Floor Statements

Mr. Chair, as the designee of Ranking Member Lowey, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chair, I acknowledge the work of the appropriators. As an appropriator myself, I have great respect for the work that they do. But I have concerns about the bill that is before us on the floor today.

Mr. Chair, as you know, a budget should be a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a Nation should be how we allocate our resources in that budget, and its manifestations in terms of appropriations bills should not be doing harm. This is really a partisan spending bill that tramples over some of our American values, gutting smart investments in our economy, hurting Americans' health, and endangering families.

The Republicans are pushing forward a minibus appropriations bill that fails to protect the interests of the American people.

Many of us have been attracted to the political process--as moms, as parents--to effect public policy to promote the well-being of our children in ways that are beyond our own control. We can give them all the love, attention, and care, but we cannot guarantee the quality of air that they breathe, the cleanliness of the water that they drink, and the world in which they live in terms of the environment.

So I have very serious concerns about the danger posed in the Energy and Water portion of this bill. It cuts vital clean energy initiatives, even as gas prices surge because of the President's reckless policies. It attacks job-creating investments in transformational energy technologies and slashes funding for critical nuclear nonproliferation priorities.

In terms of the children of whom I spoke earlier, this GOP bill also includes unacceptable poison pill riders that permit deadly firearms to be carried on public land, assaults the clean water our children drink, encourages pollution of our oceans, and pushes our Nation's already endangered species toward extinction.

This bad bill is a first step in the Republicans' plan to choke off funding--and this is really the critical part of it for me--for vital Democratic priorities for America's families later in the appropriations process. It paves the way for their plan to starve key investments in health, education, and good-paying jobs for communities across the country.

Mr. Chairman, the Republicans are wasting everyone's time when we should be focused on meeting the urgent needs of the American people. The majority has spent this entire Congress stacking the deck for special interests, as they do in these poison pills in this bill, while undermining the interests of families.

The Democrats are focusing on what matters in the lives of the American people. We are committed to giving the American people A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Pay, Better Future; and for our children, not to promote air pollution, which is what this bill would do, but to eliminate it.

I urge my colleagues to join in voting ``no'' on this bill for our economy. You know what the sad part of it is: it is so close to doing a better job for the American people. The poison pills take it in a bad direction. The process under which it was put forth is harmful to other priorities that I know we share in a bipartisan way across the aisle.

Hopefully we can work more closely as we go forward in a bipartisan way. That is the tradition of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I commend her for her extraordinary leadership in protecting the American consumer, the American taxpayer, our American financial systems. She has been just a remarkable, wonderful leader.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished Whip for yielding so that I could stay on schedule and for his great leadership as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, and I do so on behalf of the hardworking American people. It is a bad bill under the guise of helping community banks.

It rolls back key safeguards for American consumers, it opens the door to lending discrimination, and it potentially threatens the stability of our financial system and our economy.

The bill would take us back to the days when unchecked recklessness on Wall Street ignited a historic financial meltdown. Wall Street gambled with the livelihood of consumers, and then it was the middle class that lost its shirt.

I just want to share with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle why I have serious concerns about what is happening on the floor today. It is yet again another weakening of Dodd-Frank.

Here is what I want to call to your mind, because you may not remember this or you may not have been fully aware of it, but you should know it.

On the night of September 18, 2008, I called the Secretary of the Treasury and said: What is happening, that we have had in the past couple of weeks Lehman, Merrill Lynch, and then in that 24-hour period, AIG? I said: Can you come to the Capitol to explain tomorrow morning what is happening so that we can help restore confidence to the markets and not say anything that would do anything less than that?

He said: Madam Speaker--I was Speaker at the time--tomorrow morning will be too late.

Tomorrow morning will be too late. Why am I calling you?

So, in any event, the Secretary of the Treasury came to the Capitol for an emergency meeting. It was a bipartisan meeting, House and Senate, to inform us that a meltdown was imminent.

What he described to us that night was so stunning, he took us down to the gates of hell, to a place so deep that even Dante would not have had a name for that circle in hell, because it was so stunning in terms of what was happening, the meltdown that was happening to our financial institutions.

When I asked the Fed Chairman, who was also at the meeting, Ben Bernanke, what he thought, he said, ``If we do not act immediately, we will not have an economy by Monday.''

``An economy by Monday.'' We thought it might be one or the other financial institutions. ``We will not have an economy by Monday.''

To stop the meltdown, the Bush administration requested and Congress immediately passed emergency funding, the TARP bill. You may be familiar with it.

To prevent this from ever happening again, we passed Dodd-Frank, the most extensive banking and financial reforms in decades and the strongest set of consumer financial protections in history.

And since the Republicans have taken the majority in the Congress and now in the White House, there has been a series of weakenings of Dodd- Frank. So you cannot just view this bill as this bill today, bad enough as it is, worthy of a ``no,'' unworthy of support, but to see it in light of a series of weakenings of Dodd-Frank.

The bill dismantles key safeguards that are critical in combating racial discrimination in lending, despite overwhelming evidence that people of color are routinely discriminated against by financial institutions. All year, the GOP has opened the door to discrimination in our financial system. This is just another discriminatory piece of legislation.

They pushed a CRA to roll back protections against discrimination in auto lending. They voted to repeal an executive order requiring Federal contractors to comply with basic nondiscrimination laws. Big banks are also using the guise of protecting community banks to help out the largest banks on Wall Street.

The bill exempts 26 of the largest banks from the Dodd-Frank Act's heightened oversight. Since 2007, these same banks have been sued or cited by the regulators nearly 200 times and paid settlements of $40 billion, some of which they can deduct from their taxes.

Republicans are also using relief for community banks as a way of undermining the Volcker rule, threatening the stability of the financial system and the entire economy.

Republicans' willingness to abandon vulnerable Americans and jeopardize our entire financial system to further enrich wealthy Wall Street banks is astounding. Today, the FDIC reported that banks, helped by a massive tax cut, earned record profits in the first quarter of this year, as they have over the past 3 years as well.

Time after time, Republicans put Wall Street and the rich first and families last. The American people deserve a Congress that looks out for them, not one that sells out and leaves them high and dry.

This is a raw deal for the American people. Americans deserve a better deal, better jobs, better wages, and better futures. Democrats are fighting to put that economic power back.

Who has the leverage? Put the leverage back in the hands of America's great middle class, America's working families.

So just remember what they were willing to do leading up to 2008. They have forgotten, or maybe they don't care, but they want to take us right back down that path one piece of legislation at a time.

If I know Mr. Hensarling, there is probably more to come, because I understand he doesn't think this bill goes far enough in the wrong direction, and he probably wants more.

But whatever that is, today is the judgment we have to make about this bill that our commitment--and by the way, some of the things they want to roll back are very harmful to our veterans as well, and they wanted me to be sure to make that point with you, in addition to all of the other concerns.

It is a threat to our financial system: $250 billion, I think that number is too large; the exploitation of the custody banks that some of the banks already told me they were going to try to pass themselves off as; the discrimination in lending that is in the bill; the lack of revealing the information, which is so central to knowing what the facts are.

Mr. Speaker, for these and so many other reasons, I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I especially thank him for his exceptional leadership over the years to honor the historic collaboration that has always existed in our country between urban and rural America that is in all of our interests that our farm countries succeed, and that is in all of our interests that the American people are not food insecure. So I thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, for your outstanding leadership on behalf of America's farmers and hungry families.

Mr. Chair, this bill is just a mystery to me because we have tried so hard over the years to work in a bipartisan way, to come together to write a farm bill that does honor that historic collaboration--urban, rural--meeting the nutritional needs of the American people, and encouraging the economic growth in farm country. This legislation does not do that, and I have some questions as to why.

Some of the questions came to mind last week when I was on a farm in Iowa listening to hardworking men and women talk about their challenges with this farm bill: that it does not bolster or preserve the farmer safety net; that the bill reduces investments in agriculture research, conservation, and rural development; and that it cuts nutrition assistance that so many there, even in farm country, and in our country rely upon.

When I was in Iowa, as I said, last week, I had the privilege of meeting a wonderful woman named Julia Slocum. Julia works two jobs. She is a third-generation farmer and a part-time librarian. Over the years, she has relied on the lifeline of SNAP to put food on the table during difficult times, a farmer relying on SNAP to put food on the table.

I challenge House Republicans to explain to Julia why they are abandoning hardworking people like her, abandoning her twice by gutting the farmer safety net and by cutting SNAP.

This bad bill steals food off the tables of children, seniors, students. 1.5 million of our veterans rely on the nutrition provision of this bill.

It is not just our veterans. That would be reason alone to be concerned, 1.5 million. But 23,000 of the families of Active-Duty servicemembers need to have food stamps because they are food insecure--and they are hurt by this legislation--individuals with disabilities, working families, our seniors, students, children. Children.

Democrats have always supported work initiatives for those who can work. Let's be clear: This is not a jobs bill. SNAP returns money to farmers, to our economy, and to the Treasury, creating $1.79 for every $1 in benefits, and supports more than 560,000 jobs across the country, including 50,000 in agriculture.

Republicans are contending that they are investing in jobs. They are not investing in jobs. They are creating a bureaucracy and ignoring initiatives already in place to measure what really works in relating food to jobs. And they are wasting billions on new bureaucracies that would take decades to implement and that would increase hunger and poverty across the country.

It is no wonder that so many faith-based groups across the country view this bill as one that does not reflect the values of America. Again and again, Republicans try to ransack the lifelines of working families to pay for handouts and to enrich the already wealthy. This bill abandons America's farmers when they are in a tough spot.

The farm economy is struggling. As you know, farm prices are plummeting. More and more families are in danger of losing the farm, and that was before the Trump tariffs invited retaliation from China. Yet Republicans are creating a self-inflicted crisis farming communities can't afford and they can't control.

I challenge House Republicans to explain to farmers and ranchers why they propose a bill that weakens the farmer safety net when we should be protecting family farmers--soybean, corn, wheat, pork, and specialty crop growers--from self-inflicted damage of Trump's trade brinkmanship.

Explain why this bill slashes hundreds of millions from rural development initiatives, cuts small business loan guarantees, and adds new layers of bureaucracy to high-speed broadband grants when we should be investing in self-sufficiency for small towns.

Explain, my Republican colleagues, why this bill eliminates funding for on-farm energy initiatives and biofuels when we should be embracing the American farmer's role in making America sustainable and energy independent.

Explain, my colleagues, why this bill creates new loopholes for millionaires, multimillionaires, and billionaires to receive farm subsidies when we should be investing in the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

For the sake of our children, families, and hardworking Americans such as Julia, for our veterans, for our servicemen and -women, Americans with disabilities, we must return to the table and craft a balanced, robust, bipartisan farm bill as we have done in the past and the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Agriculture knows is possible.

We must return to the historic, decades-long bipartisan solution that weds our farmers and our hungry families together. Republicans must put aside politics and honor our responsibilities to 16 million men and women of agriculture and the nearly 41 million Americans who are food insecure. That is why I urge a ``no'' on this dangerous bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Sister Kathleen Healy, who passed away on April 21, 2018 at the Sisters of the Presentation Motherhouse in San Francisco. Sister Kathleen was a woman of great faith, and lived her faith by performing works of loving service to all of those in need. She was a great source of spiritual inspiration for me, my family and our community.

A native San Franciscan, Sister Kathleen was born into a loving Irish family who instilled in her their strong Catholic Faith and commitment to social justice. As a Sister of the Presentation for seventy-five years, Sister Kathleen was a compassionate champion for immigrant rights, and a voice of conscience for alleviating poverty and suffering in our immigrant communities, particularly among those who are elderly and disabled.

Sister Kathleen was a founding member of The Lantern, a ministry project serving the immigrant community of San Francisco through hospitality, education and advocacy. In 1974, she began her ministry with Saint Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in San Francisco where she served for over 30 years. In 2006, working with Saint Anthony Foundation, she visited the poor in residential hotels in the Tenderloin and provided social services in the Dining Room, where my family and I volunteer every year during Thanksgiving.

In 1946, Sister Kathleen began 28 years as a Catholic school teacher in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, and served as principal at Saint Agnes School in San Francisco from 1962-1968.

Sister Kathleen served with Father Peter Sammon, Director of Family Life for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, from 1979 to 1983. During this time, she became one of the original organizers of the Sanctuary Movement, founding the San Francisco Organizing Project and joining several delegations to El Salvador and Guatemala to support their peoples' struggle for justice.

Sister Kathleen prepared for her ministry by earning a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Education through the University of San Francisco, a Master's Degree in Theology through Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, and a Doctorate in Ministry from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.

Sister Kathleen's life was a blessing. She was predeceased by her parents, William and Hanna Healy, and her devoted sisters, Sister Nancy Healy, Sister Doreen Healy, Sister Maryann Healy, and Mrs. Honora Lowe. She is survived her beloved nieces, nephews, and cousins along with their families. May it be a comfort to her family and her loving Presentation Sisters that so many share in their grief at the loss of this remarkable saintly woman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a trailblazer, change-maker and beloved leader: San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Doris Ward.

Doris was a woman of extraordinary spirit and positivity who never let a closed door deter her. Throughout her 40 years of leadership--at lunch counters and on the NAACP's Metropolitan Council, as a school administrator and a community leader--she fought fearlessly to knock down barriers to equality and justice.

A former teacher herself, Doris was a passionate advocate for our schools and believed deeply in the power of education to help all Americans climb the ladders of opportunity in our nation.

