reid the majority whip senator durbin beside him and just some of their staff members so we will wait and see if this immigration debate will continue today or if leadership is going to make other plans we'll wait and see and as we continue to watch the democratic leadership at any rate talk amongst themselves here on the floor of the senate this from the house today the house voting to forty seven to one hundred seventy six to back stem cell legislation that was approved by the senate in april the bill or the bill similar to stem cell legislation vetoed by president bush last year although senate leaders this time added some ethical guidelines in the hope it could win additional support so the bill enjoys bipartisan support in both chambers it will go to the president and it is it is unlikely according to congress now to have the backing it would need to overcome a presidential veto way of getting an amendment up to vote on to try this we've tried that we've tried this we've tried that we've tried everything and there are individuals who don't like this and the senate being as it is they have a right to object to what we do and they're objecting as for sure with the objections have been non public to this point but it is really frustrating because the people that want to move this bill forward democrats and republicans are being thwarted an effort to do so as i've said before mr president we need to make sure that the record there are events some will oppose the legislation or concern that there has been the ability to call up amendments and have them pending but until we got disposed of the fourteen pending amendments yesterday it was thought by most to be an appropriate call of more members and have instead of fourteen pending amendments twenty pending amendments so i'm going to ask consent and just a minute that we vote on five amendments originally it started the day out that we had for any side for republicans or democrats and we had three republicans and three democrats and there was jackson's to both of those so i said well fine let's have three republican the two democrats objection so then we thought we had worked out once and then the times for debating these was just really a lot of time which is another indication that there are some who no matter what we do we can't move forward on this legislation i would again say mr president and i know i'm being repetitive this is not a democratic bill democrats have helped get this bill to where it is the main proponents of this legislation of on the democratic side have been senators kennedy feinstein salazar on the republican side we've had a number of people worked very hard senator specter sen kyl and a number of others and i appreciate how hard they worked on this this is a bill that's bipartisan in nature supported by the president of united states i want to help the president i'm not always in a position to do that i think i'm in a position to do that now and i've done everything i can with this piece of legislation to do that so i'm going to ask consent that we have a series of votes set up and before fifteen and then three p m and i would also say to show what we're trying to do in good faith when there was a request on the other side to have one really large block of time on this side we agreed thirty minutes fourteen forty one coleman fourteen seventy three reserving the right to bear from south carolina madam president believe me senator there's enough frustration to go around i very much appreciate all  managers of the bill those on both sides who've worked to come up with a constructive solution but madam president i feel compelled to object to this process because our side has not been able to bring up the amendments that we want they've been carefully selected by the other side of which ones we're going to vote on and it appears now this whole scene has been choreographed that we had a cloture vote a few hours ago we're going to have a few more votes and then we're going to have another cloture vote with the maj in the statements that now they've accommodated us on our men but so i have colleagues on the floor have waited a week to bring up an amendment has it not been able to do it i feel madam president that what we should do is to submit the amendments that we want to bring up and block and our side  do that the majority leader very objection is senator object does that jack the object entered madam president i ask that the following amendments be called up set aside sessions thirteen twenty three soon eleven seventy four baucus tester twelve thirty six mandas thirteen seventeen and sanders thirteen thirty true thirty two is there jackson object that we decide what amendments are going to be brought up on our side and i certainly know that the folks on our side have been working on this i don't know about this particular group of amendments if they've been selected on our side or yours but  perhaps there is no problem but at this moment i'm going to object to those and then confer with our side to see what the big plan is at this point instead of doing this a little at a time i think it's important that we know before the next cloture vote that we're going to be able to bring up the amendments that we've been waiting on and so until that time i'm going to jack two additional action on the floor madam president during a later i would only say to my friend in those within the sound of my voice i didn't come up with these men this are the numbers these work with the two managers see if we can get others we thought this was a good place to start but obviously some that do not feel it's a good place to are so i sorry that we're not able to move along but i see madam president in the most positive way there is good say on both sides of this aisle to move this legislation i've course was disappointed in the earlier cloture vote but i was told before the closure vote took place what was going to happen because there was  and we've tried really hard i'll keep trying but i do say madam president that everything that we've tried doesn't work now there are people in years past you know more about the senate floor procedures and i do but i know a little bit guess i don't know of anything that i've missed to try to bring up other amendments and i'm in a bipartisan way there's no one at this stage trying to get advantage of anyone else this is an effort by democrats republicans who want to help the present united states get a bill that he believes in for which i have publicly said i appreciate the president doing this and for me to say this after all the battles of the present i have had i think is good for the president and for me i want to do something to move this along the american public needs some cooperation democrats republicans with the president joining on so i apologize to everyone that we have been able to figure out a different way to go forward we're going to continue to try again we're waiting for senators to come back to the floor you may have seen a short while ago majority leader reid there here on the floor of the senate offering a couple of unanimous consent request hoping to bring a series of amendments to a vote in about an hour those requests both of his unanimous consent request objected to by senator de mint son the half of the republicans so it looks like off the floor again senate leadership is trying to work out some arranged meant to move forward with this immigration bill and as you can see if you're just joining us shortly after four o'clock here in the east it's been a rather long quorum calling for senators to come back to the floor and continue on this immigration bill they've been on it for a couple of weeks now with that the intervening recess for memorial day joining us live on the phone from congress clearly fallen johnson fall and you and i were talking yesterday and here we are again today where are we now on this immigration bill where are we indeed right now the group  bill along with the leaders of the senate are trying to work out a set of amendments that are agreeable to both sides so they can finish the bill senator reid has held over the heads of all of the people in the senate a procedural motion a cloture motion sometime tonight to that he says it is voted against that he will pull the bill and it will effectively be dead for the year well now we just saw a cloture vote to limit debate earlier today so that didn't didn't pass there's going to be another one that is that is correct that they're they're going to have another another motion another vote sometime later tonight the hope is and i think that is that they're going to reach some sort of agreement on amendments then they're going to have a cloture motion and then there will be enough senators who can support the cloture motion sixty senators and they can move forward and i've actually been told that they might wait until they actually have an agreement to hold the cloture vote but if it becomes clear that they don't have an agreement on amendments they might just go ahead and vote and the bill dies so why is it so difficult to come to an agreement on these amendments well there's a lot of people who don't like this bill in both the democrat and republican party there's a lot of very difficult provisions that are hard for them to swallow for a variety of reasons and some people are saying that the bill keeps getting worse as it's being amended well as you as you've watched this over these last couple of weeks and you're watching it again today what's your s e are they going to be able to work out an agreement or do you think maybe not it well let me get out my quarter and i'll flip a coin you know i will say that last year there was a similar exercise of the senate went through and it came right down to the wire several times and it actually was dead several times and then it was resurrected in the senate eventually did pass a bill on a fairly strong vote so the momentum is building the you know the interest groups who are pushing for an immigration bill are trying to tell the session without objection so ordered madam president just a few minutes ago in the mansfield room which is right off the senate  we had a very moving ceremony one that i think brought home to so many of us just what we ought to be about as representatives of people it was enrolling ceremony for the bill s five the stem cell research and hansen act that passed the house of representatives just a couple of hours ago and so in the center mansfield room off the senate floor senator reid our majority leader speaker pelosi speaker of the house along with the congresswoman de gette from colorado who have been the prime mover of this in the house congressman mike castle of delaware also a prime mover in the house of this sort  of castle and to get that work together to get this bill through the house both last year and this year and also congresswoman capps from caller from california and and congressman jim langevin from rhode island but we had this in rolling ceremony to send the bill to the president and with us in the room at the time were representatives of people who were there who who i think in their own personage represent so many of the illnesses and diseases that stem cell research hold so much promise for curing everything from juvenile diabetes to parkinson's rats syndrome spinal cord injuries multiple sclerosis so many others were there and you see these little kids and you see their families and what they've got left is hope to so many of these illnesses and diseases she a little girl there had read syndrome and her mother another young girl a juvenile diabetes thinking about what her life is going to be light and we know that's damn cell research holds hope that scientists can unravel some of these mysteries you know those of us madam president who have been involved in least in the legislative end of stem cell research and through all the hearings we've had going clear back to nine hundred ninety eight when the first human embryonic stem cells were derived in west constant we know the great advances that have been made we know how close we are to really having some wonderful breakthroughs and yet on august the ninth of two thousand and one president bush in his first year in office spoke to the nation and i remember it very well and  limited the number of stem cell lines that could be investigated by federal researchers or through the auspices of the national institute of health they might not be federal employees they could be researchers at the university of minnesota or the university of california at university of iowa but they would be getting grants from the nationals who said help for biomedical research well i guess the night the truth and one the president basically said look we're going to limit the number of stem cell lines well we thought at that time maybe seventy five lines were it was enough then we turned out those twenty some lines and then or skewer the net then we found out later that every single one of these stem cell lines were contaminated because they had been grown in a medium with mouse stem cells mouse cells so they're contaminated so none of them would ever be used really for any kind of human intervention well since that time we have worked to overcome this presidential field if you will presidential fee o one person the president of the united states being able to limit the expenditures of federal money for stem cell research and here i might just give my utmost praise and and thanks to senator arlen specter of pennsylvania he has been stalwart first in his chairmanship of the appropriations committee that funds biomedical research he was the first one to have congressional hearings on embryonic stem cell research i think we've had twenty seven hearings since then and i was his ranking member and of course now i'm chair and he's my ranking member but we've worked hand in glove on this all these years to overcome this presidential that limit that put shackles really on the scientists who want to unlock these mysteries who want to work to be able to help cure things like  diabetes lou gehrig's disease spinal cord injuries i can remember once madam president when my good friend and now  he's deceased christopher reeve when we all remember superman the first superman who had a severe spinal cord injury and who had just labored hard all the time for overcoming the presidents order of august the ninth of two thousand when he worked so hard to try to get a stem cell bill passed here one time we had seen a film of a mouse actually a rat i'm sorry a rat the spinal cord had been severely damaged and there was pictures of this rat that couldn't walk only with his front feet but his back that were totally paralyzed treated with stem cells and the rat then blocked that was when christopher reeve uttered his famous line oh to be a rat or as i said at the time you know we're actually about ninety nine percent rat i don't mean politicians i v i mean humans are genetically d n a wise and so what if that can be done there then there's so much hope that that can be investigated and taken on for curing things like severe spinal cord injuries well mannered president it was a very moving ceremony and t look in the faces of the mothers and the fathers of the children who were there and to think that this is what we ought to be doing we ought to be giving  of the primary i think i hope reasons for government for our government is to help alleviate human suffering wherever we find it so i'm hopeful that the president will change his mind about his thoughts about the dominion now as you all know we passed this bill last year i might add this bill was passed with a republican house and a republican senate under their control to the president and he vetoed well we did not have the votes to override the veto but we said we'd be back and we did come back the senate passed the bill a couple of months ago in april and i might add if you added up all of the votes there were some people missing but if you added up all the votes with those who were for the bail and those were against it basically we had sixty six votes in favor of this bill that's one vote shy of enough to override and i if i'm not mistaken i believe we had eighteen republican senators so this is not a partisan issue not part of the same when the house one of the leaders in the house congressman mike castle from delaware republican and i mentioned senator arlen specter one of our great leaders here in the senate floor on biomedical research i guess you have to wonder why would why would