Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. I would like the Record to show that had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the rollcall vote No. 12.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House

Chamber yesterday. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 662 and 663.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. I would like the record to show that, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 664.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. I would like the Record to show that, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 659, 660, and 661.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 652, 653, 654, 655 and 656.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber yesterday. I would like the record to show that, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 628, 629 and 630.

When I was a school teacher, I never knew how well my kids were doing until I gave them a test. That's when you find out what you've really learned. We need to have a test right here today in this Chamber. We need to test our tolerance, our fairness, and our sense of justice. We need to vote today on the DREAM Act.

Will we pass that test? Will we get an A or an F? Those who will grade this test are watching. A generation of young people are hoping. Their futures are riding on whether we pass this test. Their families and communities are watching to see how we do on the test. Our Nation wants to see if we are compassionate, if we have the courage do what is right.

This is a pass or fail test. Our kids, our young people, they have all passed. They have worked hard. They planned for a better future, and they love this country. They love America. Today, I urge my colleagues not to fail these kids and to reward their love by the passage of the DREAM Act.

Mr. Speaker, I come here this evening to say to you, yes, let's give the DREAM kids an opportunity. They are American in everything but on a piece of paper. They are just like my children and your children. So I say, too:

Give them a chance. Give them the opportunity--the opportunity this Congress will not give their mothers, who are today finishing toiling in Salinas, California, picking the fruit; their mothers who are in sweatshops in New York tonight, finishing their labor; their mothers who are in meatpacking plants in Iowa--sweaty, under terrible conditions.

That same despair and inequity and unfairness and injustice that their mothers suffer, let's say that this Congress will not allow them to suffer. Let's say that their work, their sweat, and their toil will be responded to by this Congress by saying their children will not suffer the consequences of the inaction and unfairness of our immigration system.

We know that there are millions of undocumented workers--their parents--who work and sweat and toil every day to make this Nation greater. They were wrong about the Irish. They were wrong about the Italians. They have been wrong about immigrants in the past, and they are wrong about the immigrants today and about these children of immigrants.

Let this Congress stand as it has stood before for immigrants. I stand here today also as a Democrat, as a Democrat who understands that the rule of law must also be conditioned by justice and fairness and compassion. I stand here in the same manner as we have stood up when the rule of law said to a woman, You will not earn equal pay, and in the same manner as when someone of sexual orientation has been abused, and we say, That will not be tolerated.

When there is someone without health care, we say we will provide health care. We look at the rule of law, and we see homeless and we want to provide housing to them. And today, just as we have faced that unfairness and those inequities in our system, we have come here, yes, to support the rule of law, but to change the law when it is unfair. Today, change it for this generation of young men and women. We must stand up for them.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. I would like the Record to show that, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 581 and 582.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 566, 567 and 568.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent for votes in the House Chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 532 and 533.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent from the Chamber. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 531.

Mr. speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House Chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes Nos. 467, 468 and 469.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 448, 449, and 450.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained and missed the first series of votes in the House Chamber today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 415, 416 and 417.