Doris was a pioneer, making history as the first African American to serve as President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As a leader of our city, she both embodied and championed the San Francisco values of equality, fairness and respect for diversity. Her strong leadership to expand affordable housing, support minority-led businesses and improve oversight of the police force continues to ensure that San Francisco remain a welcoming home to all.

Doris was a great friend to our most underserved neighborhoods, and a great inspiration for women, communities of color and young people across our city and country.

San Franciscans have been blessed by the leadership of Doris Ward. We will deeply miss her warmth, positivity and joyous spirit.

May it bring some measure of comfort to Doris' many friends and loved ones that so many remember and celebrate Doris' life and legacy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a great American patriot, Pete Peterson, who passed away at the age of 91 last month.

Born to Greek immigrant parents in America's heartland of Nebraska, Pete rose from humble beginnings to contribute to our Nation as a public servant, statesman, business leader, and especially through his philanthropic and policy work.

Pete was a clarion voice for fiscal responsibility and a strong moral conscience in Washington, working tirelessly and always reaching across party lines.

For Pete, building a bright economic future for the next generation was his patriotic duty. He understood that he was so fortunate to have lived the American Dream, and he wanted that same opportunity available for every man, woman, and child in our Nation.

Economic policy leadership was a defining thread running through his life, including in his roles as Secretary of Commerce, the head of major American corporations, and the founder of respected policy organizations, including the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Peterson Foundation.

Pete's prophetic voice on the importance of fiscal sustainability brought together generations of policymakers, no matter their political background, to find common ground and effective solutions. His strong moral leadership to ensure our children and our grandchildren inherit a healthy fiscal future leaves a remarkable legacy.

Mr. Speaker, anyone who knew Pete will attest to his wit, generous spirit, and personal warmth that made him a pleasure to be around.

Pete signed The Giving Pledge and committed the bulk of his personal fortune to philanthropic causes. His legacy will endure in many ways, but especially through the work of the Peterson Foundation, which continues to focus on solutions to America's fiscal and economic challenges, now under the leadership of his son Michael.

The loss of Pete will be deeply felt in Washington, in the Nation, and around the world. May it bring some measure of comfort to his wife, Joan Ganz Cooney; his children, John, Jim, David, Holly, and Michael; and all his loved ones that so many grieve with them during this difficult time.

I knew and loved Pete Peterson, and I know he loved his family above all. He was a great American, who loved our country as well.

Mr. Speaker, last night was a sad day for America. Today, our Nation mourns the passing of a beloved American; a bold advocate for family, for literacy; and a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, First Lady Barbara Bush.

Mrs. Bush has brought dignity, civility, and spirit to everything she did. Her strength--of character, of her principles, of her faith--are a great gift to our Nation.

Barbara Bush was a woman of exceptional grace, with an unmatched spirit--again, that spirit--and talent and skill for bringing people together. She was not only respected, but adored by so many across our Nation.

Barbara Bush leaves a living legacy in the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the deep spirit of volunteerism she championed on behalf of children and families. All who knew Mrs. Bush saw her immense love and pride in her family. She was a beloved matriarch for her family and a matriarch for America, and she always put family first.

We hope that it is a comfort to President Bush--73 years of marriage, wow--former President George Herbert Walker Bush, that our thoughts and prayers are with you and your children, including President George W. Bush. She was the only woman in America, apart from Abigail Adams, who was the wife and mother of a President.

Our prayers are with her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, whom she loved, and the entire Bush family.

We want them to know that so many share in their grief, pray for them at this sad time, and are grateful to them for sharing Barbara Bush with the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I think this may have happened to me at the funeral as well when I followed John Lewis at the podium. What a task. I thank the gentleman for being such an inspiration and thank him for loving Louise so much as we know she loved Brother John as well.

Aren't we proud of Paul Tonko and his relationship with Louise, a friendship that goes back to the State legislature many years ago in New York.

Louise came 31 years ago to the Congress. He came more recently, but his

friendship goes back longer. So dear was he to her.

So here we have Louise--and I don't have a magic minute, so this is not an 8-hour proposition in high heels, although I would love to do that for Louise any time--but let me just make some wishes. I wish you could have all been in Rochester for Louise's memorial service to hear her grandchildren talk about her.

As a grandmother myself, and any time I go to a service now, I think: What do the grandchildren think? What do they know about their grandmother? Do they know how much their grandmother loved them? Louise's grandchildren do and did. Hopefully we will be hearing more from them.

They spoke magnificently about her personally--not so great about her cooking, not that day anyway. But, anyway, they just loved her so much.

She was about the future, but she had a tremendous respect for the past as well. So when many of us, Brother John, visited her in Rochester, we would go to Susan B. Anthony's home to see where so much of women's rights began. She would take us across the borderline of the district to see where it all began at Seneca Falls. She took such ownership of our suffragettes and her responsibility to carry forth their courage and their possibilities for the future.

She was a Southern belle with a Southern charm and a Northern timetable. So you never wanted to waste too much time not giving in to Louise because eventually she would have her way. Save yourself some time: Whatever you say, Louise.

She was a beautiful person to serve with. Many of our colleagues want to speak about her. I will have another opportunity tomorrow, but I did want to add my voice, once again, to our colleagues', as we speak about her with great respect, admiration, and affection that is about Louise Slaughter.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to note that Mr. Cohen is a member of the Judiciary Committee. This is a balanced budget amendment, and what is interesting is it is not coming by way of the Budget Committee, as you might suspect; it is coming by way of the Judiciary Committee because it intends to amend the Constitution of the United States. How sad.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, Members of Congress take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Yet this proposed amendment we are debating does great harm to our sacred founding document. This legislation is a brazen assault on seniors, children, and working families--the American people we were elected to protect.

Make no mistake, this GOP con job has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. It is not balanced in terms of money because of their GOP tax scam that has placed us in a bad spot fiscally, and it is not balanced in terms of values. To the Republicans, fiscal responsibility just means ransacking Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and breaking our Nation's sacred promise of dignity and security for seniors and families.

Republicans like to pat themselves on the back and pay lip service to the principle of fiscal responsibility. In fact, the deficit hawks have either become an endangered species or extinct. They don't seem to exist in this Republican House of Representatives. It may be counterintuitive to the public, but Democrats have always been the ones who have fought to put our fiscal house in order. In the 1990s, President Clinton put us on a trajectory of job growth and smaller deficits despite inheriting the massive Reagan/Bush deficits. The last four--some would even say five, but, conservatively speaking, the last four Clinton budgets were either in balance or in surplus. President Clinton handed President George W. Bush a projected $5.6 trillion, 10- year budget surplus, but Republicans squandered that surplus with massive tax cuts for the wealthy and two unpaid-for wars. Their spending sprees exploded a vast, new $5 trillion-plus debt that was an $11 trillion turnaround from the Democrats' path to surplus.

Under President Obama, then, Democrats restored responsible spending rules. We had pay-as-you-go: Do you want to invest in something? You must cover it. You must offset it or pay for it. That held true for investments as well as for tax cuts. Republicans didn't mind paying for food stamps, but they did mind paying for tax cuts for the rich; that they wanted to have exempted from pay-as-you-go.

But despite President Obama's restoring responsible spending rules and slashing the Bush deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, this Republican Congress has raced back toward fiscal ruin, recklessly erasing that progress and exploding the debt with their contempt for fiscal responsibility.

Republicans exploded deficits by another $2 trillion with their GOP tax scam and its massive handouts to corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent. Just this week, the CBO exposed the staggering cost of the Republican special interest agenda, forecasting deficits of nearly $1 trillion or more every year President Trump remains in office.

Understand this: the Trump trillion-dollar deficit is here for the life of his Presidency. May that be short.

Yet Republicans have the nerve to demand that seniors and little children sacrifice to pay for their tax cuts for the rich and corporate America, for their fiscal recklessness. GOPs have nothing but contempt for the health and security of America's families. The Trump budget slashed half a trillion dollars from Medicare, $1.4 trillion from Medicaid, and $72 billion from Social Security disability benefits. Why? So they could give a tax cut of $1.5 trillion to corporate America. With the interest that it incurred, it would be over a $2 trillion deficit, paid for by cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Their legislation priorities add to a mountain of utter, utter derision, disregard, and disdain for hardworking families, from slashing SNAP, food stamps, to gutting consumer protections for seniors and servicemembers, our men and women in uniform, to sabotaging America's affordable, quality healthcare.

And now, with this constitutional amendment, the Republicans found another cynical tool to gut the bedrock guarantees of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The so-called balanced budget amendment, which is going nowhere--it won't even win the vote on the floor today-- this is engineering, budgetary engineering, designed to slash Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

As the AARP warns, the GOP balanced budget amendment, so-called, would subject Social Security and Medicare to deep cuts that would be, in

their words, devastating for millions of Americans. The American people cannot afford Republicans' fiscal hypocrisy and their relentless efforts to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security--I can't say it enough--just to enrich the special interests.

Democrats know that investments in the health and strength of the American people are the best ways to reduce the deficit and grow the economy. In fact, nothing brings more money to the treasury than investing in the education of the American people: early childhood, K- 12, higher education, post-grad, lifetime learning for our workers.

Democrats will continue to cut the deficit, create good-paying jobs, protect American families with a better deal, better jobs, better pay, a better future for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee for yielding this time, but, more importantly, for exceptional leadership. To her and to the other members of the committee, Mr. Frelinghuysen, I thank them for their leadership as well. And to the chairs and ranking members of the subcommittee, all the members of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Hoyer and I and Mr. Clyburn are from the culture of the Appropriations Committee, and we know that, left to your own devices, the appropriators can get the job done.

It is not until the leadership rains its poison pills on the process that the delay sets in. And I want to thank Congresswoman Ranking Member Lowey for ridding this bill of so many of those poison pills.

Mr. Hoyer very eloquently presented the situation as we see it now that the Republicans have this bill. They didn't even have three days. It was last night to today, and here we are on the floor with a yard--a yard--of bill. And he said they are rushing because people have codels, trips, fundraisers, and this and that.

I contend there may be another reason why they are rushing it through. First of all, they don't want anybody to know what is in the bill, because this is a tremendous victory for the American people in terms of what Mrs. Lowey was able to negotiate, in a bipartisan way, on the domestic side. We all take an oath to protect and defend our country, so the defense investments are important to our Nation; but one-third of the domestic budget is security: homeland security, veterans affairs, State Department, antiterrorism activities of the Justice Department, and the list goes on.

But it is also a fact that we can measure the strength of our country not only in the important military might and security measures but also in the health, education, and well-being of the American people; and this bill goes to a place for that.

So yes, a yard of bill, certainly not read or read to the Members. But I contend, in addition to Mr. Hoyer's list of why they are rushing this to the end instead of having this negotiation take place much earlier, it is because they really don't want the Members to see what is in this bill, A; and, B, because they really want to get out of town before the March for Our Lives, before the young people come from all over the country to ask Congress to give us responsible, commonsense gun violence prevention legislation. That is what I heard about the Republicans: they just don't want to be around when these young people come to town.

So here we are. We could have had this happen weeks ago and had a much more transparent way to deal with it. But having said that, we are here, and I think it is very important to set the record straight on some of the contentions that the Republicans are making about this bill.

Let me start with the President of the United States. He has said, in one of his tweets this morning, how happy he was because he got the $1.6 billion to start the wall and more to come. That is not completely true, Mr. President. There are some resources for fencing and repairs and the rest there, but some of that money is for technology and other ways to protect our borders. We all have a responsibility to protect our borders, north and south. But if you want to think that you are getting a wall, you just think it and sign the bill.

In addition, he said he is so pleased that he got this big increase in defense. We did not oppose that. We want to have our men and women in uniform have everything they need to keep our country safe and themselves safe. But the President went on to say it is too bad he had to waste money on the Democratic giveaways. On the Democratic giveaways.

``Democratic giveaway'' is the way the President characterizes funding for our heroic veterans facing a dire shortfall at the VA. We say on the battlefield, no soldier is left behind. When they come home, no veteran is left behind. And that was part of the fight that we had in the caps fight, that we wanted additional money for our veterans.

What about fighting the opioid epidemic? Is that wasteful, a giveaway, fighting the opioid epidemic, in your districts? There isn't a person who serves in this Congress who doesn't have need in their districts for this opioid funding. And that was a major part of our fight on the caps, to get the funding to fight opioids; but the President calls that a waste, a Democratic giveaway.

Is that what he would call--he probably would call protecting the integrity of American elections from Russian meddling and attack Democratic giveaways, protecting our democracy, our electoral system, our Constitution that we take an oath of office to protect and defend.

And how about for hardworking parents who struggle to succeed and afford quality childcare, a very important part of this legislation. Democratic giveaway? No. Family values. Supporting our families. The list goes on and on. And by the way, by the foot. By the foot.

Mr. Hoyer referenced a statement made by the Speaker on the floor of the House when we had the caps fight, which, by the way, was a glorious victory for our values as a country, that we could say, yes, we want to increase funding for our national security, and, in doing that, we need to have a commensurate increase in funding for our domestic agenda, as I said, which contains many security measures.

But when that bill was brought to the floor, the Speaker came to the floor, and he made a statement, right here in the well. Well, Steny quoted what he said in the well, but in another venue he said: In order to shift our focus and get on to the next big priority, which is a DACA solution, we have got to get this budget agreement done.

That was the caps bill.