it be to just one person the president of states has the power to deny so much hope to so many people so i'm hopeful that the president will reexamined his thoughts on this listen to the kinder voice of his nature listen to around him who understand that this legislation has drawn the ethical guidelines this bill has grifter ethical guidelines on stem cell research th existing in law today i might also add that the president also made it clear he said there's one moral line that he would not cross he said that federal taxpayer should not be used to destroy embryos well madam president we expressly crafted this bill s five to ensure that it does not lift the existing federal ban on using federal funding to destroy embryos we have fully addressed the president's number one concern as i said s five the bill that was just enrolled and sent to the president imposes stricter ethical requirements that exist today i also would add that we tried to meet the president halfway isn't that what this is about the art of compromise maybe he's not all right right all the time maybe we're not so we try to meet halfway well last year when the bill passed the senate floor there was that specter santorum provision that was not put in the bill the president said he was in favor of that so we put it in the bill that promotes alternative ways of deriving stem  president said he endorsed it last year well here's his chance to sign it and make it into law along with a bill that has stricter ethical guidelines in what exists today so i really see no reason i see no ethical reason no logical reason why the president would once again veto this bill not the same bill he vetoed last year the different bill we put we've put in the ethical guidelines so now again i want to make it clear that this bill sent to the press has a requirement that we require most that are very strict first the only way the only way that a stem cell line can be eligible for federally funded research is number one is if it were derived from an embryo that was otherwise going to be discarded i mean by that well there are about four hundred thousand embryos right now frozen in vitro fertilization clinics the moms and dads have had all the children they want they no longer need anymore the embryos and you know those embryos are going to be discarded it happens every day at fertility clinics all over america all we're saying is instead of discarding them let's allow let's allow a couple to donate those if they wish to create stem cell lines that can cure diseases and save lives so throw them away or use them  suffering it's the second choice use them to ease suffering that i believe is the truly moral pathway and cruelty respectful of human life i mean think about it now think about a couple who have used in vitro fertilization to have a family over fifty thousand children are born every year to couples who other a wife would be infertile well let's say the couple have had the kids they want to have but there are leftover embryos the couple's only choice now is to continue to pay the i d f plenty to keep them frozen in one through june for all their lives and perhaps when they die then they'll throw him away or throw them away that's really two choices why not give a couple the choice of saying to the i d f plan a you can take the leftover have donate them to science for embryo embryonic stem cell research now some people might say well then maybe then people get in the business of pain couples paying them to donate embryos embryo farming and all that we've heard about we covered that in the bill we have strict ethical guidelines number one no money or any other consideration and be given to a couple for donating embryonic stem cells no money or any other consideration it must be strictly voluntary and the donors have to give their informed written consent and the last ethical guy and the guideline is these embryos that are go native can only be used for embryonic stem cell derivation nothing as i said these are stricter guidelines and exist today so why wouldn't we allow couples who have had their children rather than saying throw them away why not allow them to be able to donate them for the kind of research that will ease human suffering lead to cures there's overwhelming support across the country for this legislation some five hundred twenty five different groups of indorse this bill the patient advocacy groups religious groups health organizations scientific societies universities they know that it holds hope folk for with lou gehrig's disease and parkinson's disease by a long cord injuries heart disease people to diabetes people with cancer of all of the federal biomedical research doctors or whom he had in the n i m h appeared before our committee and i asked him whether scientists would have a better chance of finding new cures and treatments if the administration's current medical research he was appointed by president bush to his present position so i think it took great courage on doctors who he's part to say in public that his boss had it wrong on stem cell research but i know dr zuni preeminent scientist courageous doctor and i know that he knows and he has so stated that we must move ahead in embryonic stem cell research here's what he said and let me quote him quote dr sunni says it is clear today that american science would be better served in the nation would be better served if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell lines it is in the best interest of our scientists our science and our country that we find the ways and the nation finds a way to allow the science to go full speed across adult and embryonic stem cells equally well and i'm president we must move forward we must move forward i just hope the president will sign this man but i can assure you  behalf of the hundred a million americans who suffer from different kinds of diseases that have that potentially potentially could be cured through embryonic stem cell research if the present vetoes that we will be back and we'll be back again and again and again this issue is not going to go away we're going to keep hope alive for people with spinal cord injuries parkas disease and so many others we don't tell our geologist to study the earth with a tape measure if we're really serious about unlocking the mysteries of stem cells and all of the things that we have as we've already seen this take place yes now it's just a matter of more science getting more of our smartest scientists involved in this then to take it the next step and the next step in the step so that someone suffering from parkinson's disease will have a cure i believe is possible small the scientists i've talked to i believe it's possible and it could be possible watson said to me not too long ago he said you know he said with all that we have done in unraveling the mysteries of the human gene we have mapped and sequenced the entire human genome with that and with these new breakthroughs in finding that embryonic stem cells can differentiate we can take them and differentiate them into different tissues if our scientists he said if our scientists are allowed to really go at this full speed he said medicine fifty years from now as it is practice will make it look like what we're doing today as being in the dark ages that's the hope in the promise of embryonic stem cell research it should nation on this all i can ask is president bush listen to the better angels of your nature think about all those who are suffering in our society who need this hope the scientists who can work together collaboratively the fine the intervention the cures for so many diseases think about this before you put pen to paper and veto this bill madam president so much rides on this but as i said if the president does veto it we will be back again and again and again and again this is not going to stop we are going to lift this ban and we madam president i just want to commend the senator from iowa senator harkin for his tremendous work an advocacy that has gotten us to this day today a very important day as he talked about where the house of representatives voted  to pass the embryonic stem cell research bill joining the senate and that bill is now on its way to the president's desk is because of senator harkin's work over the years and his advocacy and his not giving up that we're here today and i am very proud to join him on the floor today to urge the president now to do the right thing the house of representatives today in voting for this bill offered hope to millions of americans in supporting embryonic stem cell research there's now one person who can make this decision for millions of americans and that's the president of the united states he has a choice he can stand with so many people who are looking for that desperately needed cure or he will stand against them i hope like my colleague from iowa that the president pauses thinks about the lives he holds in his hand and makes the right choice and signs the bill for embryonic damn cell research madam president this is an issue i know personally i grew up in a family of nine my dad was a wonderful physically active human being he served our nation in world war two raising his children he was a strong man in my eyes and i was growing up he was indestructible but when i turned fifteen years old things changed dramatically in my life and in my family's life my dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis that is a horrific disease for anyone who's not familiar with it it wasn't long that he could no longer walk he was in a wheelchair and required my mom to take care of him full time it was a very difficult time for my family we had to watch my dad to to reread physically we had to watch as my mom had to return to work she went on welfare for a while and finally was able to get some schooling and get a job but she had to work take care of my dad and raise all seven kids we all hoped that a cure might one day be found for my dad and people like him you never lose hope when something like this happens to you it's essential to dealing with what you've been handed but we were also pretty realistic scientists didn't have any promising leads doctors said there wasn't much they could do there was no cure on the horizon there was nothing to hinge our hopes on when i was growing up but now madam president we have a chance finally to offer families across this country hope opportunity a chance for a cure it is time for president bush to stop his obstruction and to stop saying no to cures and to stop saying no to hope for families like mine unfortunately what we know that since being elected president bush have locked robust federally funded research of embryonic stem cells originally he told us that there would be seventy eight stem cell lines available for study and in truth there were only twenty one far fewer than scientists say that they needed for this research even the director of the national institute of health us senator harkin just talked about who was appointed by president bush said it is clear today that american science would be better served and the nation would be better served if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines well the president refused to heed that advice from his own scientific community and the director of the national institutes of health and he did so why to pacify the ideological views of a few in his political base what he did by blocking that is forcing millions of americans who suffer from many elements to put their hope on hold and to stand idly by and watch as a family member's condition worse the side putting millions of people's hopes on hold the president's action actually pushed stem cell research overseas our country which has been known as the world leader in medicine and scientific research is now falling behind other countries in this field reuters recently reported that british scientists with funding from an american who was upset with president bush's actions were using research to secure some forms of blindness our country madam president must remain at the forefront of innovation and institutions like the university of washington and my home state have to have the ability to compete with organizations in other countries this president has denied that the bill that has been sent to the president today is on its way to his desk the stem cell research and  en act of two thousand and seven allows the department of health and human services to finally begin robust research on embryonic stem cells from frozen embryos embryos it is important to note that would otherwise be discarded that bill also promotes research into funding alternative ways to derive stem cells from member embryos and it does the same follow it imposes strict ethical guidelines as all of us have insistence upon in fact the standards that are in the legislation that is on its way to the president's desk today are more stringent stringent than even the president's own policy most importantly though madam president the legislation that we want this president to sign takes hope off hold for millions of americans now we all know the president has threatened to once again veto this legislation just as he did last year madam president i'm here today and hope that he hears me say please don't do that there are millions of sick americans and their families who are watching and waiting and praying and hoping that he signs  if he feels this bill he will likely claim as he did last year that the legislation is unnecessary since researching adult stem cells which he supports is as promising as studying embryonic stem cells just like last year he would be wrong scientists say embryonic stem cells which can be used to grow any type of human or cell tissues show the most promise and man a president they are for the most hope so man a president i have lived with someone with a serious illness i have seen the suffering that happens personally to their families and to everyone around them i know how hard it can be we must not block the discovery of cures for these people we must not block their hope today at least seventeen million americans suffer from diabetes at least five hundred thousand americans suffer from parkinson's two hundred fifty thousand americans suffer from multiple sclerosis and two hundred fifty thousand have spinal cord injuries including i would add many veterans of the iraq war all of these americans and many others that suffer from a variety of conditions will stand to benefit from embryonic stem cell research finally today in sending this bill to the president this congress is offering a chance to families across the country to have hope to have an opportunity to have a chance for a cure madam president i hope that president bush hears their call picks up that hand stop his obstruction stop saying no to cures and signs his name to the legislation we're all watching thank you madam president i my mother's a younger sister your junior was admitted to a residential facility in huntington west virginia where she has all timers diseases as well and so this one that strikes are close to hard for us and our family as it does for you and we've been focused on a whole lot here in the senate in the last couple of weeks and that is what to do to a secure our borders what to do to make sure that employers are not knowingly hiring illegal aliens at least not without penalty if they do and what are we going to do about the twelve inch or so people that are here undocumented roughly sixty percent of them came here illegally what are going to do about all of that did last year for for several weeks to go home without having taken definitive steps i'm told that negotiations are going on even as i speak which would allow us to come back into session for republican fri time i think it's fair to say that we've had the opportunity for people have differing views to say this is what i believe we should do and that's what i've what other people offer their countervailing views that i think it's time to move on my own view is the worst thing that we can do as frankly do nothing i don't only the status quo is acceptable and the status quo which last summer found as many as ten thousand people coming across our borders illegally illegally every week mostly coming for challenges is a big mistake or a country like ours that really any country but especially a country like ours has to be able to secure our borders that's why we have to secure our border and i read some information  provided by some folks here in washington i think tank in washington to look back