To amend section 1059(e) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 to clarify that a period of employment abroad by the Chief of Mission or United States Armed Forces as a translator, interpreter, or in a security-related position in an executive or managerial capacity is to be counted as a period of residence and physical presence in the United States for purposes of qualifying for naturalization, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6223) to amend section 1059(e) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 to clarify that a period of employment abroad by the Chief of Mission or United States Armed Forces as a translator, interpreter, or in an executive level security position is to be counted as a period of residence and physical presence in the United States for purposes of qualifying for naturalization if at least a portion of such period was spent in Iraq or Afghanistan, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6223, as amended, currently under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill and thank Representative Dent for introducing it.

Many men and women put their lives at risk to serve our nation with the Department of State in U.S. Embassies abroad. They contribute directly to the security of our country.

As we have become aware, conflicts from across the globe affect these employees in countries such as Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and most recently, Libya. Our embassies have been attacked. Our flags have been burned. And our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans have been murdered.

Regrettably, service to the United States in our embassies abroad often occurs under dangerous conditions and in threatening environments.

The work of our foreign officers and agents assures us that we are kept safe each and every day. We are fortunate to have men and women willing to sacrifice and serve in the embassies. These individuals often accept posts on the front lines overseas as they serve to defend our freedoms. And for that we are grateful.

To ensure that our nation has the tools and resources it needs, such as linguistic expertise or knowledge of a specific geographic area, legal permanent residents serve the United States in critical capacities in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world.

Unfortunately, their loyalty, dedication and success can come at a price if they intend on naturalizing and becoming a United States citizen.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an applicant for naturalization must be a lawfully admitted permanent resident for at least five years, have continuous residence in the U.S. during that time and be physically present in the U.S. for at least half of that five year period.

Continuous residence is the time that the applicant has maintained official residence within the United States. Physical presence is the time the applicant has been actually and physically located in the United States.

A permanent resident may become ineligible to naturalize because they have not been ``physically present and residing in the United States, after being lawfully admitted for permanent residence, for an uninterrupted period of at least one year.''

Any departure from the United States prevents the establishment of ``an uninterrupted period of one year'' after lawful admission for permanent residence.

This means that a legal permanent resident who is serving in our embassies overseas cannot qualify for naturalization.

This bill resolves this issue. It allows legal permanent residents' time in embassies abroad to count towards both the ``continuous residence'' requirement and the ``physical presence'' requirement for naturalization.

This is a common sense change that brings certain national security professionals in our embassies abroad in line with their military counterparts. Military service members' time overseas currently counts towards physical presence.

Like their military colleagues, senior and managerial legal permanent residents who serve in embassies, regardless of duration, are now regarded as being legally physically present in the U.S. during the period they serve the Department of State.

Additionally, under current law, a person who provides translator or interpreter services to the U.S. Armed Forces or the Chief of Mission in Iraq or Afghanistan can count that period of absence from the United States toward the ``continuous residence.'' However, that time does not count towards the one year continuous physical presence requirement for naturalization.

This bill allows people who work in a security-related position in an executive or managerial capacity for the Armed Forces and Chief of Mission to benefit in the same way as people who work as interpreters or translators.

It also permits interpreters and translators who serve the Armed forces or Chief of Mission in places other than Iraq or Afghanistan to receive this benefit.

I again thank Mr. Dent for his work on this bill as it honors the legal permanent residents who serve our nation abroad and facilitates their path to citizenship. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I, again, just want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) for sponsoring this bill, and I yield him the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am here today to rise in support of H.R. 6223, a bill I introduced earlier this year as well as in the 111th Congress.

I would especially like to thank Chairman Lamar Smith for his service as chairman of this committee for the past 2 years. He has been a great leader, and I will miss him as chairman. I just wanted to thank him for his help with this legislation, as well as his staff, Dimple Shah and others, Kristin Dini from my own office. I wanted to thank them all for their support and help with this measure. They have taken a lot of time to understand the difficulty the current policy poses to highly skilled and committed men and women serving in some of the most volatile regions of the world.

As the chairman briefly described, H.R. 6223 would amend current law to allow legal permanent residents working for the chief of mission in an interpreter, translator, or in an executive or managerial security- related position overseas to count their time of service toward the continuous residence and physical presence requirement for naturalization as a United States citizen.

While this change is seemingly minor in the grand scheme of immigration policy, it is one that should be addressed by Congress--if for no other reason than to recognize the critical contribution these men and women are making for our country in the war against terrorism in unstable regions across the globe.

Quite candidly and truthfully, I didn't give much thought to this issue until a few years ago when I was made aware of the selfless and highly skilled service being provided by a constituent and legal permanent resident from Pennsylvania, George Bou Jaoudeh, who happens to be a Lebanese national working with the State Department security overseas in Iraq since 2005.

Mr. Bou Jaoudeh spends 4 months in Iraq and then 20 days in the United States. As a green card holder with a desire to naturalize as a U.S. citizen, he has been unable to meet continuous residency and physical presence requirements because of his time working abroad in support of our country in a very dangerous place, I think we would all agree.