And I will say it once, Mr. Speaker said, and I will say it again, we will bring a DACA solution to the floor.

Yes. And when will that be?

Now, you will hear rumors of them saying: Oh, we offered this and we offered that. They did not offer anything that added to the protection of our Dreamers and our DACA-qualified children. So I want the Record to show the facts are these: We proposed, over and over again, a real fix that we should have in this bill because it is timely. And if you are dealing with a yard of issues and provisions, you certainly can have room for protecting our Dreamers. And that is just an indication.

Now, to lead is to take risks. The Speaker does not seem willing to take a risk with his caucus to bring a bill to the floor, any bill you want, in terms of including some bipartisan bills. Mr. Hurd and Mr. Aguilar, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and Ms. Roybal-Allard, any other bill you want. Make it clean at the Hill. Let everyone have his or her say. Let Congress work its will.

Why? Why not? And why, in light of this statement, ``And I'll say it once, and I'll say it again, we will bring a DACA solution to the floor''?

When might that be? When might that be?

So again, while we address so many provisions in this bill, wasn't there room in the hearts and minds of our Republican colleagues to insist? Because I know many of you care about our Dreamers, have publicly offered your support. Why can't you convince the Speaker to bring what he said, ``We will bring a DACA solution to the floor''?

So again, I go back to the caps agreement. It was a great victory for us in the appropriations world as to what priorities need to be addressed. As we always say, the budget should be a statement of our national values; what is important to us as a nation should be reflected in how we allocate our resources to invest in the security of our country, the well-being of our people, the future of our children, and to do so in a way that commands respect, that is bipartisan, that is done in an open and transparent way, and brings unity.

Our Founders, who were so brilliant in so many ways, were taking 8 hours to even start to talk about how brilliant they were.

But they did give us instruction. They gave us a signal: E Pluribus Unum--from many, one; from many, one. They couldn't possibly have imagined how many we would be or how different we would be, but they knew we had to be one.

And these children, and everyone in our country, these Dreamers are part of that one, and they are part of that many, and let us treat our country by honoring the vows of our Founders.

So I leave it up to Members as to whether they want to vote, weigh the equities in this bill and take the vote and respect whatever decision they make. But I am so glad that we had such an overwhelming vote on our side against a rule that undermines the regular order of the House, undermines the Speaker's own statements about that regular order.

Why?

In an attempt to keep from all of you how much investment in the future is in this bill and also to get you out of town before the March for Our Lives begins. That is why I think we are doing this so rushed. I don't know why it has been pushed to the end except for dysfunction on the part of the Republican leadership, whatever, if it's called communication with the White House.

But I will say this: This is five CRs. Are you proud of that? Five CRs. Take us to the floor with a yard-high bill, no transparency. But it does have some bipartisanship, and for that I salute Mr. Frelinghuysen and Mrs. Lowey and respect whatever decisions our Members make on this. This is a missed opportunity to show the American people that, even when we are on the right course, we can't seem to get there in a transparent way.

I say, Mr. President, when you sign this bill, you will be signing something--in spite of what you say about spending on wasteful Democratic funding, I don't really think you mean that about opioids and the rest. Set the record straight for yourself and out of respect for the people who are pinning their hopes on what this legislation will do for them.

Mr. Speaker, today, thousands of students across the Nation are walking out of their schools to demand real action to end the tragedy of gun violence. Young men and women across the country-- children, really--from coast to coast and in the heartland of America are standing up and speaking out for change. Members of Congress will meet some of them on the west front lawn to join them in saying this: Enough is enough.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished colleague from Florida (Mr. Deutch) for his extraordinary leadership, whether it is with the students, with legislation on the floor, or in the community at large to help make the difference.

Here we are, community after community, reeling from the horror of gun violence, perpetrated against our children, our families.

Our hearts ache for those in Orlando, San Bernardino, Mother Emanuel Church, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, Newtown. The list is a very long one, and it is, in addition, on the streets and in the homes across our country.

There has been too much violence and too much pain. This should not be a political issue. The American people overwhelmingly want action. A full 97 percent of Americans support requiring background checks for all gun buys, including 97 percent of gun owners. There is a commonsense, bipartisan path forward in the Congress. We can take action today on comprehensive background checks without the dangerous Concealed Carry Reciprocity bill, allowing the CDC to study gun violence, and gun violence restraining orders that empower law enforcement to intervene when someone is a threat to themselves or others.

We should all be listening to the American people on both sides of the aisle, and we should allow the House to vote on bipartisan gun violence solutions. The families and students suffering from the heartbreak of gun violence deserve real leadership in this body, not a Republican White House and Congress that are saying one thing and doing another. It is deeply disappointing that, just days after embracing the need for commonsense, bipartisan gun violence prevention, still we have nothing coming forward.

House Democrats have filed discharge petitions to force votes on the Thompson-King bipartisan background check bill with 200 cosponsors. Two hundred cosponsors for a background check bill. That is a start. That is remarkable. And also the Background Check Completion Act. Democrats will continue to press for bipartisan progress to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in our Nation.

Let me say, as we go out in a little bit to join the students who are doing their walkout across the country, an enormous thank-you to them. An enormous thank-you to them. While we have sympathy for everyone who has loss of life because of gun violence across the country--they are always in our prayers, in our thoughts, and in our determination to make a difference--the eloquence, the courage, the determination of these young people in Florida to come forward in such

an eloquent and articulate way. They have been on the other side of a gun. That shouldn't happen to our children.

So while we all respect the Second Amendment and what that means for our country, and while we all want to do something very important, we must listen. And what the kids are doing is on top of a lot of positive action taken by the Bradys, taken by every town, taken by our former colleague Gabby Giffords and her initiative, The Promise of Newtown, and all over the country. So much activity has happened, and now it has hopefully culminated at a place where the children, with how savvy they are about social media and the rest, identifying with each other across the country, will be the tipping point that will make the difference to make our country safer.

We thank them for what they are doing, for their leadership. We also thank them for taking their grief and turning it into action to save lives. And to remember how important, in all of this, the vote is.

And so I say to my colleagues, there isn't one of us in here whose political survival compares in the slightest bit to the survival of our children. These kids have the courage to come forward. We have to have the courage to vote and take action to save lives. Ninety-five percent of the American people support us supporting legislation to do just that.

As we pray and have our moments of silence, let's act upon those sentiments with real action, again, to make a difference. Again, I salute the kids, the young people. I look forward to seeing them on the steps outside on the west lawn. We will gather in the rotunda. All Members are invited to gather in the rotunda, to go outside and associate ourselves and sing the praises of these young people for their courage.

Mr. Speaker, today, we in Congress have the honor of recognizing an outstanding leader and an esteemed colleague, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. We have the esteemed honor of recognizing Marcy Kaptur as she becomes the longest serving woman in the history of the House of Representatives. And it is not just about the longevity of her service, but the quality of her leadership in the House of Representatives in so many ways.

It is fitting that we should recognize her outstanding leadership during Women's History Month. Thank you for giving us the privilege of doing that.

I know that the people of Ohio and our colleagues from Ohio here take great pride in their association with Marcy Kaptur, as with the rest of us, and are honored to call her ``colleague.''

She has left her mark in so many ways. She is the first woman ever to be assigned to serve on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. In addition to protecting the American people, honoring our first responsibility to protect and defend, she is the champion for the World War II Memorial and a determined defender of all who served there and their legacy.

Thank you, Marcy Kaptur, for that.

Marcy Kaptur has taken great pride, serving as a constant, unwavering voice for the American heartland in the U.S. Congress.

Her faith is important to her: her faith in God, her faith in her community, and her faith in our country. As a leader on the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, for example, she is a strong champion for retirees and their endangered pensions.

The list goes on and on. From childhood to pensions, Marcy has been there in the lead on the Appropriations Committee.

By the way, she is the longest serving woman on the Appropriations Committee, as well.

Later today, at a reception to which you are all invited in the Rayburn Room, I will read a letter of congratulations from Barbara Mikulski, the longest serving woman in the Congress and Marcy in the House.

It is really important to know the impact that Marcy has had on all of us. She is a person of the greatest integrity and sincerity. She knows her purpose. She knows her subjects. Her judgment is respected, and she always has a plan. Therefore, as I have said so many times, if you want to save yourself some time, just do what Marcy asks you to do the first time around.

As a granddaughter of Polish immigrants, she takes great pride in her heritage, and as with most families taking pride in their heritage, she is fiercely patriotic and loves America and works every day for all families pursuing economic opportunity and the American Dream.

Marcy, thank you for your outstanding leadership on behalf of Ohioans for sure, for all Americans, and on behalf of women, girls, and families across the country and across the world. It is an honor to serve with you, a privilege to call you ``colleague,'' and a joy to call you ``friend.'' Thank you, Marcy Kaptur.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I also thank her for her outstanding statement of values and what our country is about. I thank her for her extraordinary leadership.

I thank all of our colleagues for the unity that we have had over the months when we were having this debate about what this bill would look like.

I want to, again, read a letter that Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Clyburn, and I sent to the Speaker last night--I guess this night, because I think it is very important for people to understand the simplicity of our request, the fairness of our request to the Speaker.

It says: ``In the spirit of bipartisanship, we write to again reiterate our sincere desire to ensure that the government remains open and that the priorities of the American people are properly addressed. As you know, Democrats have been clear that we support a budget agreement that ensures that our men and women in uniform have the resources they need to protect our country and that America's middle class and working families have the tools they need to succeed. As part of this agreement, we have always expected that the House and the Senate would address the issue of DACA and our DREAMers.

``Most of our Members believe that the budget agreement is a reasonable compromise to address America's military strength and critical domestic priorities, like fighting the opioid crisis, boosting NIH, moving forward to resolve the pension crisis, caring for our veterans, making college more affordable, and investing in childcare for working families.''

Indeed, that is what the fight has been about all along. We have had to fight the resistance on the Republican side to invest in the domestic agenda. So I was pleased to hear some of our Republican colleagues talk about some of the things in this bill that we, on the Democratic side, insisted upon being there.

So, Mr. Speaker, we are writing again to request that you make a public statement regarding the scheduling of a vote on the DACA bill. That is our request. That is the request of the House Democrats that Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Clyburn sent this letter last night: ``Our request is that you publicly state that you will schedule a vote to consider the bipartisan Hurd-Aguilar bill and any other DACA bills that you wish to consider under a Queen of the Hill rule.

``We strongly believe that Members of the House and their constituents deserve the same dignity that Leader McConnell has extended to Members of the Senate'' by stating that he will allow a vote on this issue.

We asked him for his immediate attention to this issue, but we did not receive that back.

I said earlier that America is the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world.

Aren't we proud to be Americans?

And what is America?

America is a country of great people of beautiful diversity that have changed over time from the days of our Founders. ``E pluribus unum,'' they said. They could never imagine how pluribus it could be, how many, how

many different people. Yet they established a Constitution that enabled everyone the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a beautiful thing. Our country has become a more diverse country over time, but still, e pluribus unum.

In this vote today, we are just saying to pay respect to the fact that we are a nation of immigrants, constantly reinvigorated by newcomers coming with their hopes, dreams, aspirations, courage to make the future better for their families.

That is what America is about. That is what the optimism of our Founders was based on, that every generation would take responsibility. So these newcomers have made America more American.

Then who is America?

America is our great Constitution of the United States, a great Constitution, which we take an oath to support.

And what else is America?

America is a great patrimony, this beautiful land that God has given us to be stewards of. It is important to know that our country is our 50 States, the District of Columbia, and our territories.

In respect for that, I am very pleased that, in this bill, we were successful in the negotiations to get more funding for the territories, especially Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, an increase over what was in the original disaster bill.

But there are other things that are important to note that are in this bill. Again, opioids, mental health, National Institutes of Health, these are Democratic priorities that we fought for. That is why this took so long to come to fruition, because there was a resistance on the Republican side to invest on the domestic side.

So they have been increasing the defense number, which we go along with, but wanted commensurate increase on the domestic side, recognizing the domestic side for us and our budget--appropriators know this better than anyone--includes security functions, Homeland Security, the State Department, Veterans Affairs, antiterrorism activities of the Justice Department.

So there is much security on the domestic side. That is why we insisted on increasing the number, and that did happen. That did happen. That is why I am able to say in this letter that there are many good things in this legislation.

But for some reason, sometimes I think the Speaker thinks he is Speaker of the White House, not the Speaker of the House of Representatives. We should have the opportunity--I touched a nerve there, I hear--to have this House, the people's House, work its will, not be the recipients of something that might--as he said: Well, if it passes with 60 votes in the Senate and the President approves, then maybe I will bring it to the floor.

That is not a commitment.

Just let me say again what an honor it is for any of us to associate ourselves with the aspirations of the DREAMers in our country. They are so magnificent. They are a model of patriotism to our country, and all they wanted was the recognition of the Speaker of the House that they are worthy of that.

In any event, I thank the various speakers who were presiding the other day. I thank the speakers for their courtesies extended. I thank the Chair, too, Mr. Speaker.

But here it is: Yes, I was one of the four principals with the White House negotiating on this legislation. A lot of it came our way.

Do you know why?

Because nobody wants a shutdown.

This is a good bill. It doesn't do everything, but it is a compromise. But the one thing and the one message to allay fear, to build confidence, to honor the vows of our Founders that we could have done is to say: We, the United States of America, in this people's House, want to assure you that we will allow the House of Representatives to work its will.