at the number of folks the number of players that were sanctioned for knowingly hiring illegal aliens in the last several years and comment that was made i don't know if the president it was made was that a person the last several years had a greater chance of being eaten by an alligator in this country then if you're an employer hiring an illegal alien being caught now that's and that may sound like a stretch but it's not much of  actually saw the number of people prosecuted under the law in the last six years dropping by some thirty percent below what it was in the in the last decade we were not in forcing the laws against employers and we need to do that expired and they stayed on but tony add those the folks who came across the borders illegally as well as some twelve million people and i can understand the the views of some folks in my state and maybe minnesota in other places around this country washington iowa  a condition of probation and be able to work over a number of years toward a legal status before we can is doing that before we go down that path i believe it's critical to number one we enforce secure our borders and secondly we make sure that those folks who are knowingly hiring illegal aliens that we prosecute them with every ounce of energy we have under the law what respect to the unfortunate of of our borders and the securing of our borders let me just mention a couple things personnel arrayed on the nation's borders from the civic culture the west coast from san diego all the way across to the gulf coast have a thousand mile border the legislation has before so they basically says we're going to double the number of border patrol personnel they've got to be better chain they've got to be better equipped today we're supplementing their numbers with the national guard and as you know governor who once was commander chief of our national guard in dollar i'm all for continuing to apply those assets as well to secure our borders to supplement our border patrol personnel however it's those border patrol personnel have to be better or better trained they've got to be better equipped we have a technology today that frankly we didn't have two the ground when there's when it's nighttime aircraft can see when it's fog aircraft can see through the rain and we have that capability today we didn't have it then we have the capability with was surveillance cameras to look for long distances all kinds of weather conditions day and night to detect the of the movement of the people toward our border and we have that equipment this legislation says we've got to deploy it and we've got to use it and we have to fund it we have the capability today and it's in a if i were an employer i would take great solace in knowing that the of the identity identification is being presented to me was genuine was real had not been camp approved in to know that i could trust technology this legislation seeks to make sure that employers have that they can have that to have that confidence one of the major problems i believe in this country and in recent years has fled in to a greater influx of folks coming here illegally is that when we catch them at the border they happen from mexico routinely our border patrol personnel take those people back across the border to mexico however if auxerre we capture the border not from mexico  guatemala honduras other other countries to the south of us along the way we capture those people we take them to a detention center and we've been taken into detention centers for for several years if we have ample space the detention center bed capacity if you will the fog sir basically registered charged and have the opportunity to to argue whether or not they are here as refugees these were they're being register them to say this is we who are they are as best we can and then we essentially release them on their own or cognizant and say come back in two months three months four hearings and surprise surprise the the idea that people can come in illegally like that and want to capture and not be detained for is not to find out of their ears refugees that's just wrong and it's especially wrong if you happen to be somebodies trying to come here legally and maybe even trying to do that not for just a couple of months but for years waiting in line patiently abiding by the law and meanwhile other folks come into this country who we capture and essentially release to become workers in this country that's wrong and terms of equity that's just basically it's unfair in a sense that people are trying to play by the rules you're fully your phone sends actually the wrong message as where i want to reasons why embassies not the answer either in the same kind of message that people are waiting to come here been waiting to come here for a long long time and it says you're foolish for playing by the rules why amnesty is no good and the idea of us simply relation well on with respect to employers knowingly hiring illegal aliens and are not prosecuting them under the the laws do that they continue to do that week after we month after month year after year and whether that think tank was told us told me recently that the chances of a person being eaten by an alligator last year  greater than an employer being prosecuted under the law whether that's true or not we know there's too few employers have been prosecuted and one of the best ways to send i think a chilling message back home i thought sure thing about coming up here is one those who had come across illegally is to make sure that employers know that if they hire those folks are going to pay a severe price that sends a strong message to those who otherwise would would take a chance in and to come here and then the last thing i would would mention is what do you do about all those people that are here that are undocumented if there are twelve million is some sixty percent of them are folks who came across the border illegally and the other forty percent are people who came here legally stayed beyond the time that they're allowed to stay here and now they here illegally although they came illegally in the first place what do we do about all those people and in the legislation that we have here for us that we're debating and have been chance to do that and if you do that take advantage of this opportunity and you are willing to to meet the conditions i think tough conditions of a  multi year period of what i would call probation those people can work their way toward a legal status might take eight years might take more but for folks that have been here for a while they have work they've been good workers they have paid taxes they have stayed out of trouble with the law under this legislation if they're willing to continue to work in canada paid taxes paid me back taxes th pay a very significant fine thousands of dollars in fines learn english learn about the history of our of our country and so far they're willing to do those things they have a chance to work toward a legal status not in eight weeks not in eight months but as long as eight years if they're not willing to live by the conditions that they're laid out in this legislation there are a lot and they won't have a chance to ever have cesspit during orientation for new senators last november when i was privileged to spend some time with our elected senators i i mentioned i want to things we do in my senate office back home which we try to do a good job on constituent service we actually keep track of  my head of constituent services starts off with an update on a person who came to this country legally i think from greece who is an older woman  and in her mid seventies who is i came here to read to see i think her son maybe a daughter in law who has apparently has dementia who ended up being a hospitalized essentially abandoned by her son and ended up in a hospital for treatment she needed hospitalization and treatment for really for less than a week for her condition less than a  week unfortunately no one was there to take care of her to look after her to be responsible for her she stayed in that hospital not for a couple of days not for a week more than a month actually i think for maybe two months how much that it cost because that hospital about a quarter of a million dollars because that hospital  essentially had to eat the cost of that hospitalization now in the last week or so i understand it the daughter in law has stepped forward and this woman has no documentation apparently arrangements are being made with folks back in the greece maybe with her family to take her back in the hospital has bought the tickets i'm told that they're going to fly this elderly woman back to greece adonal is going to take her and hopefully the paperwork being arranged for for the woman to be received by your own family back in in greece i'd like to say that that's probably the only time it's a train and it's the only time that's happened in this country this year or last year the year before unfortunately it is not and it is unfortunate that a lot of times a failure of us at the federal level when force our borders to secure our borders has led in this case to when people stay beyond their a limited period of time as leisure situations cause this hospital a ton of money and there are probably other hospital facilities that have been caused have lost a ton of money and it's being borne by other people in my state who pay for their health care and oftentimes state local governments  smart comprehensive and that's what i felt and said again and again again what we needed to do in terms of our our work on immigration reform top smart comprehensive and i still think that that applies i would add not just federal taxpayers but state and local folks including hospitals and people that are running hospitals and funding hospitals around this country fair to american workers the idea that people are coming to take away jobs in some instances to make too many instances from people are able willing to do the work you're not acceptable the idea of having a larger guest worker program like the president has in vision now in my view not except that we're obvious going to have some going to guest worker period program but not the kind not of the magnitude this president has shot but top smart comprehensive and fair fair tax payers for american workers and last point i would add is practical as i said earlier my comments did as much as i can understand a desire to just to round up twelve million people that are here on documented put in buses planes whatever send him home i can understand their rationale of feeling to do that my friends is just not practical and  customs and our laws and they'd have a chance over time a long period time multiple pairs of years to work toward a documented legal status i think that see the right approach and hopefully some time here in the next hour creating a better future for america earlier today the house of representatives passed the stem cell research unhandsome act the bill that the senate passed back in april along with the first minimum wage increase in over ten years in a fiscally responsible budget this is yet another accomplishment for the american people which this congress has been able to achieve this bill will expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research the type of stem cell research that holds great promise for millions of americans suffering from debilitating diseases like heart disease diabetes parkinson's and alzheimer's it's been over five years since the senate began discussing stem cell research five years of discussions five years searching for answers and most importantly five years of hope that one day our country would make a much needed change in policy for the health of all of its people today we stand at the brink of an histor to reestablish our country as a global leader in biomedical science and reaffirm our dedication to curing some of the greatest sources of human suffering we are here with the support of were five hundred well respected organizations including the american medical association the american public health association juvenile diabetes research foundation march of dimes and parkinson's action network these organizations represent scientists doctors religious  importantly american patients and their loved ones unfortunately president bush has once again publicly stated that he intends to veto this bill this is a bill that both houses of congress on a bipartisan basis a passed for two years in a row a bill that continues to be supported by a majority of the american people but it's also a bill the president bush has already vetoed the president to reject this legislation again is to take another step backwards away from the possibility of life saving medical breakthroughs and a dash the hopes of millions who depend on the untapped promise of medical research time is precious for those who suffer from developing disease and for their loved  suffer with them the lack of federal support for embryonic stem cell research may cost many americans the chance for a cure or a treatment and a better life our country is in a position to do the right thing this president has done something north of the president has done before him and that is to ban federal funding funding of a certain level of medical research in this case research involving in embryonic stem cells to close off the federal funding that could open up opportunities for cures for diseases the argument made by the president is that these embryonic stem cells should not be used for this type of research these stem cells are generated of course in the process of in  fertilization for couples that have difficulty conceiving a child that they want to love and rare they go to a laboratory and spend an enormous amount of money in the hopes of having that baby that is the object of their dreams th may finally come but in that process embryonic stem cells that are generated may be lost discarded unused how can it make any sense for us how can this reflect compassion for us to say that it is better to throw away these stem cells and discard them rather than to use them for research which can bring a life and hold and spare people of their suffering congress has shown the political will the passage of s five is the way to do the right thing i hope president bush will not veto this bill because if it does listening to a vocal minority he will be disregarding the health of our country and the hopes of so many who are suffering today it is time for america to move forward in medical research to find a cure is that will give us a brighter tomorrow mr president i ask unanimous consent that the following statement be placed separate in the record from my earlier statement relative to stem cell research that objection so ordered thank you mr president the suffering endure for in sudan on the continent of africa continues today just as it has every day for too many years i rise again to urge my colleagues that we must do more to end this crisis in sudan two weeks ago before the memorial day recess i came to the florida highlight some of the positive steps that been taken by congress the bush administration the business community and nonprofits to pressure the sudanese regime to end this genocide but i said then what i'll repeat once again today we must do more  that speech i heard the president to follow through on what he promised to do in april at the holocaust museum just down the street from where we meet in washington to the president's credit last week he took steps forward he tightened s economic sanctions on sudan he targeted sanctions against more individuals responsible for the violence and he vowed to push for a strong new united nations security council resolution that would further pressure the sud regime i applaud the president for his leadership but i repeat we must do more on march twenty eighth as treasury secretary paulson testified in front of the appropriations committee which i chair i asked the what resources does the treasury department need to put more pressure on the sudanese government to end the genocide is answer and i quote we'd like the flexibility to charge a larger fine because fifty thousand dollars may not be enough he was of course talking about civil and criminal penalties but violators of american sanctions on sudan should face the fact that current penalties aren't much of a deterrent it was a concrete suggestion the ministration and i agreed to accept a challenge based on that testimony more discussions with treasury department the securities and