Consequently, even though he works inside the American embassy in Baghdad, George Bou Jaoudeh has not met his 1-year continuous residency requirement, which is absurd because he is serving our Nation on American territory in the embassy. It's a shame

that we have to use legislation to address this, but that's the situation we find ourselves in.

In September, the world watched as a violent raid on our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, took the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans, two of whom have served as diplomatic security officers. Committed to serving our Nation, these men gave their lives to provide security for American diplomats in an unstable country, struggling in the midst of historic change.

There is a real enemy working to, at the very least, threaten American ideals and our way of life. Let's ensure the policies shaping our immigration laws do not create a greater hindrance to us in this fight.

With this bill under consideration today, we have the opportunity to recognize the legal permanent residents who have proven their commitment to our Nation's ideals and missions, should they be working with the State Department as executive-level security personnel, interpreter, or translator, regarding their continuous residence and physical presence requirements.

I ask the House to support this commonsense, reasonable legislation to make sure that we recognize individuals who are serving our country, legal residents who are serving in very dangerous places, serving in our State Department, that they be given the recognition they deserve and a proper pathway to citizenship.

Madam President, in the 111th Congress, I worked closely with Senator Lugar on two pieces of legislation to improve our immigration laws in small but meaningful ways. My bill, the Refugee Opportunity Act, would provide refugees and asylees more opportunity to become self-sustaining, productive members of their new American communities. Senator Lugar's bill, which I was proud to support, would have permitted lawful permanent residents to return, without penalty to their citizenship process, to

their country of nationality to assist in post-conflict or disaster reconstruction efforts. Both of these bills, the Refugee Opportunity Act and the Return of Talent Act, were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March of 2010. Unfortunately, undefined Republican objections stalled the progress for both of these bipartisan bills.

The Refugee Opportunity Act would provide relief from the continuous presence requirement in the immigration law for certain refugees and asylees. Specifically, the legislation would waive the requirement for refugees or asylees who worked overseas, if such presence outside the United States was in the service of the United States Government, within the refugee or asylee's home country, and within the protection of the United States Government. For refugees and asylees, in order to adjust from that status to lawful permanent resident status, 1 year of continuous presence in the United States is required after arrival. The purpose of the Refugee Opportunity Act was to permit refugees and asylees in the United States, who often arrive after years of persecution or displacement, to take employment opportunities overseas in service of their new government without penalty to their immigration process. The policy goal was to provide encouragement for refugees and asylees to take a step forward on the path to independence and self- sufficiency while assisting the international efforts of their adopted country.

The legislation that Senator Toomey has introduced, and for which he has sought consent in the Senate, would provide this same relief from the continuous presence requirement in the immigration law for recipients of the Special Immigrant Visa. These visas are available to Iraqi and Afghan interpreters or translators who had served the United States armed forces overseas. The bill we pass today would remove barriers for Special Immigrant Visa holders who, after receipt of such a visa, wish to work again for the United States abroad. Like the Refugee Opportunity Act, this bill would waive the applicable presence requirement that the immigrant must satisfy before adjusting his or her status while he or she was outside the United States. In fact, the goals of H.R. 6223 are identical to the bill I introduced over 2 years ago with Senator Lugar--to encourage new arrivals to America to work on behalf of the United States in furthering the goals of our government abroad and to remove barriers to such employment and participation.

Although I am glad that the goals of the Refugee Opportunity Act and the ideal that we do right to encourage new Americans to serve their adopted government are being promoted in the legislation Senator Toomey has sought to pass, I regret that the same cooperation and courtesy we give him today was withheld by some of Senator Toomey's fellow Republican Senators when Senator Lugar and I asked for consent on our legislation to achieve these same goals.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6223, a bill that would expand upon a small, but important provision in our immigration laws and alleviate one barrier often faced by certain persons applying for naturalization.

Under our immigration laws, a lawful permanent resident who is applying to become a U.S. citizen generally must reside continuously in the United States for 5 years. Persons who are naturalizing by virtue of their marriage to a U.S. citizen or battered spouses or children may naturalize after a 3-year period of residence. A person must also be physically present in the United States for at least one-half of that time.

In 2007, Congress enacted a law to ensure that when a person works as an interpreter or translator in Iraq or Afghanistan for the U.S. chief of mission or the Armed Forces--either directly or by contract--that time should count toward the ``continuous residence'' requirement for naturalization.

This makes sense. Why should we penalize a lawful permanent resident for choosing to provide critical translation or interpretative services in Iraq or Afghanistan by saying that the person failed to reside continuously in the United States?

Today's bill builds on that commonsense provision in law in three ways:

First, it eliminates the geographical restriction in current law and says that time spent providing qualifying services to the U.S. chief of mission or Armed Forces anywhere in the world should be considered for naturalization purposes. Lawful permanent residents provide important services to our government all around the world, and it makes little sense to limit the provision only to service in those two countries.

Second, the current law applies only to the work of translators or interpreters, but lawful permanent residents assist our chiefs of mission and Armed Forces in a variety of important ways. To the current list of qualifying jobs, this bill adds certain high-level security- related work.

Finally, although the provision in current law only allows the time abroad not to count as a break in the ``continuous residence'' requirement for naturalization, this bill would allow the time also to count toward the ``physical presence'' requirement.

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his work on the bill. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H.R. 6223.

I now ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.