Let the chips fall where they may, but give us a chance to allay the fear that is in the hearts of these DREAMers and their families and to remove the tears from the eyes of the Statue of Liberty observing what is happening here.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.

I thank the members of the Rules Committee, all of them, for the great service they provide to the House of Representatives, this great House of the people.

I wish that the Speaker would treat the House of the people with the dignity that it deserves by giving us an opportunity, just an opportunity, for him to say that he would bring legislation to the floor, the Hurd-Aguilar bill for one, and then the other pieces of legislation regarding DACA so that the House could work its will under the queen-of-the-hill rule.

Last night, Mr. Clyburn, the assistant leader; Mr. Hoyer, the Democratic whip; and I sent a letter to the Speaker. It said: ``Dear Mr. Speaker: In the spirit of bipartisanship, we write again to reiterate our sincere desire to ensure that the government remains open and that the priorities of the American people are properly addressed. As you know, Democrats have been clear that we support a budget agreement that ensures our men and women in uniform have the resources they need to protect our country and that America's middle class and working families have the tools they need to succeed. As part of this agreement, we have always expected that the House and the Senate would address the issue of DACA and the DREAMers.

``Most of our Members believe that this budget agreement is a reasonable compromise to address America's military strength and critical domestic priorities, like fighting the opioid crisis, boosting the National Institutes of Health, moving forward to resolve the pension crisis, caring for our veterans, making college more affordable, and investing in childcare for working families.''

The agenda that I read was what we fought for and obtained in the budget agreement. We did not object to the large amount of money that was in the bill for defense, although some had asked: What is the purpose? What is the mission?

We said: Let's go forward with that. But to keep faith with the budget agreement, we insisted that the increases in defense would be met by increases on the domestic side.

So we have fought this fight. This is a success for us to get, as I said, the opioid crisis, boosting the NIH, the pension crisis, caring for our veterans, making college more affordable, and investing in childcare for our working families. This was the fight we had

with the Republicans because they have a reluctancy to support domestic spending.

So the fact that this came to agreement after months of going back and forth on the caps, I think, is very important to recognize.

But, again, writing to the Speaker: ``We are writing to again reiterate our request that you make a public statement regarding the scheduling of a vote on a DACA bill. Our request is that you publicly state that you will schedule a vote to consider the bipartisan Hurd- Aguilar bill and any other DACA bills that you wish to consider under a Queen of the Hill rule,'' as I mentioned earlier.

``We strongly believe that Members of the House and their constituents deserve the same dignity that Leader McConnell has extended to Members of the Senate by allowing for a vote on this issue.

``Thank you for your immediate attention to this letter.''

So we haven't heard back from the Speaker on this, but I do support defeating the previous question.

One of the gentlemen on the other asked: Why would anybody vote against this bill? Why would anybody vote against this rule?

Well, because we have an opportunity right here to take matters into our own hands. Defeat the previous question so that we can take up the Dream Act.

That would be the House working its will, because we do know that the Dream Act has support on both sides of the aisle. We thank our Republican colleagues, those who have spoken out publicly, for their courage in supporting this protection.

If another country said that they were going to deport 800,000 people or place in jeopardy their protections under the law, we would be appalled. We would criticize them. So how can we, the United States of America--give me your poor--you know Emma Lazarus. I don't have to go into it right now.

But I do. We all carry it in our hearts. So I urge a ``no'' on the previous question because a ``yes'' would have allowed us to bring up the Dream Act.

I really want to disabuse anyone in this body of any idea that we are not there to support our men and women in uniform and to give them the resources they need to keep themselves and our Nation safe. But I do recognize also that what our military are protecting is the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world, the United States of America.

What is the United States of America?

It is a country governed by a constitution that has been a beacon to the world. It is a country populated by the beautiful diversity of America. It is a country that has a beautiful patrimony given to us by God, our natural beauty. Fighting for those values is what we try to do in this bill.

Why can't we extend the hand of friendship and protection to our DREAMers?

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I congratulate her on her extraordinary leadership as the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. She has been a champion for America's working families, protecting consumers, protecting the taxpayer, and doing so in a very balanced way, sensitive to the needs of all parties concerned. I am so proud of her leadership and her service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the bad bill for hardworking Americans that is on the floor today. The cynically named Mortgage Choice Act provides anything but choice. Instead, it raises costs on consumers who have few alternatives. This is yet another attempt to stack the deck even further against working families.

Mr. Speaker, this debate is another waste of time. Every day, courageous, patriotic DREAMers lose their status, and, every day, the American dream slips further out of reach. As Members of Congress, we have a moral responsibility to act now to protect DREAMers, who are the pride of our Nation and are American in every way but on paper.

I use this occasion as opposing this bill to speak further about social justice in America. The American people want Congress to pass a Dream Act:

Eighty-four percent of Americans support a path to citizenship for

DREAMers or permanent status; 88 percent of Independents back the path of citizenship or permanent status; and 70 percent of Republicans back either citizenship or permanent status.

The three Bs--business; badges, our law enforcement community; and Bibles--are imploring Congress to pass a Dream Act.

Earlier this month, I stood with evangelical leaders to call on the Speaker to bring the Dream Act to a vote for the sake of family fairness and respect for the spark of divinity within every person.

There is nothing partisan or political about protecting DREAMers. If a Dream Act were brought to the floor, it would pass immediately with strong, bipartisan support. I commend my Republican colleagues for their courage in speaking out on this, yet our DREAMers hang in limbo with a cruel cloud of fear and uncertainty above them.

The Republican moral cowardice must end. Members of Congress are trustees of the people and of our Nation.

Why are we here if not to protect the patriotic young people who are determined to contribute and to strengthen America?

So I am going to go on as long as my leadership minute allows.

I would like to speak to the Bible in Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan.

On one occasion, an expert of the law stood up to test

Jesus.

``Teacher,'' he asked, ``what must I do to inherit eternal

life?''

``What is written in the law,'' Jesus replied, ``How do you

read it?''

The lawyer answered: ``Love the Lord, your God, with all

your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with

all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.''

Jesus responded: ``You have answered correctly. Do this and

you will live.''

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus: ``And

who is my neighbor?''

In reply, Jesus said: ``A man going down from Jerusalem to

Jericho. When he was attacked by robbers, they stripped him

of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half

dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and

when he saw the man, he passed on to the other side of the

road. So, too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw

him, passed on to the other side. But a Samaritan, as he

traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he

took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds,

pouring oil and wine. And then he put the man on his own

donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next

day, he took out two Denarii and gave them to the innkeeper.

Look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for

any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you

think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of

robbers?''

The expert of the law replied: ``The man who had mercy on

him.''

Jesus told him: ``Go and do likewise.''

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one that has been used over and over again to welcome strangers. Samaritans were not friends to the person that the Samaritan saved, but he was a man of justice.

We all know how proud we are of America, as a land of opportunity and the land of the American Dream, which, for decades and centuries, really, has attracted people to our shores, to make the future better for their families. In doing so, they subscribe to the vows of our Founders. ``A new order of the ages,'' it says, on the great seal of the United States, a new order, ``Novus Ordo Seclorum.'' That meant that it was predicated on the idea that every generation would take responsibility to make the future better for the next.

It became known as the American Dream and people flocked to our shores, bringing their determination, their optimism, their hope, and their courage, to make the future better for their families. In doing so, as I said, they subscribed to the values of our Founders to make the future better. That is why our country would be a new order for the ages.

How proud we are to have the Statue of Liberty welcoming people to our shores. In the words of Emma Lazarus inscribed on the statue, it says:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows worldwide welcome; her mild eyes command. . . .

Words that are music to the ears of everyone who loves freedom.

``Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!'' cries she

With silent lips. ``Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!''

With those words, America has been a beacon to the world, and how proud it has made us. America is great, some say, because America is good; and this manifestation of our goodness is one that is historic.

In responding to the call of our Statue of Liberty--who must, by now, have tears in her eyes, having heard some of the debate on immigration--I want to read about some of the DREAMers, who came to our shores, maybe through land or by sea.

I want to talk about Luis Galvan. Luis came to the United States when he was 5 years old and grew up in poverty. Today, he is an agriculture ambassador at College of the Sequoias and is working to help students improve their grades. Following the repeal of DACA, Luis constantly worries about his ability to continue working in order to afford his education. He is one of four siblings also attending college, who are also DACA recipients.

Jacqueline Romo's DACA expires this month. Jacqueline was raised in the city of Chicago. She is an undocumented American aspiring to earn a bachelor's degree in graphic design. Her education is her priority ever since she was in elementary school. Throughout high school, she had serious doubts about her future, due to her status, but it never stopped her from pursuing higher education. Jacqueline went on to community college, working a part-time job and earning a few scholarships that eventually added up to affordable tuition. Her mother, a single mother, would not be able to contribute to Jacqueline's education after high school, so it was Jacqueline's choice and responsibility to work her way financially through college. Thanks to scholarships like the Illinois Dream Fund, TheDream.US, and other community scholarships, Jacqueline was lucky to follow through higher education, something that most of her undocumented peers would not have the chance to do. Jacqueline's dreams are the same dreams of other undocumented Americans to persevere in this great country.

Hector Rivera Suarez is a DACA recipient from Greensboro, North Carolina. He has been a DACA recipient for the past 6 years. This came to an end on January 21. He is currently on track to graduate in May, with a degree in philosophy and education. As a student body president and honor scholar at Guilford College, it is part of his curriculum to serve in the local community. He has served as an afterschool tutor at a local community center that services predominantly the Latino community, as well as assisting in classrooms at a newcomer school. His plan after graduation is to enroll in Teach for America, since it is his only opportunity to be a teacher while being a DACA recipient. Once DACA was rescinded in September, these plans had to be delayed. Without DACA, he will not have the opportunity to keep serving the community in greater ways.

Hector's DACA expires 5 days before the Teach For America January deadline; this is why he needs there to be a resolution as soon as possible so he can move forward with his plans of mentoring the future leaders of America.

Mr. Speaker, I bring this up because, as you know, the discussions and negotiations on the caps bill, the budget bill, are making progress and, perhaps, soon to be coming to an end. And on that score, I would say so far as what I know of it, the budget caps agreement, which will be announced today, includes many Democratic priorities, actually bipartisan priorities.

But with the disaster recovery package and dollar-for-dollar increases in the defense and nondefense budget, Democrats have secured hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in communities across America. There will be billions in funding to fight opioids, to strengthen our veterans and the NIH, to build job-creating rural infrastructure and broadband, and to fund access

to child care and quality higher education. That is something that has been negotiated with our input between Leader Mitch McConnell and Leader Chuck Schumer.

But Mitch McConnell also made a commitment to his Members that he would bring up a dream bill to the floor of the Senate in an appointed time. So why can't we have some kind of a commitment on this side of the aisle that enabled the discussion to take place on a values-based place?

Here, we asked the Speaker would he bring up the Hurd-Aguilar bill, which is bipartisan, would win if brought to the House, has a sufficient number of Republican cosponsors, thank them for their courage to be public, but others who have said they would vote for it, and we would like a commitment from the Speaker to bring it and any other bills that he believes should be considered on the floor as well.

We could do it under a ``Queen of the Hill'' where the bill with the most votes becomes the most prevailing bill to either support what the Senate has done or to reconcile what the Senate has done.

That is a simple request. That is a simple request that the House Democrats and, in a bipartisan way, others have joined in asking the Speaker to bring a bill to the floor to give us that commitment.

Why should we, in the House, be treated in such a humiliating way, when the Republican Senate leader has given that opportunity, in a bipartisan way, to his membership?

What is wrong? There is something wrong with this picture. That is why, this morning, when we took a measure of our caucus on support for the package--well, we have to see all the particulars of it yet, but there are good things in it--that it does nothing to even advance, even with a commitment, without having passed the legislation first, to advance bipartisan legislation to protect DREAMers in this House.

Without that commitment from Speaker Ryan, comparable to the commitment from Leader McConnell, this package does not have my support, nor does it have the support of a large number of members of our caucus.

So then I go on to some other--I always am reminded in all of these debates about our commitment to faith. In God We Trust, it says there right over the Speaker's chair.

The Gospel of Matthew has been an inspiration to many of us on both sides of the aisle in terms of what our values are and how we make choices. And when, in the Gospel of Matthew, he writes: ``When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.''

Then Christ goes on to say:

``For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.

``Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?' ''

And the Lord says, when you see us--what did you see, a stranger and invite him in or need clothing and clothing you, he's asking the Lord. And when did you see sick and in prison, and did I visit you?

``The King will reply, `Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' ''

That is always important. Everybody knows that, the least of my brethren speech.

However, the King does go on: ``Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

``They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

``He will reply, `Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' ''

It is not only positive of what you did, you did for me; it is what you did not do. When I was a stranger, you did not help.

Then it will go into eternal punishment. The righteous will go into eternal life.

So anyway, more stories about our DREAMers and why they honor the vows of our Founders, why they deserve our support. We are just talking about this discrete group of people, how they command the support of the American people.

Itzel Verduzco Rojas is from Ponca City, Oklahoma. Itzel is working as a medical assistant for a pediatric dermatologist and in school full time trying to pursue a career in nursing. In addition to her job and school, Itzel volunteers with CASA, City Rescue Mission, and Rebuilding Together Oklahoma City to address issues of poverty and homelessness in her city.