exchange commission the state department other agencies we've created the sudan disclosure and enforcement act which i will introduce today this act provides the administration and all americans with more resources and tools and information so that we can each do our part to end the genocide and bring peace to d for it creates a real consequences for those who support the sudanese regime and perhaps most importantly it requires the administration and congress to meet in ninety days to reassess the steps that need to be taken to help to end the crisis and my colleagues who are considering supporting this legislation here is what the bill will do in specifics first express the sense of congress the international community should continue to bring pressure against the government of sudan to convince that regime that the world will not allow this crisis to continue second authorized greater resources for the office of foreign assets control within the department of treasury to strengthen its capabilities  tracking sudanese economic activity and pursuing sanctions violators third required more detailed s e c disclosures by u s listed companies that operate in the sudanese petroleum sector so that investors can make informed decisions regarding divestment from these companies for dramatically increased civil and criminal penalties for violating american economic sanctions to create a true deterrent against transacting with barred su companies fifth require the administration to report on the effectiveness of the current sanctions regime and recommend other steps that congress could take to help in the crisis i'm proud to introduce this legislation with bipartisan support i particularly want to thank the ranking member of the financial services and general government appropriations subcommittee my friend and colleague senator sam brownback of kansas for all of his great work on this issue i'm pleased to be colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join this effort as we move around our states and visit parts of this country occasionally a person will come up after meeting and say to me senator what are you doing about  didn't your country america declare a genocide what are you doing and frankly aside from speeches on the floor and occasional resolution bills a very little consequence there has been much to point to i hope that my colleagues who face that same question in the same worry that the response is so inadequate will take a good look at this legislation i hope they'll join me in co sponsoring this effort we should pass this m work with our house colleagues to do same send this bill to the president the president said in april and i quote you who are of sir you who are of survived evil know that the only way to defeat it is to look at in the face and not back down it is evil he said that we are now seeing in sudan and we're not going to back down president went on to say no one who sees these pictures can doubt that genocide is the only word for what is happening in darfur and that we have a moral obligation to stop it the president i completely agree president bush has been more than two and a half years since the president called what is taking place in darfur sudan by its rightful name genocide yet even as an estimated two hundred to four hundred thousand people have been killed even as over two million men women and tiny children have been forced from their homes by violence and killing even as the violence continues as we meet in the safety and comfort of this great nation america and the entire international community have not done enough to help we must do more i think this bill moves in the right direction it gives our government the tools and i hope the encouragement to act and act quickly i urge my colleagues to support mr president i  there are many occasions when people ask whether it matters who controls the congress whether the control passes from one party to the other doesn't matter is it a change one of the fact their lives well today a piece of legislation is being sent from this congress from the u s house and u s senate and the conference committee that convened between the two provisions being sent to the president dealing with stem cell research called the stem cell research and answer the act that really does demonstrate there's a difference in who controls united states congress this wouldn't have happened and didn't happen couldn't have happened under previous congress but it did happen now on the way to the white house is a piece of legislation called the stem cell research and hence for that now i know that there are some who say well what it what does this mean to our lives well the research in stem cells is some of the most promising research in medicine that we have seen in our lifetimes we have a lot of people in this country today who are suffering they suffer from dread diseases they suffer from alzheimer's they suffer from parkinson's disease cancer heart disease diabetes so many ailments and so many difficulties research occurs in this country to try to address these issues and find cures unlock the mystery of these diseases one of the most promising areas of research has been stem cell research now the president has indicated that he does not support federal funding for certain kinds of research and stem cell he says that he will veto this legislation i hope he changes his mind he has a right to veto the legislation we then would try to override that veto but i think could be a significant setback if the president vetoes the legislation this legislation deals only with a specific area in stem cell research it deals only with stem cells from embryos that were created for fertility purposes at the in vitro fertilization process those embryos that are created in the in vitro fertilization clinics they create more of those embryos that are needed and then they throw them away if they're not needed we have had about one million people walking on this earth now in the last twenty five years that were conceived in many cases in a test t process of a need for fertilization nearly a million people it was big news when the first such conception occurred but now it is relatively routine for those couples that are unable to created for the in vitro fertilization process than are used and some are then stored frozen and after a period of time when it's clear they're not going to be used they're simply discarded they are just throwing away the piece of legislation that goes to the president saying let us proceed with additional research deals only with research that would respond to the embryos that otherwise would be thrown away and to be used instead for this critical area of research rather than throwing the in vitro fertilisation embryos in the garbage it is much more life affirming i think to use them to better understand it to treat some of the devastating diseases and illnesses diabetes heart disease alzheimer's parkinson's i know that there is great passion about this issue often issue is cast in terms of when does life begin but that's not about this debate on this bill these are embryos that are about to be discarded and could instead be used to search for the cure for these diseases and to enhance life and to extend life president i'm sure that there are desks in this chamber perhaps every desk occupied by someone who knows a friend a loved one a neighbor coins that is suffering today from one of these awful diseases and a former colleague of ours ask a question i want to put it up in a chart because it is such an interesting way to address this issue one of our former colleagues was former senator jack danforth from missouri who was also an ordain equivalent to identifiable people suffering from terrible diseases i am and have always been pro life but the only explanation for legislators comparing cells of the petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension him here in the united states senate and i think it puts it well the president's science advisor some health advice or rather i don't have the quote i was going to use the this is from nancy reagan let me use this nancy reagan says quote science has presented us with a whole called stem cell research which may provide our scientists with answers that h long been beyond our grasp i just don't see how we can turn our backs on this there are just so many diseases that can be cured or at least helped we have lost so much time already and i just really can't bear to lose anymore nancy reagan we know of course that her husband the late president ronald reagan suffered from alzheimer's disease in fact he sent a message to america in which he announced that he was suffering from alzheimer's disease and he entered into a long long period of darkness from this terrible disease that is affecting more and more people in our country mr president there are about four hundred thousand embryos frozen in in vitro fertilization clinics estimated that about eight to eleven thousand of these embryos are going to be discarded thrown away this debate is about whether we should with the consent of those who own those embryos or from whom those embryos were created with their consent whether we should use these embryos that would otherwise be discarded for research that has the potential to cure a lot cure diseases and save lives in north dakota she has recently come to washington d c with her mother she's young woman that suffers from diabetes a very significant form of diabetes she's had a pretty aggressive time dealing with it her name is camille camille johnson this is a picture of camille with her clarinet her two friends and play in the middle school band camille has nearly lost her life and more than one occasion as a result of having to battle this disease and her mother and the and camille have told me it's fine to use her picture because she has worked very aggressively in the juvenile diabetes area to try to address these issues and say to the congress won't you please won't you please give us the opportunity to proceed with stem cell research and unlock the mysteries of these terrible terrible diseases and still there are thousands there are millions of camille's and people with different names young and old who rely on this kind first and rely on this president to do the right thing knew who's the director of the national institutes of health for this administration he says quote from my standpoint it is clear today that american science will be much better served and our nation better served if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell lines that's from the president's own advisers on these issues and yet the president says that he is going to veto this i care deeply about this issue for a lot of reasons i lost a beautiful twenty three year old daughter to heart disease and i decided not just for her sake but for the sake of others in my family that are gone as a result of devastating diseases that we must do everything everything possible to find a way to cure these terrible terrible diseases that take so many lives some say well you know you don't have to use these embryos there are other things much more promising adult stem cells there are adult stem cells you can use well the fact is we have been working on adult stem cell research for decades for decades and  yet while i support that it doesn't show nearly the promise that embryonic stem cells show in the ability to respond to some of these diseases let me just go through a couple them one day i was on an airplane and i was talking to to a man who is called the father of the human genome project dr francis collins he told me of some fascinating research was going on they induced heart attacks in mice severe heart attacks in mice i believe as i recall the read does and a half or two dozen mice they induced severe heart attacks and then they extracted stem cells and invested those sems to stem cells back into the heart muscle of those very same mice and in a matter of weeks a good number of those mice at fact i think the majority of those mice had no evidence of a damaged heart these were hearts that had been severely damaged and in a matter of weeks the investment of stem cells that could build a new heart muscle those heart showed no evidence of damage at johns hopkins university paralyzed rats partially regain the use of previously immobile hind legs in studies where they injected the rodents with stem cells from mouse embryos university of wisconsin they've turned stem cells into nerve cells carrying messages between the body and brain offering possibilities for repairing damage caused by a o s by spinal cord injury and other nerve related disorders u c l a at the aids institute they were able to coax human embryonic stem cells into becoming mature immune to cells this discovery might suggest new ways to fight immune disorders such as hiv and aids until now it's impossible to study the complete progress of alzheimer's disease which robs both memory and life we don't know how or and the human beings themselves and find a cure for this terrible disease the ability for embryonic stem cells to transform into any cell type gives them the potential that adult stem cells simply do not have they haven't been that we have not had the capability with adult stem cells that we have with embryonic stem cells so for those patients in this country who are struggling and are suffering today with these terrible diseases looking to the congress looking to to science to say don't don't lock in areas that prevent research from continuing to expand opportunities for research yes with ethical guidelines yes with the sensitive understanding that there are issues you have to resolve but proceed don't stop them proceed ahead to conduct this research and give us hope there are so many patient groups and scientific organizations and foundations and others that support this federal research and i know that they too believe what congress has done here is a breath of fresh air it is the right thing to do and i know they hope that the president will not keep his promise to veto this legislation that's one promise he should not keep it is exactly the wrong thing for the president to do by a wide majority of the american people believe that rather than discard those embryos rather than simply throw them away they ought to be used for life affirming research with the consent of those from whom they were created that's what this bill does it's why this bill is so important and as i and let me say again for those who wonder is there any difference does it matter who controls the united states congress the answer is yes it does and this piece of legislation is a good response to that we couldn't have gotten this done in the previous congress we did now it's an important piece of legislation this is about giving life affirming life saving li e and my hope is that the action today by which we move this legislation from a conference committee to the white house will be seen as great hope for a different approach and a more aggressive approach on this stem cell research and my hope is the president will take another look at this and decide that what we have done is the right thing for us and especially most especially for those in this country who have waited so long for this kind of approach taken by the united states congress on stem senator from massachusetts is recognize mr president i suppose that those that have been interested in this legislation like all of us are been wondering about what has been going on through the course of the the afternoon  think they probably been seeing the intermediate actions which have been taken of the requests that have been made by the majority leader and the response and even as the time is moving along there are efforts to try and sort of find some common ground in consideration of republican amendments as well as some of the additional democratic then as we made last couple of weeks and i think we've made a good progress but we know that there are still a number of outstanding issues for our colleagues have we had hoped that we'd be able to address a number of those during the course of this afternoon but as we saw or when the leader had made a request that there was a draft objections to proceeding in that way but we're not giving up and  colleagues on the other side feel that way as well i thought i'd just take a moment mr president and i just review some of the essential aspects are you for sort of how we got here with this with this legislation and basically the highlights of it i think it's fairly familiar to the members but i think it's always useful to have  understanding about the nature of the challenge that we're facing the dramatic challenge that we're facing in terms of our board is that in terms of our national security and briefly  review for our colleagues here what we have a tried to do with this legislation so often the said debates in the last days of just focused like a laser on a very specific aspect and we lost the central  and the purpose of this legislation and perhaps even the need for urgent action and there is a need for urgent action and the need is now the need is today the need is tonight because of the kinds of millions of americans of undocumented and in fear their their future and it's also threaten to undermine agreements that have been made in the egg to jobs area  and the last opportunity that there would be for many of those that might be eligible for the dream act so i thought i'd just try and put this into some proportion of mr president and just take a few moments to review again where we are i think one of the most dramatic statistics that we see is reflected in this chart these are deaths due to on authorized border crossings and if you look over the period of the last five years you see that these numbers continue to go up to continue to escalate the number the fact that there are four hundred and twenty five this  men women including children including infants that die every single year on the border that's a dramatic figure under any set a set of circumstances and the numbers are going to continue if we have failed to take any action there those numbers are going to continue to escalate they reflect the number of deaths at the border they don't reflect the several hundred thousand  individuals that are able to come across the border and what happens when these undocumented come across the border more often than not we find that these individuals  as the rest of the undocumented population undergo extraordinary exploitation we have on the floor here in this picture of a situation that took place my own state in new bed fairly recently several weeks ago and it's fairly typical there have been these kinds of raids on these types of places in other parts of the country this is a replicated in scores of places all over this country as we find that these undocumented now that we estimated be twelve thirteen million of them suffer the exploitation that we have so far in bedford massachusetts in this particular plant mr president these illustrate what is going on at this plant these workers rights were trampled on these individuals were fired for going to the bathroom denied overtime pay docked fifteen minutes pay for every minute they were late to work fired for talking while on the clock forced to ration toilet paper which typically ran out before nine a m look at another industry this is virtually the garment industry you can look here in the documented workers in the meat packing industry they're exploited one in ten workers are injured every chair by the sharp rocks knives exhausting example a line painful damage from repetitive motion and that's the whole ergonomics issue workers are subject the chlorine myths that lead to bloody noses bobbing and headaches undocumented workers don't report their injuries because they live in fear that they will lose their jobs and be deported the life of fear that is taking place and existing is replicated in communities all over this country we have these several hundred thousand individuals across the border we don't know who they are we don't know their names they are living in different places in our country this subject to this kind of exploitation and they pose a national security issue at a national security problem we have the exploitation of these because we have the desk that take place in the desert and we also have a national security problem with hundreds of thousands of people coming across so this issue is a national security issue it is  a national security problem and this mister this to check mr president gives you some idea of what we are doing what we have included in this legislation we've increased the border patrol says eighteen thousand agents with the craig amendment it's more than twenty thousand now it has the board of various two hundred miles vehicle barriers three hundred seventy miles of fencing radar camera towers u a b that has  status the department homeland security security a process the applications in terms of security so we are coming to the issue of law enforcement and security national security national security protecting our borders and law enforcement we're going to develop a process this legislate it is about respect for the law law at the border law and the employment law for those individuals who are here and an undocumented there are going to have to live with this law which ensures that they are going to suffer a penalty if they expect to stay here live here and which i will mention here but we are have a virtual lawlessness out there on the border that is a threat to our security a lawless mess in so many areas of employment which is preventing the exploitation of human condition and we have this extraordinary atmosphere of fear twelve and a half million at least individuals that live here and fear because they are illegal we are trying to legalize the process we are trying to get respect for the law and tried to ensure national security so we do that as we mentioned mr president we do it at the border which is important as i've mentioned during the course of the said discussions  the one thing that we have learned after hour after hour after hour after hour of hearings on this matter is that just doing a border protection is not enough if you're able to put eight hundred miles of fencing along the southwest border as has been pointed out by governor the pilot town who is the so familiar and others who have made their views very very well known you have to not only have a is going to be the ladder will always be a little taller you have to have strong law enforcement but you're going to have to have internal employment in force meant as well work site enforcement as we don't want to repeat one nine hundred eighty six one hundred eighty six legislation was signed into law by president reagan and enforced by a republican administration from one thousand nine hundred sixty one nine hundred ninety two i voted against that legislation for many of the reasons that i'm mentioning now you had absolutely no workforce enforcement no none at all no requirements virtually and we had you see the problems that we had we  this system and we have in this legislation as i pointed out previously addressed those kinds of problems that to lend themselves to fraud during after the one nine hundred eighty six but what we have mr president is tough enforcement in the workplace and we have inspectors close to a thousand inspectors that are going to go in and look at these in these employment sites and make sure that the kind of work the kinds of protections which are guaranteed under this legislation are going to be respected we are going to insist that it with a any kind of employment program that they are going to get the protections of the prevailing wage and those are the not going to be taken by surveys that are by day by day done by the private sector there will be done by the bureau of labor statistics will have protections under osha will have protections under workman's compensation and will have crystal blower protection in this legislation for any of those individuals that are working in those sites we're going to have for the first time the whistle blower protection for those individuals should there and we are going to have a thousand inspectors that are going to be inspecting those work sites to make sure that individuals who are well are going to come into this country that their rights are going to be preserved at the present advertise before applying for work or lawyers must hire any qualified american applicant before applying for a temporary worker temporary workers restricted the areas where the high unemployment and employers conduct at the american wages by paying less for the temporary worker workers now we know that for the for the temporary workers they would be treated under the labor laws and to those protections they are not now because we know the borders are broken and we if we don't pass this legislation that's going to continue that's the alternative because of exploitation that exists now in so many communities the fear the exploitation the harassment the driving down of wages which threaten american wages all of that exists so mr president we have ensuring again for respect for the law law coming into this country law at the border a lot the work site and law in transition this chart here mr president is a good explanation whether it's made by secretary chertoff he's as said this many times forstmann alone will not do the job of securing our borders enforcement of the border will only be successful in the long term couple with a more sensible approach to the ten million twelve million illegal aliens in the country today and the many more who will attempt to migrate into the united states for economic reasons what they are saying what we have heard from the department of homeland security time in time out and that is there has to be a comprehensive approach to this issue we have to bring people out of the shadows they are going to have to pay a penalty we insist that they pay a penalty then rather than letting them go to the front of the they have to go to the end of the list in order to begin a process if they are able to demonstrate the payment of the penalty if they did demonstrate that they can learn and willing to learn english if they are able to demonstrate that they have a long work experience and if they can demonstrate that they are involved in their community activity we know seventy thousand permanent resident aliens are serving in iraq and afghanistan since these wars started seventy thousand of sent them so we know mr president that so many of these families that are coming here why do they come basically and what are their their values what  values that we that we consider positive here in the united states we admire people that work hard we admire that that is an important factor and that is essential in terms of the achievement of the american dream we admire people who are devoted to their family and their children we find so many of these undocumented why do they come here because they want to have a better life for their children how do we know that because we know there's more than forty billion dollars that are returned by these immigrants to the countries of central and south america every single year and these are individuals that are making a total of ten thousand dollars forty billion dollars they return to that  work hard devoted to their children devoted to their face and have an extraordinary dedication to their parents and to their grandparents caring for them those the positive qualities which all of us admire but on the other hand they broken the law and so therefore they have to pay a penalty why did they break the law because we have the magnet the american economy drawer and on in here note that magna doesn't pay any penalty these people risk their lives to get in here they suffer the risk of exploitation and even through all of that they return the resources back to their family but it is the magnet of the american economy but still we're making  not the employer not the bagman the american economy but they make an extraordinary contribution sure there are some bad apples but they make an extraordinary contribution the immigrants just as all of our parents or grandparents  of this of this country so this is what we have done mr president now we have seen what has happened at the border now we talked about what is happening in terms of the employment situation now we know what is going on  terms of the distinction between the past and the present this is the those individuals the twelve and a half million people that are here this is the explanation of what they call the c eligibility enter the united states before january two thousand and seven remain employed continuously present not a national security threat there has to be a review they have to register for eighteen months make sure that they are registered and not any national security threat no serious criminal record in or out of the united states we have outlined that we've got into some detail an explanation and earlier kinds of  a state impact assistance the five hundred dollars and a penalty of a thousand dollars all of that mr president three thousand dollars and that is not even getting you down on the road towards a green card and citizenship the five hundred dollars twelve million people six billion dollars goes to states that have the great impact to help them in terms of offsetting any of their burdens dish no burdens in terms of health care and education that is not an insignificant amount of resource and we went through during the yesterday's tax discussion debate how by and large these individuals are healthier and we also win some degree about how they have utilized the health care systems in there and shows that that is affectively of an incidental additional kinds of expense expense comply with the selective service submit fingerprints underground background checks and must get them back to the green card back to the live what does all of that mean it means that for all of those who have been waiting in line about four billion million people that are have relatives here  petition for them to come into the united states many of them without this legislation would have virtually no opportunity to do so they will have that opportunity to come into the united states over they had a two year period and then after that eight year period these individuals that we have discussed here could begin to move depending on their their work record and their participation and their sense of community could get on the path towards a green card and then it takes five more years of the citizens the earliest we're talking about maybe thirteen thirteen years fourteen years before they would be able to have that opportunity for citizenship more distant than that for the majority of the people missed and all the time behave the law they have to pay the kinds of penalties that will be included mr president just as i see because other colleagues have come on the floor and wish to address the that we have in creating a educational pathway for the children of the undocumented we know that the children that come in here are coming in here at the action of their parents we e students expanded students other students from other cultures and traditions in terms of the education experience having a good education opportunity for children in this country is key  to our national security key to the success of our economy key to the success of the hopes and dreams of these children too often half of the children from the hispanic tradition drop out before they are ever able to be successful but we know that others who complete the educational system and graduate in my home state of mass two says we have seen so many and lol in lawrence new bedford in fall river that have children that are from undocumented families that end up being the valedictorian is the president's the class the extraordinary student leaders and then the opportunity comes for the continuation of the education and is virtually closed down because they denied any kind of opportunity for continued education and under the dream act this gives them the opportunity for for instate help and assistance and that is what this bill is about to mr president it is about a ho coming there to arrest them and deport him and separate their families and send them back after they've been here for even for a number of years i don't know how you measure that we don't hear much debate or discussion about that everything seems to be pretty cut and dry around here but that is a major factor how many of us have been met the that some of these individuals the un documented as i did just a three day four days ago returning here at the airport and talked to a person been here twenty eight years his two brothers have been here twenty eight years the other two brothers have been able to get their green cards he had not and he talked about the fear that he and his family have even at this time being arrested and being deported mr president in this