With DACA, Itzel was able to apply for a driver's license and work legally. However, because her renewal application was caught up in postal delays, Itzel has not yet received her renewal, and her current DACA expired on January 20. Because of this, she will now have to take a semester off from school, and she is facing severe disruption in her life and the ability to support herself.

This is really important to note because the people--some of the people in the White House have been saying nobody is being deported. Well, we will see about that. But they are saying these people are protected.

They are not protected. And you heard the characterization that the President's Chief of Staff made about some of these people, about being lazy or whatever it was.

I think, in our discussions on the economy, in a separate context, we have seen how few Americans would be able to rise to the occasion immediately if they had a $500 unsuspected bill that had come their way; whether the water heater broke or whatever it is, it would be challenging, it would be disruptive to their lives. It would be hard for them to have an expendable, immediately expendable, $500. But that is what it takes to sign up to what the President--the sign up that was required by the President after his September announcement.

So it is not about being lazy. Or yes, it is probably about fear, too. Mr. Kelly, General Kelly, mentions that. But it is about not understanding the situation of fear and of contribution, the beautiful contribution that people make, that the DREAMers make to our country.

Itzel came to the U.S. legally at age 7. She came legally and attempted to adjust her status along with family. She aged out of eligibility when she turned 21. She was able to apply for DACA during her senior year of high school, which opened the doors for her.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dalia Medina immigrated to the United States at age 11 from Mexico. She is a licensed mental health therapist providing much-needed service to at-risk youth and families in New Mexico.

Dalia is working toward an independent license to open her private practice to continue aiding families in her State. She recently obtained a master's degree in clinical social work and previously earned a bachelor's degree in criminology and psychology.

All of these people are making such a wonderful contribution to our society because they have courage, they have values, and they have purpose in their life. These stories were given to me by our colleagues as they have taken up the cause of many of these DREAMers. But it is not enough.

We have no right to talk about DREAMers and to tell their stories and take pride in their actions unless we are willing to take action to support them, and we have that opportunity today by asking the Speaker of the House to give us a vote.

What are you afraid of? Give us a vote. Let the House work its will. Senator McConnell, Mitch McConnell, is enabling the Senate to work its will.

Why should the House of Representatives be constrained, especially on such a values-based issue as who we are as a nation and recognizing our biblical responsibility to each other?

Nicole Robles from Houston, Texas, she was born in Mexico. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was 6 months old, and she faces deportation. In less than 100 days, her DACA will expire. I am anxious--Well, this is now much less than 100 days.

She says: ``I'm anxious because I am graduating high school in a few months and I want to start college in August of next year. How will I do that without my DACA?''

She says: ``There are so many barriers to higher education when you're undocumented. With a Dream Act, undocumented students will have a sense''--the Dream Act gives them a documented sense--``of security and opportunity''--to go to school--``to get a job, to care for their families, to continue their studies in college or university.''

``I want that security and opportunity. We deserve that.'' She deserves that.

``And we need Congress by the end of the year so that we, more people, don't reach their expiration dates.''

Now, let me say that we have talked mostly about education, people working in education and social activities to help other people do their best. But many of our DREAMers have served in our military with great courage and great patriotism to the only country that they know.

Again, using my leader's minute, I want to make sure that the Record is clear about what this debate is about. It is about honoring our own commitment to the Statue of Liberty, to the Founding Fathers, in terms of making this a land where one generation would take responsibility to make the future better for the next.

And that brings to mind another person from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Yuridia Loera. She said:

``Growing up, I was reminded of my immigration status every day by my mother. Twenty years later, I realized she did this to prepare our family for the imminent day that our family would face a deportation. And that day could be today because my DACA has expired.

``DACA is what allowed me to pass through immigration checkpoints safely. I am also a survivor of sexual assault--with DACA, I was able to approach the police to report the person who assaulted me. Trump's cruel decision to terminate DACA has put border residents and survivors of assault in jeopardy. This is not how a country should treat immigrant youth and our families.''

I just want you to know why we are making this plea. This is a human plea to the Speaker, a prayerful human plea to the Speaker.

It is almost 40 hours. This morning, when I first met with my colleagues in our meeting at 8, it was exactly 40 hours until midnight tomorrow.

Forty is a number fraught with meaning in our religious lives. Forty years, in the Old Testament, 40 years of Moses and the Jews and Aaron in the desert; 40 days that Christ was in the desert himself; 40 days is the length of time of Lent; and, therefore, 40 hours is a Catholic devotion that many of us grew up with.

We have that same 40 hours, from 8 this morning until tomorrow night at midnight, to be prayerful--to be prayerful--to show our purpose, and to show why we are asking the Speaker for this vote.

I have great admiration for the work that is done in a bipartisan way, on the budget, the bill; of course, it is not everything we want, but there are many good things in it, and I just can't explain to the DREAMers or to my colleagues why we should be second-class Members of Congress in this House without a commitment from the Speaker that Mitch McConnell gave to the Senators, that there would be a vote on the floor to let Congress work its will.

Are you afraid that the DREAMer bill will pass, the work of Mr. Hurd and Mr. Aguilar working with other Members to shape a bill that would recognize concerns that the President has and others have to put a bipartisan bill there that should attract the support of the President?

Instead, we are hearing words that are hard to process from the White House but, nonetheless, recognizing that we have to go down this path together. We all believe that, as the Bible tells us, there is a spark of divinity in every person and that we must respect that spark of divinity.

Tomorrow will be the prayer breakfast, and that is a solemn occasion in Washington, D.C., and we are always thinking in terms of Christ. When Christ became man, his assuming humanity brought his divinity to us so that we participate in his divinity, every one of us.

We have to remember that not only does it exist in every person that we encounter, but it exists in us. It exists in the President of the United States and his staff and all of the people who elected him. That is a beautiful thing about it all.

But that spark of divinity in each of us has to relate to other people and treat them with respect. How would we judge other countries if they said: ``We have several hundred thousand people who came here as children, and now we are sending them back where they came from?'' We would make a judgment about those countries that that was outside the circle of civilized human behavior. And yet--and yet--we have something to do about that right now.

I want to talk to you about Juan Carlos Navarro from Oregon. He said: ``I immigrated to the United States when I was 3 years old with my parents because I needed medical treatment for my cerebral palsy. I went through six surgeries and 12 years of physical therapy and walked for the first time when I was 15 years old.

``Growing up, I did well in school, but I felt stuck because I didn't know how to go to college. With the help of my counselor, I was able to apply for private scholarships and attend a community college in Salem. I'm now at Western Oregon University, where I was inspired to start my own group for undocumented young people like me. I'm now getting my master's there, and I'm part of the college Student Services Administration Program, with the dream of one day making higher education accessible to low-income and undocumented students.

``Without DACA, I no longer have access to health insurance through an employer. I suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts. This is why I have visited my Members of Congress to urge them to pass the Dream Act, because my life and my health is on the line.''

Patricia Ulloa was born in El Salvador. Patricia said: ``I have a mixed status family--my parents have TPS, I have one U.S. citizen brother, and my two sisters and I have DACA. We need the Dream Act now because one of my sister's DACA expires on March 6, 2018, and pretty soon the rest of my sisters and I could lose our protections too. Our parents are already losing their TPS protections because Trump terminated the program.

``I want the government to recognize us as part of society and know that this is our home and we contribute to our communities even without papers. My family wants to be able to stay together and feel safe to drive, work, and travel.''

Here she says--I want to repeat this--``we contribute to our communities even without papers.''

As an Italian American who grew up at a time when I did not feel any prejudice or bias--or if I did, I thought it was the other person's problem. We Italian Americans always think there are only two kinds of people: those who are Italian American and those who want to be.

But in my father's generation and my grandfather's generation and my great-grandmother's generation, it was a different story, and there was a term. It was called ``wop,'' and people used that as a derogatory term to Italian Americans.

Do you know what wop means, Mr. Speaker? Wop means without papers. Without papers. That is what these people were called, without papers. And that is all that these kids are, without papers. In every other way, strong participants in our society, in our community, and in our country.

And so again, just give us a chance to have a vote, Mr. Speaker. Another day will come when we can talk about comprehensive immigration reform. We

can talk about this, that, and the other thing, but right now, the Hurd-Aguilar bill, whatever is being put together in the Senate, recognizes our responsibility to protect our borders, recognizes the value of immigration to our country: hopes, dreams, aspirations, making America more American every newcomer who comes. I truly believe that, the constant reinvigoration of America.

Saba Nefes from Texas was born in Mexico, and Saba writes: ``We still don't know a lot about cancer. We still don't know about genetic diseases. My research at Texas Tech goes right into the heart of that. It uses pure mathematics to look at why all these genetic diseases exist and how they exist so someday we can come up with cures for them. We're far from that point, but this is the challenge I work on.

``In addition to conducting research at Texas Tech, I've taught undergraduate students as a teaching assistant. This past semester, I got to teach anatomy, and one of my students was blind and had a service dog. It was a blessing, a great experience to teach her anatomy, something that she got to touch and feel to learn. It taught me a lot of patience. It taught me what it's like to work alongside my American students and peers. I'm just as much a part of their lives as they are of mine.

``If DACA is repealed, I would be out of a job immediately, and I won't be able to teach my students. I won't be able to continue conducting the research that I am conducting right now. This research could help scientists understand diseases like cancer and lead down a path toward a cure. Without DACA, I can't continue this critical work.''

Now, I want to just say this. I think there is a lack of understanding, and we should have made it clear on the other side of the aisle and with the White House about what the President's action in September did.

The President, maybe in good spirit, thought that by giving us a March 5 deadline, he was giving a 6-month reprieve to DREAMers; but what, in fact, he was doing was making matters worse for them. It was most unfortunate. Most unfortunate because, again, while they may have maintained the status of DREAMer, they did not have the protections of the DACA executive order that President Obama put forth.

Perhaps it would have been better if President Trump had said: ``I am giving Congress 6 months to pass a bill, but I am not changing the status quo that protects the DREAMers.''

Just on that point, President Obama, when he protected the DREAMers and their parents, what he did was significant, but it was not as significant as what President Reagan did in the 1980s. President Obama acted because Congress would not act. He took action.

President Reagan acted after Congress did act, the Immigration Act of 1986. President Reagan said, interesting: But you did not go far enough. So he instituted, by executive order, Family Fairness. And then Family Fairness was continued under President George Herbert Walker Bush, two great Presidents for immigration in our country.

What they did with their executive orders, which stood the test of court cases, protected a higher percentage of people than what President Obama did--two Republican Presidents, two great champions on immigration. Even after Congress acted, they said: You didn't go far enough.

President Obama had to act because Congress would not act.

Then we come forward with President Clinton following in that tradition. President George W. Bush, great President on immigration, he couldn't convince his own party to pass comprehensive immigration reform. But his statements, his values-based policy on immigrants is something, to this day--and his current statements are so beautiful and inspirational about treating people with dignity and valuing their worth as we talk about immigration.

And then, of course, President Obama, doing what he did in terms of executive orders, protecting people in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, with the common values of George W. Bush and President Clinton.

So now we have the first Republican President in modern times--the first President, really--who is anti-immigrant, and that is just such a change from his own party, and it makes it hard to see where we can have shared values.

Certainly one piece of that debate which would require a fuller stipulation of fact, hearings, et cetera, to see what the best path forward is is important for us to do. But for now, because of the action that the President took, it necessitates us taking action here, as the President anticipated by putting a March 5 deadline on it. We would like to do it sooner.

This is a vehicle leaving the station. And if the Republicans need our support for this legislation, which has many good features--and I commend the negotiators on it and was a part of that--unless we can get the same commitment that Mitch McConnell gave the bipartisan group of legislators who asked for it in the Senate, we would like that same response to our bipartisan group.

I want to talk about Jaime Rangel: ``To me, Georgia is my home. I am proud to be from the South, and I love to give back to my community.

``I tell everybody I'm a Latino that grew up eating tortillas and grits at the same time, and north Georgia is home. And for somebody to say, `Hey, you can't get some instate tuition' in a place that I consider my State was really--it was really heartbreaking. I felt out of place.

``Right now, I feel optimistic because I believe the greater part of the country understands that you can't deport 750,000 individuals. These are individuals who give back to their community, who are involved in their churches, who have Ph.D.'s, who have been creating jobs and who just want to make this country a better place.

``When President Obama announced DACA, to me, it was a life-changing experience. I felt that I finally was given a decent chance to be somebody in this country, to contribute to my State, to contribute to my community, to get a job, and just give back and be somebody in the greatest country on Earth.''

That is the patriotism of our DREAMers.

``So when DACA was introduced, it opened the doors to many things, even doors I didn't think were imaginable to open.

``My name is Jaime Rangel. I was born in Mexico, but I came to this country when I was only 3 months old.''

As the President said, he loves the DREAMers. He loves the DREAMers. He loves to call it DACA. Subscribe to that. He loves the DREAMers. And these people came to this country not of their own volition, through no fault of their own. I, myself, thank their parents for bringing them here because they are a blessing to America, but, from their standpoint, through no fault of their own.

Why can't we be fair and give them a break?

Javier Noris in New York City came from Mexico: ``I invest in the next generation of biomedical tech solutions.

``When I was working at a convenience store, I always had big aspirations, even though I wasn't sure how they would come to fruition. But the moment DACA was passed, it really put everything in perspective, and I really made a conscious effort to focus on my career. So I ended up pursuing a career as a software engineer.

``I went to school at Cal State University, Northridge. I studied economics and biotechnology. After working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, I ended up moving to Brooklyn, New York. I now work in venture capital, running a small venture fund that invests in early- stage life science and frontier technology startups.