legislation is another extremely important provision and that is what we call the ag jobs bills i see the senator from a california here senator feinstein of those done such an extraordinary job in helping to bring this part of this legislation before the senate again with the senator craig who i commend for his diligence and they have been the real leaders in this  this proposal i think for many of us mr president that go back to the time of the program i can remember be member of our committee in the early one nine hundred sixty s when we had the hearings in southern texas and also in california about the percent a program a few times in our history did we have that kind of exploitation of the individuals slavery certainly slavery is but after that the present wrote exploitation was one of the darkest sides of american history in the exploitation of individuals mr president there's a number of blemishes that are out there we could talk about those american indians and others but this was really one of the very worst and we took a time to get rid of that and we did get rid of that and then we went through a longer period of enormous tension between the workers and the growers and i think we all remember the extraordinary contribution of sais that chavez that the dignity gave to so many of these farm workers and that kind of tension has existed for years and now finally the recent months recent years there's been an agreement between these two very strong groups of individuals who are who are committed in their own ways to their own views and philosophies they have come together and they have agreed on a pathway that will ensure an agricultural success and give these work is a respect and a dignity which they have been denied it's called the jobs bill a great of that credit goes to our colleague in the house howard berman congressman berman that spent a great many months and years in terms of helping to pass that legislation has had sixty five sixty six co sponsors but we've been unable to get that the united states the senate the ratification of that program is included in this legislation this legislation passes this message that it sends to about nine hundred thousand agricultural workers who exploited and to their families is the fact that over the period of the next eight years two they're going to have to work and continue to work hard they can work in agriculture they have some opportunity to work outside of agricultural to they have to play by the rules demonstrate that they're paying their taxes and work hard and pay the kinds of fines and penalties here but they have some opportunity to move forward after all these years to get a green card and then five years later the possibilities of it so it's enormous period of hope for all of those individuals so mr president that this legislation really is about dealing in a tough way with a tough problem and that at the border and we do that by taking the best advice best recommendation to best suggestions from the best people who know about homeland security and we have done that and we have worked closely together and i don't think there's any difference on that and we need to have  in terms of the workplace here and we haven't done that and achieve that we can go into how that can be further achieved but it has been and we have talked about that we have also mr  president provided the pathway for earned legalization after it these individuals pay the fine significant fines in many sense fines for the average family that makes about ten to twelve thousand  dollars that represents years of their own kinds of salaries they have to go to the end of the line have to demonstrate a good solid work experience they have to earn earn erd the ability to adjust their relationship here with our country but as we have seen as we have seen we know these families we've seen them in our churches we've seen them in our shops we've seen them in the armed forces of the united states of america and they serve with great pride and great dignity and they want to contribute and be a part of the american dream like everyone else and we're giving them out opportunity if we vote no on this legislation we're dampening in canceling that opportunity and we're returning to the low other juggle because that's what it is it's said jungle on that border the jungle on that border and every day we have we continue without this legislation we have these well trained well discipline don't pass this legislation they'll continue to be looking out after the landscapers instead of the terrorists instead of the smugglers and instead of the those set of threaten the security of the people of this country that said we have to make a judgment sometime we have to make a decision sometimes has to be a phonology we have debated this issue this is on the floor of the united states senate for two weeks were debated last year for two weeks where not just coming at this legislation for the first time we have debated just about every feature of this program somewhat different from last year but the themes are the same the arguments are the same the amendments are almost the same so the only question is the will of this body and the will to make a judgment decision that we are going to clean up our borders get a sense of law in terms of those borders and in the employment areas get a respect from the law from those that have been on documented here that they are going to pay their price to the sense of hope to the young people of the future that can benefit and give a sense of dignity and pride to those that work in these fields across this country in agony so mr president this is going to be an important vote to this this evening and if we're talking about a vote about america's future this is it this is it this is it tonight  we can all find the excuses we all find a reason to say no we can all find a different aspects of this legislation that we differ with but underneath it mr president this is a proposal that is deeply rooted in remedying one of the great national challenges that we have broken borders and a broken immigration system and this legislation is a down payment that the without objection senator from new hampshire mr president i had the opportunity to listen to senator from massachusetts presentation which as always was extraordinary you know one of the people i  such a long period of time is beyond me i certainly couldn't do it and you just have to respect that that ability and he is clearly one of those great legislators in the history of this body i felt that when he went quite so great many occasions about it in any event he much of what he says makes sense on this issue and he is in his commitment to it is obviously intense and thorough and i admire  it the point that he makes which is that we now have a dysfunctional system and that there is basically chaos of in the immigration system in this country relative to illegal immigrants being in this country and the borders being remaining regrettably reasonably porous although they have tightened up over the last few years is very very legitimate and this bill is an attempt to genuinely address those issues in a number of areas not i've made the discussion of this bill that from my standpoint the good piece of immigration legislation has to accomplish centrally for things first has to do is make the borders secure there's no reason that we cannot secure date justice committee i tried to commit major new resources in this effort and there was a consensus do that in a bipartisan effort to do that and we have dramatically expanded the number of agents on the border the technology on the border the detention bed capability but we still have a way to go and actually i think the first amendment adopted or the second amendment adopted it seems like an eon ago but it was only a week ago was offered to this bill which would bring the numbers the commitment in numbers in this bill in the area of border patrol agents in the area of detention beds in the area of electronic fencing and regular fencing along the border up to the up to what was the consensus position is that what was needed in order to secure the border and so this bill now has it the language necessary question is do we have the capacity to put that in place but that goes back to the trigger which is in this bill and the trigger in the bill says until that's in place none of the other language can go into force which deals with guest worker and and illegal immigrants and how they and how we regulars rise there their status here in this country so that issue has i believe in this bill been effectively addressed and then with the meme and i offered input in the proper position although it's more can be done in the area of how you define the trigger and and  certainly there are proposals floating around here which will be voted on i think which i'll support which will deal with the funding to make sure the funding can dry up as a result of the annual discretionary process but that's been addressed the second issue is you have to have an effective guest worker program and to have an effective guest worker program you have to adjust the third issue which you have to have in forstmann at the employee employer meeting place so that the employer is hiring people who are effectively in this country legally and are not able to hire illegal aliens people who've come into this country illegally and those two issues are intertwined and the bill does address the issue of employer employee meant through strict enforcement and the requirement for identification card which is going to be a very difficult thing to accomplish but again it's a trigger nothing in this bill goes forward as i understand till that triggers met and secondly the guest worker program there's no way that we can have an effective immigration process around here unless we take some of the pressure off the fact that we have an economy that demands people to work in this economy above and beyond what we have as a citizenry in our country today there simply is a demand in our nation for people to come here and work and it should be done under a guest worker program so that those folks who come here and work go back and they know they're coming here as to participate in the worker program not to be here permanently and that will relieve the pressure at the border significantly if we have that it's a big part of border security and border security of course is important not only from a standpoint of controlling who comes in the country but is critically important from  standpoint of dealing with the threats we face as a country from terrorism so a good and effective guest worker program is critical now unfortunately this bill as well fortunately as this bill was originally drafted it did have such a good program it had a guest worker program with a significant number of guest workers worn a thousand it had a guest every year and had a guest worker program that was properly structured and fortune as a result of the memmott process around here that guest worker program has been fundamentally undermined in its present structure it really as last was pointed out last night when the dorgan amendment passed senator morgan from north dakota us mammoth task that was a somebody the killer amendment it was a fatal amendment to this bill if it stays in place it makes the guest worker program essentially well useless all you'll be able to do is bring guest workers in for ragu cultural activity and they will be limited in that area and the gues workers who are needed in other functions of the economy whether it's in the resort industry or we're just simply on the day to day activities of functioning as a nation are going to end up being is going to be pressure on it for them to get in here illegally again and and test really undermines the purpose of the bill so unfortunately that was done in the big of an amendment prior to that really did a lot of damage to the guest worker program so that really hasn't worked out as well as it should but hopefully it can be corrected and the fourth element that i've talked about is that how you deal with this pathway and you deal with the issue of people who are here illegally i mean we're not going to as a practical matter take twelve million people or maybe even fifteen million people who are here illegally assuming we could even find them and deport them i mean that's just simply not going to happen in our culture we wouldn't tolerate it and as a practical matter we couldn't do it so what we need to do is figure out some way to get those people from out behind the shadows so that they are publicly identified as being here not only from a six from a standpoint of dealing with them and from a standpoint of the national need but from knowing who is here but from a standpoint of national security in this bill attempts to do that and it's got some flaws in that area but it also has some strengths in that area they've been outlined in the discussions that's been extensive and so i won't get into it in specifics but those four items are the items which for me were the test of how this bill goes forward but as i call areas always for items there is a whole scene behind immigration which i think is critical and which there's specific language in which needs to be dealt with and one of the themes behind immigration besides having a secure border and having a guest worker program that works and making sure that we take the pressure off of having people come into this country illegally is the need to go around the world and take the best and the brightest who want to come to america and let them in to participate in our economy and make our economy more vibrant we've had hearings on this issue and there's a certain obviousness to this issue i mean if you if somebody is in india or china and those are the examples most often used but it could be in czechoslovakia or it could be in poland if somebody is has an advanced degree of some nature or a high and it is highly educated and has a capacity to contribute to our economy why would we want to leave that and want to come here why would we want to leave that person in those countries as a competitor when we can bring them here and have them actually be a job creator this is you know we hear a lot about outsourcing in these debates that we've had over the last election cycle where we're sending jobs overseas if you bring a person who has unique talents that our nation needs and it is an adjunct to rather than a replacement for people who are already here that creates jobs that person is a job center and in fact it was interesting we had bill gates testify before our committee and this is exactly what he said now here's a guy who probably done more to make the american economy vibrant over the last twenty twenty five years now twenty years than any other person alive i mean he is the individual who essentially transformed our economy and made us the leader in the world in what it was the leading issue in the world which is technology and he comes to the before the committee and he comes before the country in general and he says listen we need to bring these people here because they're being developed in these other countries and if we don't bring them here if they want to come here and take advantage of their abilities then they're going to do it somewhere else and i don't want the next bill gates to be in china or in india i want the next bill gates to be right here in the united states creating jobs and the point is when you bring these folks in they create jobs here and so one of the programs we have to do this is the h one b program this is a program where we say specifically if there are companies in this country or businesses in this country or colleges in this country or for educational school facilities in this country who need talented people and they can't get them here in this country because we don't have the pool necessary then they can bring people in from outside the country who have the talent to do those jobs and most of it is in computer science most of the h one b applications forty five percent are computer science people the next biggest group of teachers lev percent i think are teachers and so industries businesses entrepreneurs and colleges and schools that need these folks to make their businesses work and to make give them the opportunity  jobs whether it's in new hampshire or washington state or across this country need to be able to attract these people into the country but the h one b program for some reason has opposition and