``As a CEO of an investment fund, DACA being repealed does not only affect me. A DACA repeal could affect the startups with which I work and my ability to invest in them and their ability to continue to grow and employ hundreds of workers across the country.

``My name is Javier. I'm a DACA recipient and I'm from Mexico City. I came to the United States when I was 5 years old.''

He did not come alone. He did not. He was brought here by his parents.

So many of our DREAMers here are called DREAMers because they have big dreams. And they are entrepreneurs; they are teachers; they are

researchers in science; they are in our military. They are making such a fabulous contribution to the future of our country.

It is not just about them. This DACA repeal that we are making is about us: Who are we as a country? How do we honor the vows of our founders, the Statue of Liberty and her appeal to the world that has made America such a beacon of hope?

The list goes on and on about many, many DACA recipients, and I intend to read them all.

But in addition to that, I want to go back to the Bible because I could have brought the Bible here and just read the Bible and said: If we are people of faith, in God we trust, as we contend to be, we must act upon our faith, and act upon our values.

People always ask me: Where is hope? Where should we find hope?

Hope is sitting there where it always has been, right between faith and charity. People have hope because they believe. They believe in God. They have faith in our country and themselves and their families; and they have faith in the goodness, the charity of others that people, when given the chance, will do the right thing, and then, hopefully, that will be returned to them when they need hope and can have faith in the goodness of others.

I want to tell you about Maria Praeli. She is from Connecticut. She said: ``I didn't let anything keep me from advancing academically. Unfortunately, when high school ended, I couldn't attend the university of my dreams. I was getting all these acceptance letters, but I couldn't go to any of these schools because I didn't have a Social Security number''--this is my point; you can't get a Social Security number--``and, therefore, I wasn't eligible for financial aid. I couldn't pursue the dreams that I had been hoping to. But I did not let my undocumented status hold me back from continuing to advance academically.

``I enrolled at Gateway Community College, where I worked very hard as a student government association president and graduated with 3.8 GPA to then be able to attend Quinnipiac University. I graduated magna cum laude and earned my bachelor's degree in May of 2016.

``It's surreal to wake up every day and be reminded that even though I have been living in America for the past 18 years, in a few months, all my honors and education might end up not mattering anymore because I won't be able to contribute to the country which I have called home for so long.

``My name is Maria. I was born in Ica, Peru, and moved to the United States when I was 5 years old.''

There is documentation after documentation of how young these children were when they came to the United States all because their parents wanted to make the future better for them.

Andrea Seabra writes: ``My dad was a fighter pilot in the Peruvian Air Force, so I grew up with a lot of military influence. When I was in high school, I joined New Jersey ROTC, which was the junior ROTC, and I was there for 3\1/2\ years.

``It gave me that taste of maybe what my dad might have lived when he was in the military. I lost him when I was only 6 years old, so I never really got to know that part of him. I always thought in the back of my head, when I graduate, I want to join the military. When I was in my junior year, I realized that I couldn't enroll in the military because I was undocumented.

``I was sitting with a recruiter at my school, an Air Force recruiter, and he asked me about it. He's like, `What's your social?' So when I told him, `Well, I don't have one--' '' meaning Social Security number--``he is like, `What about your passport?' I'm like, `Well, I have a Peruvian passport.' And he's like, `No, you have to either be a U.S. resident or a U.S. citizen to be able to join.'

``That's the first time I ever experienced that big wall of being undocumented, like a big stop sign saying, no, you can't pursue this passion of yours.

``I didn't live a normal life until I got DACA. Thanks to DACA, I was able to pursue my career after graduating cum laude from Saint Leo University, in marketing. With DACA, I was able to build my professional network, help people, influence people, and do all these things for myself and my family and my community. If that's going to be taken away, everything that I've accomplished, that I've worked on, that I've helped people with will just fall apart. It will shake the foundation of who I am today as a person, as a professional, even as a friend, as a daughter, everything.

``My name is Andrea. I was born in Lima, Peru. I was brought here by my mom when I was 11 years old.''

She had lost her dad when she was 6. But this idea of military service, many, when they got the DACA status protection, have served honorably in the military. We are very proud of them, as we are proud of all of our men and women in the military.

And I emphasize the story of hard work that these DREAMers have because they are very consistent with American workers. American people are so resourceful. They are so wonderful. They so care about their families and their communities. So this is not to say that DACA recipients are different. It is to say they are just like us.

We are very proud of the American people, the productivity of our workforce, the faith of our families, the civic mindedness and the generosity of spirit, and, really, of resources of the American people.

My telling these stories is not to separate the DACA recipients from them, but to show how similar they are and how assimilated they are into our community. It is mutually beneficial.

Jose Manuel Santoyo, from Texas, said: ``My education was so that I could contribute to society.

``My last year at Southern Methodist University, I began working on an engaged learning fellowship. Because of that, I was selected to be the commencement speaker for my graduation and represent almost 600 other students who would be graduating that day. In my speech, I thanked the faculty and staff at my university. I had teachers who I've looked up to my whole life, who provided amazing educational opportunities regardless of the papers I had or didn't have.

``I want to be able to work and I want to work in public service. In order to do that, I would need to have DACA. I would need to have work authorization in this country. I feel like that's what my education was for. My education wasn't for me. My education was so I could contribute to society. My education was so that I could give back to the community that has given me so much, to the country that has given me so much.

``This year I hope that our Congress and our President work to fund a permanent solution to provide us DACA recipients a pathway to citizenship, to give us an opportunity to use our education, to use everything that we've learned in order to give back, in order to contribute, in order to provide for ourselves and our families and our communities.''

What Manuel said is that he looked up to his teachers. He learned from others in our country. That also demonstrates the beautiful commitment of the American people to teach, to shed light to younger people, newcomers to our country, to make a valuable contribution.

So in saluting, as I say, the DREAMers, we are saluting the opportunity they were given by the American people to make their contribution. Hopefully, Congress will live up to the values of the American people who overwhelmingly support the DREAMers, and see this as a separate issue not just about the DREAMers, but about who we are as a country.

Cesar Vargas was born in Mexico. He holds a law degree and wants to became a military lawyer. Aside from advocating for legislation to allow DREAMers to serve in the military, he has been advocating for immigration reform through a political group he launched last year called Dream Action Coalition. The group is known for challenging lawmakers on their stance on immigration and highlighting the political power of voters. In his case, Latino voters.

Kelly--just Kelly--is from Dover, New Jersey. Kelly is a student working toward becoming a medical assistant. She will be done with courses in January. However, without a DACA work permit, she won't be able to complete an internship required to complete her training and get certified. Her driver's license also expires in February.

Understand this: you can't have a Social Security card, a passport, a driver's license. You cannot function as a person in our society without having your status protected by the Dream Act. So when people tell you it is all protected, it isn't. Listen to the stories.

So I was talking about Kelly. Kelly is a student working to becoming a medical assistant. She will be done in January. However, without DACA, she won't be able to complete her training or get her driver's license, as I mentioned. Kelly--just Kelly--has lived in New Jersey since she was 5 years old. She says DACA has ``given me the chance to drive, have a work permit, buy a car, get car insurance--things that obviously benefit the country as well. It's helped me to not be stuck, not to have to depend on others. . . .''

Kelly's DACA renewal application was rejected because she forgot to fill in a date of expiration. When she received notice of the error, she fixed it and sent the application back immediately, but, by then, the arbitrary October deadline had passed.

This is another reason why we need to clear this up.

Crystal--just Crystal--is a single, working mom of 5 U.S. citizen children. She was born in the Bahamas and arrived in the U.S. at 6 years old. Crystal had her fifth child only 3 weeks ago, and while recovering, she had been on unpaid leave from a retail job, where she has worked for nearly 6 years. Now that her work authorization has expired, she will not be able to return to work, and her ability to provide for her kids will be impeded.

What?

Carlos from the Bronx. Carlos lives in the Bronx and is the only undocumented member of his family. The whole family pulls together to care for Carlos' younger sister who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot walk. Carlos' employer, a fabrication company, desperately wants to keep Carlos as an employee. His DACA and work authorization expired February 18, 2017. It expired already.

So the list goes on and on.

Carlos sent his DACA renewal application on September 18, 2017, 2 weeks after the President's announcement. But it was not received until December 11--he sent it on September 18. It was received on October 11. In the rejection letter, he was notified that he failed to fill in his DACA expiration date on one of the forms. The relevant information was included in the cover letter and in other parts of the packet. Carlos arrived in the U.S. when he was 2 years old. New York is the only place he can call home. The expiration date was in the package, but in one of the forms it was not added. So he lost his protections.

I have to mention Kelly, who is a constituent of Rodney Frelinghuysen. Crystal, who was here from the Bahamas, is a constituent of Ted Deutch. Carlos is from the Bronx and is a constituent of Joe Crowley.

Saul is from San Francisco and is a constituent of Jackie Speier. Saul aspires to be a teacher, Mr. Speaker. DACA has allowed him to work in the field he is passionate about: education.

He was able to get a driver's license. Saul submitted a DACA renewal application September 30, well in time, via USPS express delivery. He received notification of an error, which he fixed and resubmitted. However, his application was rejected as untimely.

Agustin is from Brooklyn. Agustin's DACA will expire in January-- already--within days of his 21st birthday. DACA allowed Agustin to go to college to study criminal justice. He works and goes to school. When his DACA expires--which it has--he won't have the means to pay his bills and the cost of school.

What are we doing?

It is like without papers, WOP. And now people who are striving to have their papers are outlawed on a technicality. Really? Aren't we supposed to be enabling people to make their contribution instead of hurting them with the process?

It is, again, important to note, and for our viewers to note that what people are asking for is nothing special. It is asking them to honor what was there. When DACA recipients were told to sign up, they submitted considerable information about their lives. They effectively outed their parents with the commitment that there would be protection for them.

We have heard many good bipartisan proposals to protect the DREAMers, to give consideration to parents so that they would not be deported because they brought a child into the country. Some of these parents have citizen children now who are also making a contribution to our society.

So it is because people understand that that September 5 announcement by the President was very disruptive. Let's hope that it was not intentional. I don't think that it was. I have no reason to think that it was. But it did cause problems that perhaps were unforeseen. The system did not even allow for a correction in a form in a timely fashion because of dependence on when it was received to be judged a protection for those students.

So, in fact, over 110 DREAMers a day lose their protection. It is over--approaching 20,000 already who are losing their protections. And it will be more by the time of March 5, which is the deadline. And if we are going to reach a March 5 deadline, or any deadline, we have to get on a timetable to do so.

One timetable we have is the opportunity today to have a commitment from the Speaker not to be afraid of DREAMers. Thank God for them. They contribute. We are a nation of DREAMers. That is why they fit so comfortably in our society and contribute to it so beautifully.

I will tell you about Mayron, Rick Larsen's constituent from Washington State. Mayron, originally from Honduras, has lived in the U.S. since he was 11 years old and knows no other country as home. He has overcome lots of obstacles to be who he is today, a successful entrepreneur who owns three businesses. He submitted his DACA renewal application before the deadline. It arrived on October 2, 2017. He accidentally submitted the processing fee for $465 instead of $495. That is what it takes. $495 is a lot of money. His entire case was sent back for that reason.

With his rejection, he received a green document stating: You are invited to resubmit your application package after you have corrected the reasons for rejection. Place this letter on top of your application package.

Mayron affixed the processing fee and resubmitted his application with the green document on top of his application package. On October 31, he received the entire package in the mail with a rejection notice dated October 24 that stated that USCIS is no longer accepting DACA applications.

Mayron has been a DACA applicant for the last 3 years and is heartbroken by the DHS' actions in rejecting the renewal of his DACA.

Gregory Meeks' constituent, Brittany, writes that she was born in Trinidad and Tobago and arrived in the U.S. at 3 years old and grew up in New York. She has no close family in Trinidad and Tobago, and all of her immediate and most of her extended family who are citizens and residents live near her in New York.

Brittany is a full-time caretaker for a family in Brooklyn with two 14-month-old sons, one of whom has special needs and requires physical therapy. Although the child's special needs were not known when she was hired, Brittany has risen to the occasion with grace, calm, and competence according to the family. We are devastated by the thought she may not be able to continue to work in this country, and, no, we won't find another caregiver who is as reliable, nurturing, and unshakeable as Brittany.

Brittany submitted her renewal application September 21, but it was sent back to her on October 5 because she forgot to sign her name in one place. She sent it back immediately but was rejected as untimely.

Hugo in Houston, Texas. Hugo is a 34-year-old father who lives in Houston, Texas. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 6 years old and has lived in Houston ever since. He completed K-12 in Houston and now works at a photo framing shop near downtown. After Trump was elected, Hugo worried about reapplying, so he waited. Hugo found out from one text message from a friend on September 6 that he needed to reapply before October 5 or risk losing his DACA. He decided to quickly put together his application as his DACA was set to expire September 9, 2017.

Hurricane Harvey had just hit the Houston area. While Hugo's home was

not destroyed, the entire city of Houston was shut down, including many businesses. Hugo's work was one of them. He didn't have the time or money to pay an attorney. He had to borrow half the money for the application fee because he couldn't get $495 together in such a short period of time.

Hugo was unable to get his DACA renewal application mailed until October 4, which is still before the deadline. USCIS received Hugo's application on October 6. On November 1, Hugo received a letter from USCIS denying his renewal. Now, you know if they got his application on October 6, they knew it was mailed before October 5, or in time on October 5, but they turned him down.

The point I want to make here is these are technicalities that people have been turned down on. Could we all live up to the standard that has been set to sign in every place with the date and the this and the that even though the information is contained in the package, even though hurricanes intervened in the mail service or the opportunity to put the package together, no mitigation, no consideration for that? That is really unfortunate because the American people are the losers in all of that.

Fernanda writes that she arrived in the U.S. at age 2 wearing a pink parka and matching pants, clutching on to her mom. She carried a single bag and abandoned her family in search of a better life beside her father in the U.S. Her dad was already in Alabama, and they were wanting to be by his side.

In the year before his decision to leave Mexico, he had been assaulted five times and already had his wedding band stolen twice. Since arriving to the States, they have been able to start four businesses and create jobs. They purchased two cars and put Fernanda through college. They also have helped their U.S.-born son reach his goals of being a professional soccer player and is on the Olympic Development Program team for the southeast region.

Sheila Jackson Lee is with us in the Chamber. Sheila's story is that one of these young people living with uncertainty is Cesar Espinoza, a DREAMer from Houston who came to America from Mexico at the age of 6. Cesar adapted quickly to his Texas home and became a standout student excelling in programs for the gifted and talented throughout his primary and secondary education.

Faced daily with the constant threat of deportation, Cesar and his family were forced to have an emergency plan in place in the event one of his family members were detained by the immigration services. Espinoza graduated from DeBakey High School near the top of his class and was accepted at some of America's most prestigious universities, including Yale. But his undocumented status prevented him from obtaining financial assistance, nearly shattering his college ambitions. He could have given up on his pursuit of a degree, but instead he chose to make a difference.

I know there are other young people who are just like me, said Cesar. They need someone to fight for them and try to make a way. That is when he founded FIEL, an immigrants' rights organization based in Houston.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee writes about her constituent, Emily. Emily is a resident of Alameda, California. She came to the U.S. when she was 9 years old with her family from South Korea in the year 2000. She currently works in community health work in a federally qualified health center in Oakland, California, serving the underserved API community. Emily graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014 and has been working as a community health worker ever since. She is also taking a class after work to prepare to apply to graduate school.

Emily says DACA has changed her life and the lives of her family members. She was able to finally contribute to her family's living expenses upon graduation and will continue to pursue her dreams.

Emily is grateful for the protection she received under DACA. But she is also deeply concerned about her mother and friends who don't have the same opportunity to come out of the shadows.

Emily said, ``When my rights as a `deserving American' are justified by the idea that it was `no fault of my own,' it automatically criminalizes my mother, whose love, sacrifice, and resilience made it possible for me and my siblings to be where we are today. I am forever thankful for her courage and the sacrifice she made to give us a better life.''

Emily's story is a reminder that we must protect DREAMers, but we must never give up the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. It is past time for Congress to pass the clean Dream Act.

Jose Castillo wrote:

``My name is Jose Castillo, and I am 22 years old. When I was 4 years old''--can you imagine how precious--``my parents took my little sister and me and packed up everything they owned. We got on a plane and headed to the United States to escape a country in its early stages of turmoil. My parents gave up everything they had to provide us with a sliver of a chance, one they knew we wouldn't have in Venezuela.

``They made it a point to raise us well while shielding us from racism and their fears of deportation.

``Eventually, we came to understand just how many doors were closed to us. Disheartened and frightened for our future, we prayed for something, anything. DACA was that something. DACA has given me hope and a real chance, but, more importantly, it has given me a voice. I can proudly tell my story to anyone who is willing to listen, a story about a family who is determined and persistent in their pursuit of an American life.

``DACA's removal would rip that away from us. Ending DACA will hurt more than 800,000 people, people not just with dreams and aspirations, but people that want to be seen, understood, and welcomed. They are your friends and your neighbors, your schoolteachers. . . .''

Now, this is so important: ``They are your friends and your neighbors, your schoolteachers and your doctors, and they need you to come to their side and help. Call Congress, have an open conversation, relay facts and fight for my family and the hundreds of thousands like us.''

This goes on and on. It just seems like it is such an easy solution. There are plenty of challenges that we have that are complex, comprehensive immigration reform, issues that relate to how we prepare our country for jobs for the 21st century, how we prepare our workers and our education system and the rest. But in all of that, we have to be strong as a country. To be strong as a country, we have to be true to our values. To be true to our values is to respect the aspirations of people who are our future. Our young people are our future, and these DREAMers are part of that. They have enriched our community, and they have been enriched by our community, by the goodness of the American people, and by the greatness of our country.

So our plea to the Speaker is not one just for the DREAMers. Our plea to the Speaker is for us, for ourselves, again, to honor the vows of our Founders, our patriarch, George Washington, and others who followed him to make our country great, but also to make it a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

Claudia came to the United States when she was 5. She said: `` . . . my family brought me to a country I would call home. I had to learn a new language, new culture, a new way of life. I was brought here by hardworking, loving parents who only wanted what was best for my future, running away from poverty and leaving family behind in the hope of a better life.

``DACA allowed me to have a chance at a better tomorrow. I am now a medical assistant and a third-year student at the University of Utah. Taking away DACA would remove the privileges that I hold dearly. I am not an `illegal alien,' nor am I a criminal or a rapist. I am a human; I am 1 of the 800,000 DREAMers who thrive for a better future. America is my home. I didn't choose to be undocumented, but I do decide to keep fighting for what is right and keep moving forward, undocumented and unafraid. I am a DREAMer, and I am here to stay.''

Did I tell you about Juan Escalante? ``With much foresight to the oncoming political evidence, my parents fled Venezuela in 2000, with my two brothers and me in tow, for the United States. In 2006, we learned that an immigration attorney had mishandled our immigration case, which meant that,

after 6 years of legal fees and paying taxes, we were no longer on the path towards U.S. citizenship.

``By the time President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, program in 2012, I had graduated from Florida State University with a political science degree. I fought and lost two legislative fights in support of the Dream Act, helped enact a law in Florida that would provide in-state tuition for undocumented students across the State, and helped organize thousands of DREAMers from all across the country.

``Since 2013, DACA has protected my brothers and me from deportation. With DACA, I was able to return to FSU for a master's degree in public administration and get a job in immigration advocacy, as the digital campaigns manager for America's Voice. I am a Tallahassee resident.''

Mayra came to the United States at age 6. She said: ``I have now lived in the United States for 21 years. Currently, I work full time as a special education paraprofessional. I am also a college student. I'm working on my third college degree.''

How many of us can make that claim?

``In May of 2018, I will be graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in elementary education and special education. A challenge I have had to overcome is accepting situations that are out of my control and knowing that having strength and fortitude will lead me to prevail in the end.

``I first went to college to become a nurse. In 2011, my junior year of college, I graduated with honors with an associate's degree in nursing. Unfortunately, I was unable to get licensed due to my immigration status. It was upsetting and embarrassing. I was embarrassed because I would see former peers working as actual nurses, and I wasn't. And not because I was incapable, but merely because I was never even given the opportunity to take the NCLEX and get licensed.

``In 2012, I finished my senior year in college and graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in general studies. Over the years, the State I reside in has changed State legislation to allow DACA recipients to receive driver's licenses, professional licenses, and certifications.''

That is a beautiful thing, but we want that for the whole country. There are just certain things, the contributions of DREAMers to our society, the work they do every day with the American people of which they consider themselves to be a part, the benefits they have received from working and knowing people in our country, themselves benefiting from the greatness of the American people, the reciprocity they have given back and honoring the American Dream, working hard with a work ethic, an ethic of faith, family, and community, and a work ethic, usually typical of an immigration community as many of us who are families from the immigration community, which are all of us unless we happen to be very blessed to be born a Native American in our country. How beautiful some of the Native American families in our country have been to our newcomers to our country.

Our country should all be that welcoming, and I think our country is. That is why the numbers are in the eighties and nineties, in terms of support for DREAMers, and even in the seventies among Republicans for a path to citizenship.

Carlos Emilio Diaz writes: ``I am 19 years old, and I was born in Guerrero, Mexico. I moved to Houston when I was a year old''--a year old--``and was raised there my entire life. I am currently a student at UT Austin. My biggest dream is to provide my parents with everything they need without them having to work. They have sacrificed so much and continue to do so. I feel that's the least I could do. DACA gives me that opportunity, and without it, my dream has become uncertain.''

One of the things that I think many families in transition, that is to say, the upward mobility of education in our country and the length of time that families have been here, is the story of their respect for their parents, to see opportunities that they have, that DREAMers in this case have, but just take any people in our country. That one generation has tremendous opportunity because of the sacrifice of their parents and grandparents.

One of the attitudes that I have heard from people is, while they are enjoying and are grateful for everything that they have and the opportunity they have to give back to society, they have a certain sadness that their parents didn't have that same opportunity for education, to reach their personal aspirations. Their aspiration was to make the future better for their children. They certainly were successful at that. But, still, among some young people, you hear: ``I wish my parents could have had this opportunity.''

How many people have ever said: ``If only my mother would have had this opportunity''? That is in every generation, practically, because opportunities for women have changed so much.

But, in any case, I have a neighbor in East Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley, Rocio, who writes:

``I grew up in East Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley before and after the dot-com bubble. Despite living in a tough neighborhood of violence''--you maybe don't know that, but East Palo Alto is, in the heart of all this wealth, success, and entrepreneurship, a place that needs more of our attention.

``Despite living in a tough neighborhood of violence, I watched ``Star Trek Voyager,'' ``Friends,'' read Dr. Seuss, and memorized musicals from ``Funny Girl'' to ``The Wizard of Oz.'' On the weekends, I helped my dad clean office buildings. He hid me in the trash cart to sneak me into work. I picked up the trash and refilled the trash can with bags at every room. Today, I am in one of those conference rooms whiteboarding with engineers and product managers to solve the toughest problems in Big Data.''

Imagine being sneaked in in a trash barrel, helping to clean those offices, and now being the leader in the room, whiteboarding with engineers and product managers, solving the toughest problems in Big Data.

``Anyone who thinks East Palo Alto is a precious community doesn't live there anymore. During the worst days of gang violence, I had to become street smart and know that, as an immigrant and only child in a house of 17 people, I wasn't in a position to fight back. My strategy was always to keep a low profile and be on the lookout for trouble.

``The community of EPA put me in touch with amazing people through Eastside. Eastside is a private''--when I say ``EPA,'' in this case, it is East Palo Alto.

``The community of East Palo Alto put me in touch with amazing people through Eastside. Eastside is a private school in EPA that helps underrepresented and first-generation students get into college. A couple sponsored me from 6th through 12th grade.

``Every day, I met volunteers and teachers from the surrounding towns and Stanford University. Through a reading program, I met Christina, or Chris, as I like to call her, who, for the past 15 years has been a mentor and a friend. She helped me become a better reader and eventually edit a manuscript for a book. The education and support that I received at Eastside allowed me to be successful and stay safe.

``It sounds crazy, but I couldn't get a cell phone. If something happened to me while my parents worked the night shift as janitors, I couldn't call 911. I didn't have a credit history, which requires a Social Security number. That's when I started becoming aware of my status as an undocumented student. A Stanford med school student, Julie, helped me out. Although the phone was under her name, I paid her in cash for part of my bill every month.''

So, again, you see, without it--no status, no credit, no Social Security number, no driver's license--it is debilitating and doubly worrisome because so many of these people are making such a valuable contribution to our society, learning from the American people, and giving back.

Maneri: ``I'm 18 years old and from Los Angeles. I just graduated high school and will be attending UCLA to study political science in the fall. Being an undocumented student has been tough. Coming to this country at 6 years old completely changed my life. Learning English and doing well in school was a battle since everyone in my family only spoke Spanish and had

no more than an elementary school education.

``However, being a DREAMer has also shaped who I am, what I stand for, and has inspired me to dream big. After graduation, I hope to go to law school and become an immigration lawyer to help others in my situation and give back to my community. I dream that one day your immigration status doesn't define your path in life or hold you back from reaching your goals but, instead, encourages and embraces diversity.''

Again, so many stories of so many DREAMers. I just want to see if we have some more from our colleagues in terms of the ones that they have submitted. We have received all of these from our colleagues. Some of them identified as being from them or not, but all of them, again, proud, proud of these young people who not only are DREAMers, but inspire the rest of us to dream.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your courtesy. I am not finished yet. I thank you for your courtesy in the interim and just want to say I am taking this time because I think we have an opportunity now that is almost matchless. We are at a moment when we can all come together to do something really good for the country, take an action that has bipartisan support.

We have no right, as I said earlier, any of us, to associate ourselves with the aspirations of the DREAMers unless we are able to and willing and courageous enough to take action on their behalf. So, while some of us have been, more or less, receptive to receiving DREAMers, learning from them, being inspired by them, some have not been as exposed to these DREAMers and their stories as others. I think, if you had been--and I am not saying you reject it; I am just saying maybe it is geography or whatever--you would be as insistent as many of us are that we live up to who we are as a country, and this people's House listens to the voices of the American people who overwhelmingly support our DREAMers.

Again, I don't know when we would have another opportunity that matches today for us to just get a simple commitment from the Speaker of the House that he will give us a vote. There is no guarantee. We will have the debate. People will weigh in. They will make their voices heard. Congress, again, will work its will. But do not diminish this House of Representatives, this people's House, to a place where we don't have the right to express our views on a subject so important to our country that has such general support in the public and, yet, the Speaker of the House is saying we don't matter here, we, Members of the House, don't count in this consideration because maybe we just don't have the courage to do what we need to do.