doesn't make any sense to me because i look across the aisle and i say this should be a logical thing for both sides the out of the support of us i mean the concept of bringing in sourcing jobs versus outsourcing jobs ought to be something very attractive the other side of the aisle the concept of bringing intelligent people here is going to create opportunity should be attractive both sides out there seems to be some undercurrent that they're taking away american jobs they aren't in fact they're adding to american jobs in fact the national science foundation  pointed out that we need these type of people that were werewolf really short of the people in the math science and technology areas and we're not producing the numbers we need to out of our own university system so why not go overseas and see if we can find these people to come here and dissipate and in fact there's such a demand for these people that on the present law there are only allowed sixty five thousand of these applications every year plus twenty thousand add on for a highly talented people the first day that the applicants opened under forty thousand an april second i think it was one hundred forty thousand applications came in to fill the sixty five thousand dollars to sixty five thousand available slots my own view is we should have taken all hundred forty thousand if there was a if they were legitimate and brought them here i mean how many jobs that five probably multiplies ten times as probably a million a half jobs we could have created just with bringing those folks in here but under the present law we are limited now this bill represents it increases that number to from sixty five thousand one hundred fifteen thousand but here's the drop it knocks out the twenty thousand specialists so actually the increase is rather rather marginal compared to what we really need in this country to take care of the concern that we have plus unfortunately this bill creates layer after layer of bureaucracy in addition to the bureaucracy which already exist and a cost on top of the cost that already exist as a result of the number of amendments on this floor which makes it more difficult to get these folks in the country and in addition the bill creates a new standard which it is makes absolutely no sense absolutely no sense which says that the skill of the individual relative the talent as a as a physicist let's say as an astrophysicist has to match up a good actually with the job that's available that's where we're at it credibly fungible and it is really for this president i think the majority leader has already have a request he wished to make i'd be happy to suspend if he did mr president i apologize my distinguished friend but i do have let me tell everyone within the sound of my voice no tricks what i'm doing here is trying to protect those people who feel that would be to the advantage of the country and the senate if we got a bill this doesn't change any of the things i've said privately to senators or publicly but basically what i'm going to do is send some couple of amendments the desk so that there are some control over amendments are offered this will allow those of us who feel there should be a bill some control over the next amendments offering again no tricks and i have learned everyone the best that i can what i was going to do and i hope this works out well you know i'm confident we're doing the right things so i call a second degree amendment which is at the desk the clerk will report working different rooms in this building trying to come up with some way for us to move forward on this we've tried on a number of occasions this afternoon to have amendments we started it known six and a half hours ago we've been forded every attempt and so arriving at a point now where i hope that there can be an agreement as to how we proceed if not we'll proceed anyway in a manner that i hope will be in keeping with what intent of the democrats and republicans and white house i do say in this interim this afternoon i've had some interesting calls from people who care a great deal about this bill is present one of the choice experiences of my life was a year ago my office right back here on a saturday we were debating immigration and i had the good fortune to meet for the first time we they were very interested in doing something that would help the immigration problems that they see on a daily basis i had the good fortune speak to both of those good man during the past  the reason i mention that meeting last saturday is some people know i'm not a member of the catholic faith have the greatest respect in the world for catholics best friend i ever had my life was a devout catholic went to church every day you know he was governor of the stain of that i was lieutenant governor he taught me how to fight and he was my best friend taught me in high school he died in church church every every day went to church one morning i was hit on the shoulder and die for somebody who set such a great example for christianity and goodness it could be a better way for this good man michael kellyanne to die but reason i mention that is meeting was breaking up and there was some staff there my said and i have the good fortune being able to meet with prominent people on occasion but there's a special meaning for me not like to be able to tell my children and grandchildren about this meeting so before we go out the press and we say a prayer together said a prayer for our country when he finished and that was one of the really highlights of my life most present when it was over hard like kerik said well he said i'm not going to be able to tell my children grandchildren about this but i can tell my nieces and grand nieces about this so mr president during the six math hours we've been away from the floor are a lot of good people working on a way to finalize this legislation and i hope that everyone understands that the efforts that i mean just now is not in an effort to trick anybody or deceive anyone it's an effort to try to move this legislation forward  applicant who has an advanced degrees that his degree match identically with the job really is a new requirement that is a hurdle that is unnecessary and is counterproductive to getting talent into this country and i don't understand why it's in here and it should be taken out before this goes much further because clearly in our society there is tremendous mobility within the disciplines and if you're trained as a physicist or astrophysicist you're going to be able to do a lot of things in our society and move within the job area and under the course the rules of an h one b application you've got to be able to move in a way that you're not displacing americans so that that's just a very difficult issue if we keep that in here and in addition but in addition there's been attacks on the h one b program that claim that there are warehousing of these types of folks i guess that's  probably a projected but that's the term that i think is used involving many indian companies that basically collect a large number of people together with these degrees and then basically get all the applications for h one b and use them in that manner and this bill corrects that but we continue to hear that complaint from the other side from a couple of folks on the other side of the aisle and not necessarily because they're on the other side of the album because these oppose the h one b program and really that's a red herring this is this bill correct issue so that shouldn't be read against this and we know for a fact that we need these types of individuals in our country and that is a huge advantage us for us to draw them into this country so i would hope that before this bill goes much further that we correct the problems that are in this bill releve the h one b program and make it a much more expansive program and make it a much more flexible program and one which will allow us to bring these talented people here so they can create jobs and make our economy stronger along the lines of what bill gates has suggested is necessary and which i strongly endorse and i know the senator from washington the junior senator from washington senator  cantwell has an amendment in this area i have a member in this area i've been i've been sort of a go on going on the assumption that senator cantwell is which is a little broader amendment than mine be the one that would move forward and i understand being held up on the other side must say if it continues to be held up it's going to be a problem for me i had this is an important amendment we least deserve a vote on it at the minimum and i would certainly hope that that would occur and as covariate of this discussion i want just highlight like some of my a quick concern i have with the merit system i think a marriage system is exactly the approach we should take and the point system is exactly it was approach we should say by still don't understand why somebody who's worked as an agricultural worker for five years gets the same number of points as somebody who has a physics degree even more points actually than someone who has a physics degree it just seems to me that if you know wait this properly in america system based system we're not talking the gues worker program here we're talking the merit system falls or the we're not talking the the ag jobs falls we're talking the merit system proposals in america system what we should be looking for is talented people whose abilities are unique in that we need in this country and and that's why there shouldn't be this strange allocation of points which makes no sense at all in the context of the purpose of the marriage system i hope that would also be changed so mr president on balance of the things that concern me about this bill two of them are moving in the right direction which is border for security and the issue of pathway but but the things they're really concerned may continue to be the guest worker program and how we're going to and how we're to handle the h one b issue and so the jury's still out to put it quite simply on this bill there needs to be a lot more time spent on the amendment process so we can find out how we're going to end up working this bill through the process is a complex still it deserves significant time on the floor and it deserves to be have a proper discussion with amendments that are put forward by people who didn't happen to be in the negotiations for the grand compromise because those guys did a good job those folks did a good job negotiating but they didn't necessarily touch all the bases that are kind of concern to many of us and mr president at this point the floor the president the senator from maryland thank you very much mr president earlier today the other body passed s five the embryonic stem cell research bill by a vote of two hundred forty seven to one hundred  seventy six this legislation offers hope for literally one hundred million people in our own country but i think that the individual families the president and i had a friend in mol school very cats who died of a l s if you've ever seen someone who suffered from that disease you know how cruel it can be so today i think of larry katz and i think of those individuals who are suffering from diseases in which embryonic stem cell research holds out hope of a cure or a way of dealing with these diseases i think of jobs josh was a young person who was on the beaches and delaware wave hit them picked them up turning upside down fractured his spine quadriplegic today he has hope that he'll walk again and he exercises and works out every day keep his muscles in great shape but he wants us to meet him halfway he wants us to give the tools to the scientists so they can look at ways in which we that's being done at research institutions in this country i'm proud of the work being done to johns hopkins university and my own state a university of maryland medical center and looking at a las looking at spinal cord injuries looking at all simers and heart disease and parkinson's and diabetes and looking at embryonic stem cell research as perhaps finding the answer to these diseases dr john  dr douglas kerr at johns hopkins that helped me to try to understand what embryonic stem cell research could mean that taken paralyzed mice and i've been able to get movement by injecting embryonic stem cells into life yes the united states has been the leader in the world on research we have seen incredible discoveries in this country and yet today we are seeing researchers leave the united states because of the restrictions on embryonic all research they're going to other countries where those restrictions do not apply robbing this nation and robbing the world of the collaborative research that could be taking place and the reason quite frankly dates back to august the ninth two thousand and one when president bush issued his executive order we have a lot more information today than we did in two thousand and one to present two thousand and one we thought there were sixty to seventy stem cell lines available the researchers could use we were wrong as any but twenty two lines are available most are contaminated we don't have the diversity that you need in order that scientists can really look at embryonic stem cell research and get the best potential of that type of existence sets up the ethical framework to do the proper research can create embryos for the purposes of sale for research has to be in existence today has to have the consent of the don't an is the right thing to do for this country is the right thing to do to give hope to one hundred million people in this country and now it's passed this body to pass the other body we have a bill that provide the right balance for us to move forward as the world leader in medical research doctor elias ani the director of and i said from my standpoint is clear today that american science will be better served in the nation will be better served if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell live lines doctors are honea is our leader on this issue in this country so mr president we're now with another crossroads where we can take a choice and move forward so america can continue to lead the world in appropriate research to try to end the misery of suffering states don't let your vetoes stand in the way don't do it move forward with a bill that is bipartisan a bill that has been vetted properly in the among all communities bill that we understand provides the right framework for research in this country we had that opportunity if only the president will sign this bill allow our scientists to do the appropriate work to help the people of this nation and literally help the people of the world mr president i urge the president united states to sign a slide that will shortly be presented to him at this point i have been informed that the senator from california does not intend to use her time and i am prepared to yield the floor and i would suggest the absence of a quorum the clerk will call the r colleagues talk about the immigration bill and we apparently will cast a another cloture vote this evening and perhaps votes beyond that depending on how that cloture vote turns out but i  because of a number of statements by colleagues this evening i wanted to make a couple of comments there's the suggestion i guess by a number of our colleagues that the plan that was brought to the floor by what is called a grand bargain or the grand compromise a group of people self appointed i guess who spent a lot of time in rooms together with the white house accompanying them and produced a plan that they brought to the floor of the senate and said here's our immigration plan and oh by the way if you try to change it you will destroy it and so most members of the senate were not part of these meetings and not part of this grand compromise and a number of us have offered amendments a number of our colleagues have tried to offer amendments thinking of senator webb for example who's waited now for two weeks to offer an amendment it is problematic whether he'll even be given the opportunity to offer an amendment but he wasn't part of the group wasn't part of the grand compromise thinks that he could improve the legislation but because those who have brought the bill to the floor have done so with the arms locked together believing that anyone that could try to improve on their work would be destroying their compromise we have people that are not able to offer these amendments there's also some implied suggestion here that those who do not support this grand compromise are not sensitive to the issue of immigration are not willing to look and understand that there's a real serious problem here that needs to be addressed and nothing could be further from the truth in fact while i have substantial difficulty with the plan that is brought to the floor of the senate i think it is a flawed plan  but i happen to think that immigration is a very serious problem in this country the first an obvious answer to our immigration problem is to try to provide some real border security we have about twelve million and perhaps more people who have come into this country without legal authorization why most of them wanted to come to the united states of america most of them wanted to come here because they believe there's hope and opportunity here they want a job here it would be wonderful if our country having over a century lifted the middle class up with good wages and good jobs and benefits it would be wonderful if we could say you know something we've created something very special here on this planet called the united states and we'd like to share with everyone right now we of course can't do that we'd be overrun we have immigration quotas we allow a million and a half people into our country every year legally is a legal process by which we do that in addition to that we allow many many more agricultural workers above the one and a half million that come illegally but look we are on a planet here that circles the sun we have six point four billion neighbors one half of them live on less than two dollars a day one half of them have never made a telephone call one half of them don't have access on a regular basis to clean potable water it's a challenging planet with a lot of neighbors and live in great difficulty on this little spot on this planet that's labeled the united states of america we created something pretty special i've described in great length how we did it why we did it over the last century lifting america providing good jobs that pay well it's not surprising to me that on a little planet in which we all travel where a few are in india the average hour just hourly wage is eleven cents an hour if you're in china the average hourly wage thirty three cents an hour if you live in honduras the average hourly wage is thirty three cents an hour it's not surprising to me that people who are living in poverty and other countries making a pittance for a long day's work would like to come to the united states and find a job and improve their li and make a better life for them and their family that's not surprising to me and i would like it if we could say to them you know what come on join us we can't do that just thank for a moment if we decided we have a new immigration law in this country and that new immigration law says you know what this country is wide open you want to join us from anywhere anytime anyplace come on come and live with us come and work with us come and be a part of our country right now no restrictions com stay coming work we'd be overrun millions and millions and millions of people would try to find their way to this wonderful country of ours because we've created an economy that lifted standards and brought in the middle class so we can't do that we instead have a process of legal immigration that allows about a million and a half people a year to come into this country they apply their part of the quarter from their country they wait they wait a year they wait five years they wait ten years and if they're lucky they reach the top of that list and they're able to come to this country through this legal system of immigration quotas now my colleagues have brought to the floor of the grand compromise and what they have said is this well we don't have much border security we've got a lot of people coming into this country illegally we now have about twelve million people who are here without legal authorization so i'll tell you what they say we'll pass a piece of legislation that says that anyone that came to this country at least by december thirty first of last year that includes we think twelve million anyone who come here became here by december thirty first of last year you're going to be legal we're going to decide that you're here illegally and you're going to work you get a work permit you're no longer illegal your legal now we have people who overseas in their home country thought this was all on the level they applied to come to our country as part of the quota they've waited six seven eight years they discover they made a mistake they should have come here last december twentieth or december thirty first and snuck across the border someplace because then they'd be described by this bill by the folks that created this grand compromise then they'd be described as legal citizens or not so this is it as having legal status i should say well is that fair no it's not fair as of right now but more than the issue of dealing with those twelve million this legislation also says we should have more people who don't now live in this country come into this country to assume jobs with something called temporary workers or guest workers now i happen to be sensitive to this issue of those who have come here without legal authorization some have come here decades ago there are people i'm sure who have been here twenty five years without legal authorization to be here they probably raised a family they've worked they've been model citizens they've been neighbors they've been good people should we round them all up at this point and deport them of course not what should we on the other hand decide that if you snuck across the border on december thirty first good for you you're now declared illegal well i don't think so my colleague senator webb has an amendment that i think would move a long way toward addressing some of these issues in terms of the time that you have been here to try to be sensitive about those things which i support but this legislation says if you showed up last december thirty first you're given legal status but the issue that i raised last evening in the amendment that i offered that prevailed by one vote was on the guest worker provision or temporary worker provision my colleagues have said as the senator from arizona the senator from massachusetts have said you know we need to have a temporary worker provision because if we don't have a temporary worker provision to bring people in who are not now here to assume jobs in this country they're going to come anyway they're coming across anyway they'll come when there's illegal immigrants i said well i don't understand that you say that this bill would strengthen our border provide border security and stop illegal immigration now you're saying that in order to stop illegal immigration you've got to have a guest worker provision because if we don't have a guest worker provision they're going to come anyway maybe you're misrepresenting this issue of border security aren't you so yesterday the congressional budget office comes out with the report guess what they said this bill the grand compromise means that of those who come across the border illegally seventy five percent of keep coming out of this bill seventy five percent of the coming under this bill and that yet they're out here with big banners and trumpeting that this is a big border security bill no it's not it is not that but i've raised the question about american workers because there's no discussion of american workers and you know they have a role here in this debate we are told in fact my colleague from new hampshire sa there aren't enough workers in this country so we need to bring workers in the just aren't enough workers to assume the jobs that are available well that's a line that i understand i don't agree with that i understand and i understand where it's coming from we've got a lot of businesses in this country who have decided that workers are like ranches they're like wrenches you just use them up and throw him away don't worry too much about them make sure you hire them for as little as possible and by the way keep downward pressure on that income because workers are disposable if you wonder about that by the way just go back and read the paper from a few weeks ago when a company called circuit city decided they were going to lay off three thousand four hundred of their workers why  a bad workers know it wasn't wasn't at all it's a company with a chief executive officer that made ten million dollars a year and his workers made an average of i believe eleven dollars an hour and they wanted to have a workforce that was paid lower than that so they said to thirty four hundred of them we're going to get ready you because we want to rehire people at a lower rate so if you wonder about this ranch analogy just check the newspaper one of these days but we have a lot of people in this country who work at the bottom of the economic scale bottom of the ladder i told a story yesterday about a company from georgia the story was in the wall street journal this is a poultry company and i believe they had roughly seven hundred workers three fourths of them who were illegal immigrants working in that company and they were paying them a pittance i don't remember the exact wage but they were paying them a small amount of money and then they were raided and by the immigration folks and it was discovered they had all of these illegal immigrant workers and so they had to get rid of them and so then they had to hire other workers well guess what they went to the newspaper and they put want to add to the newspaper said we're not paying higher wages immediately they got a lot of applicants because they were paying better wages and so they fill those jobs two years later they began that same company to contract with one of these temporary worker groups that was able to bring together illegal workers and package them and sell them to employers and they started doing the same thing one more time why so they could down wages my point today and yesterday was that i think this is an interesting discussion about a serious problem immigration but i think there's a party that is not at the table here and that's the american worker nobody wants to talk about that we're talking about twelve million people what about one hundred forty million people what about the people this morning especially that part of our workforce this morning that got up with great hope got dressed went to work worked hard got paid the minimum wage and then finished after eight hours of back breaking work and then went to the second job and did another six or eight hours at the minimum wage and then went home exhausted because they're trying to make do with two jobs the minimum wage for their families increasingly by the way those workers are women what about those workers do they matter does it matter when you bring in people through the back door who are willing to work for lower wages that you then begin pressing down and pushing down wages in this country that matter i've spoken to great length on this floor about the larger economic interests who want to export american jobs to china and s bangladesh and singapore various parts of the world in order to search for lower wages and i've spoken to great length about the specific companies whose left are who left our country why they left where their jobs are spoken at great length about half the bicycles of the bicycles fired their workers move their production to china i know where they make up the bicycles now yes they sell them here but i know where they make them now they don't make them in ohio they used to make them in ohio all those folks got fired now they make a mention send china and they're made by people that make thirty cents an hour and they work twelve to fourteen hours a day seven days a week why do i say that because exactly the same economic interests that are searching the globe for low wages to move jobs to where they can find the lowest wage are some of the same economic interest that want to bring cheap labor through the backdoor for the jobs that are left to put downward pressure on american wages and the american worker has been more productivity more productive rather productivity has increased very substantially in the recent period and yet their wages have not kept pace and the reason is obvious because there are all kinds of ways to put downward pressure on these wages of american workers alan blinder is no radical economist his he's a mainstreamer i mean he's so mainstream he's boring he used to be vice chairman of the federal reserve board and they all wear gray suits all the time is a guy who i'm sure supports free trade supports what is called quote free trade which is kind of the montra these days but he wrote a piece in foreign affairs and here's what he said the former vice chairman of the federal reserve board he said there are forty two to fifty six million american jobs that are quote tradeable unquote which means subject to be moved offshore in search of lower wages now he said not all of them will go they won't but even those that remain here are going to have downward pressure on their wages because they're competing with others in other parts of the world that are willing to work for less my point is simple this immigration issue and guest workers is the reverse side of the same coin of the out migration of american jobs and the in migration of cheap labor this is about money it's about profits for big economic interests it's sold us something else here on the floor of the senate we're hearing about compassion boy i don't like i don't lack compassion for anybody who mistreated in the workplace and i know they are but for a moment instead of just talking about the immigrant worker who came here without legal authorization let me talk about the worker who is here let me talk about a woman that lives in a used trailer house with no running water with an outdoor toilet trying to raise four kids and walking to work for the minimum wage you know how they heat that trailer house with a wood stove with a pipe sticking out the window of the living room of a used trailer house a wood stove mind you you want to talk about deplorable conditions there are plenty of them in this country for people at the bottom of the ladder struggling just trying to get ahead trying to get a better wage a better job opportunity to be lifting up providing for their family and so there's no discussion of that here at all some tired discussion is about the other another group a group of immigrants who have come here without legal authorization let me tell you mr president my ancestry came here from somewhere else i'm a product of immigrant ancestors we all have these stories and i'm very sensitive to them and i know i want to i want people to be able to do well and to participate in this american dream of ours my let me describe one side of my ancestry was a woman named caroline who came from norway she came with her husband came to the new country and she under the homestead act homesteaded one hundred sixty acres of land what happened was they landed in minneapolis st paul as immigrants and her husband died of a heart attack and this norwegian woman got on a train with six children and went out to the prairie's of north dakota and with six children pitched a tent in homestead one hundred sixty acres of land and built a house and raised a family and ran a farm one can only think what must be in the the the inner strength of someone to do that alone in a new country all of us have these stories and they are wonderful stories about immigrants this isn't pro or anti immigrant this country is refreshed as a result of immigration has always been that's why we have a process of legal immigration a million and a half people that come here every year plus more for agricultural workers that's what this process is about the dilemma is this when i described this spot on the planet called the united states this spot on the planet is different and it's different because we created something very different starting about one hundred years ago we began to lift this country up expand the middle class provide worth to the workers of this country understanding they were part of the productive capability that could lift this country's economy and provide opportunity for more americans and we did that in a remarkable way and it was an easy i've told spoken on the floor about james filer james filer i said died of lead poisoning well actually you know he was shot fifty four times that's probably lead poisoning