I believe we do. I believe many people on the Republican side of the aisle have demonstrated even greater courage than some of us on this side. It is easy for me. But it is also hard for me because we really, again, are in a position to do something, and we feel helpless--that is what the hard part is--helpless if our Speaker will not, Speaker of the whole House, give this dignity to this House of Representatives to be able to take the vote on a subject of broad debate in the country, but we can't debate a bill on the floor of the House.

The Senate has received that dignity, has received that commitment from Mitch McConnell, from Leader McConnell on the Republican side, but, nonetheless, the Senate side, responding to bipartisan support, bringing a bill to the floor with, again, no guarantee, the debate, we will see what path that legislation takes.

But why a gag rule in the House of Representatives? Why a gag rule? And that is why I am voicing some of the concerns today, largely through the voices and the stories of our DREAMers. We want to be sure that the public record of the Congress of the United States forevermore will reflect the stories of their great contribution to America in the hopes that those stories will move the Speaker of the House to give us a vote, to elevate this House of Representatives to its rightful place instead of diminishing us by saying the Senate may talk about these subjects that the American people care so much about, not so fast in the House of Representatives.

So that is why I am using my leadership minute to make sure that the Record will show the magnificent contributions of the DREAMers in our country, the courage it took for their parents to bring them here.

And again, Members are sending in their stories from Dallas, Texas, from Arizona State. Let me read this one:

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter. Stretching out my hand to

greet her. She reiterated my name, Mr. Luis Roberto Usera,

class salutatorian.

Isn't that great? Making the salutary address.

Clear as the day, breaking wind upon my face, silencing my

voice as I spoke out in a crowd of thousands. This is our

day, ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2012. The last 18

years of our lives, everything we have accomplished,

everything we have been through has led us to today.

Reading these words aloud encouraged that I had made a

difference, that my work ethic finally paid off. This is

meant to be an honor. Here I was, 4.8 grade point average,

4.8 grade point average, all honors classes. Ran student

government and some of the most successful blood drives my

school ever has seen and no way to do anything with it. I

looked, watching people's reaction, their faces toward mine,

waiting for me to continue. And so I did.

An echo was heard around the amphitheater rapidly

dispersing my voice to everyone in the back, to myself. I

spoke into the enchanted crowd, amused at my priestlike

voice.

And here, 4 years later, we have to face that same feeling,

the bittersweet combination of nostalgia and excitement that

comes when you turn off one road in your life and onto

another. The speech would have been great if I had believed a

word I was saying. The speech might have rung true to someone

else, but the advice that was inadvertently coming out of my

mouth meant nothing to myself.

I could no longer follow my own advice. Governing laws did

not allow undocumented immigrants to go to college right out

of high school. My too thin of a boy who ignorantly thought

he would go to college transformed to that of a cashier

tending lines in the local supermarket. In retrospect, those

feelings were before DACA was announced.

I still remember the many chills that went through my body

when President Obama announced the initiative. Then, still

worried that it might be too good to be true, I stuck with it

and applied, making a huge difference in my life. I could

continue my education, work legally, and live peacefully in a

world surrounded by fear.

Through DACA, I could achieve the by then impossible

college education. DACA allowed me to come out of the shadows

and show the true potential I have without fear. DACA

demonstrated to me that people cared, that people wanted to

help and understand the situation.

I recently received TheDream.US scholarship that bestowed

upon me the gift of education, for which I will be ever

grateful. I am currently an undergraduate student studying

biochemistry at Arizona State University.

A great school, by the way.

I arrived in the United States when I was 5. I grew up

American. I grew up speaking English. I grew up to call the

United States home. This is my home. This is my country. I am

here to stay. Luis Roberto Usera Brisano.

Sofia de la Varga, an EMT student:

I was 5 years old when my mother told me where we were

going to on vacation. At the time, I was excited for this

vacation because our dog had passed away and was buried right

outside my bedroom window. I wasn't too happy about that when

it came to getting a night's rest. I went ahead and I

gathered my teddy bear and book bag, which pretty much summed

up all my belongings as a child.

When I was 15, I realized our vacation was more than a

permanent move from a dangerous country. My mother gave up

her entire family for us. She left her brothers and her

mother to risk her life for us.

Today, I feel worthless. Since I came to America, I have

felt nothing but useless and not belonging. I grew up

here. I work, study, breathe, and want to live forever

here. Yet never in my life have I been given a chance to

become a citizen, because I was not born here.

For the longest, I have been sick and tired of living in a

place that I am not wanted. For so long, this place I call

home refuses to call me theirs. When people ask me where I am

from, I say ``America.'' America. My soul and heart are from

here. If I were to move back, I know for a fact I would not

like it. I wouldn't have a car, internet, friends, security.

And getting killed is a possibility every day. However, if

the choice were mine and no one in my family existed, I would

leave in a heartbeat because at least I would belong.

I wanted to leave many times. My mom, the most wonderful

soul on the planet, convinced me otherwise. She fled because,

since the day I was born, they said they were trying to rob,

kidnap, and even kill her.

When I first heard President Obama's speech on DACA years

ago, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. DACA granted

me everything to live a normal life and, for once, belong. It

was temporary, but I felt real. I graduated high school at

the top percent in my class. I was first in my family, and I

was blessed to start college and earned a scholarship that

paid for my first 2 years.

This December I will be finishing up my EMT school. In the

future, I hope to complete 2 more years of paramedic and

attain an associate in emergency services.

I have a brother that drowned when I was younger. In my

home country, you can forget that police and an ambulance

will arrive or even bother to come if you call. My only hope

is to save as many lives as I can or die risking my life for

another person.

I know DACA can be taken away. I won't be able to drive to

my college or work to pay off my college tuition. My

scholarship will be terminated, I will be deported and

eventually left with nothing to live for. I pray for an

opportunity to stop feeling like that. There isn't room for

me here.

You see, it is amazing the effect on public policy and people's lives. That is why I want the Record to show, again, that everyone, forevermore in the history of the United States of America, will know that these DREAMers are part of that history and that their stories will be there to make judgments about us as to how we have responded to their greatness.

Nayelli Valdemar says: ``I am an AP scholar. I am a distinguished high school graduate. I am a cum laude student. I am a leader. I am a recipient of scholarships in merit and circumstance. I am also an illegal immigrant.

``Well, allow me to rephrase. I am an illegal immigrant until the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive action where President Obama gave me the opportunity to live as a resident here in the United States. DACA has opened many doors for DREAMers such as myself. Honestly, it has made the path to success miles more tangible. Inspiring me to be the best I can, even when the odds plotted against me, DACA was, and is, there to give a helping hand. Regarding my academic record, neither am I writing to boast about my accomplishment nor to ask for pity in the right situation, I am here to thank anyone and everyone who made DACA not only possible, but DREAMers' dreams come true. I'm writing to give thanks for the faith the creators of DACA gave me when the compassion of the world seemed to turn a blind eye my way. With this letter, I only hope to help the new Presidential administration understand why DACA is a vital part of every DREAMer's life.

``As a poverty-stricken female immigrant, I have moved mountains to get to where I am today, but this never would have been possible without the assistance of DACA. Playing an important role in my life, DACA is a pinnacle to the rights I cherish every day. Because of DACA, I have been able to get a job to assist my family. It was not easy working 30-plus-hour shifts, only to be welcomed by house chores and schoolwork, especially since I graduated from a magnet school, the Science Academy of South Texas, a school notorious for its workload. . . .

``My hopes lie in that the generosity of this Nation continues to allow all DREAMers a fighting chance for our future, our hopes, and our aspirations to become more than just DREAMers.

``Please, please, let it be known that all DREAMers appreciate the assistance this Nation has given us through DACA. Futures have been opened for DREAMers who were once on uncertain roads, thanks to the help of DACA. I hope this Nation does not give up on us. I hope this Nation continues to believe in its DREAMers. I hope this Nation continues to see why DACA is necessary. After all, this Nation is all that most DREAMers have. Our lives are under the weight of this country's mercy. Although, as much as we work, as much as we learn, as much as we pray, all we can truly do is hope and dream for a hopeful tomorrow, a brighter road ahead, a chance to dream again. Nayelli Valdemar.''

Nayelli, in this statement, talks about praying. That is why I am so glad I mentioned at the beginning the three Bs: the Bibles, the badges, and the business community. They are so supportive of giving relief to the DREAMers.

Let's talk about the Bibles. I talked about the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Good Samaritan, the dignity and worth of every person's spark of divinity, that God, Christ coming down, bringing his divinity to humanity enabled us, our humanity, to participate in his divinity, and that is that spark that we all have, every single one of us. So we have to respect it in others but be responsible for it in ourselves, and that is the challenge that we have.

``Hope,'' sitting there between ``faith'' and ``charity,'' the goodness of others--we all have hope that when we have needs, we believe, we have faith that others will be there for us, and that is what America is about.

America is great because America is good. I say it over and over again. This fabulous, greatest country in the history of the world, think about it, our Founders, how courageous they were. They decided to declare war on the greatest naval power, then, in the world, the British Navy, the British military. They declared, in the Declaration of Independence, their grievances against the king, but they also stated their aspirations about people being created equal.

No country had been founded on that principle before, and our inalienable rights under God, just remarkable, bestowed on them by Our Creator. This is a remarkable people. And then they fought the war, they won the war, they established our founding documents.

My daughter wrote a movie on it--well, she didn't write because it was written by our Founders, but she produced a movie on words that made America--our Declaration, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights. And thank God they had the brilliance to make our Constitution amendable. And it being amendable, it became this incredible document with the Bill of Rights, and then others that we take an oath to protect and defend.

At the same time as they did that, they created the great seal of the United States of America. I referenced it earlier. It is on the dollar bill.

You see that triangle with the eye?

It used to scare me when I was little.

What is that? A pyramid with an eye?

But under it, it says: ``Novus Ordo Seclorum.''

Catholics know that ``seclorum, seclorum, seclorum'' means ``forever and ever and ever.'' But in this, it is ``new order for the ages.''

They had so much confidence in what they had established and what they were doing that was so new and fresh to the world. They became a beacon to the world. But in doing this new order for the ages, they had confidence and optimism that this would last forever because it was predicated on the idea that every generation would take responsibility and make the future better for the next.

I said it earlier: The American Dream. People flocked to our shores bringing their aspirations, hopes, determination, and courage to make the future better for their families. And in adopting them, their traits were like American traits, characteristics of optimism, hope, courage, and making the future better. And all these newcomers to our shores, they made America more American with their commitment to a better future for their families, and that continues to this day.

And these young people now are called DREAMers. Their parents had a dream for them to bring them to our country, but they completely adapted to our way of always being dreamers about a better future in our country. They learned from the American people. They taught the American people. It is a beautiful relationship.

And now we have an opportunity to show our greatness as a country, to honor the values of our Founders, the courage they had to find a path, a solution, a result, so that we can put this aside and address other issues that relate to immigration, which are a bigger picture, more complicated, take more time, require more public debate.

Why can't we just do this?

This is discrete. Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, the chair of the Hispanic Caucus, said this so beautifully when we testified before the Rules Committee on immigration, on the Dream Act. She said: Think of this bill like CHIP. CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program, is about the children. It is not a bill that talks about universal healthcare, the whole healthcare system of our country. It is about the children. We have the immigration issue similar to being a big comprehensive issue, but then we have this little piece that is for the children.

I think it was the perfect analogy. CHIP is healthcare for the children. It doesn't address the whole healthcare system, changes that people may want to make or improve or change. It is

about the children. It is an easy path for us to go down, recognizing that it is not a substitute for what we need to do to address immigration reform in our country, but a first step, not a step instead of.

And it is a confidence-building step that we can find common ground in, in a bipartisan way, and we must, if it is going to be sustainable, just as the bill was in 1986 that President Reagan improved upon with his family fairness initiatives.

So that is why let's just think of it as about the children. We should always be thinking about the children. They are the future. They own the future. They are it. And when children come to Washington, D.C., and they visit and see how we honor our Founders, George Washington, Lincoln--later to save the Union, Lincoln--but earlier, Thomas Jefferson, et cetera, and walk these Halls and see tributes to people who went before, we say: In most cases, this is about respecting contributions these people made to our country, especially our big monuments on The Mall, and most recently, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., there.

We honor them, we learn from them, we value them. But what we do here is values-based on how they taught us. But it is about the future, and this is about how we can go into the future making distinctions, discerning. Discerning, having the ability to say there is some things we can get done, let's do them; other things take more time. Let's build confidence, build bridges in what we do, again, always trying to do it with bipartisanship, with transparency so people know what the debate is and what is in the bill, and that brings unity to our country. I think that is very possible.

I am very proud to read these statements into the Record, and I will continue to do so. But during the night, when I was thinking and praying so hard about our DREAMers, I thought maybe we should just pray all day on the floor of Congress. Maybe I should bring my rosary blessed by the Pope, blessed by His Holiness Pope Francis, or the one before that, Benedict.

I had the honor and privilege of receiving rosaries blessed by several Popes in my lifetime, but I always remember Pope Benedict. When he came, he spoke so beautifully. He spoke so beautifully. His first encyclical is called, ``God is love.'' In it, he quotes St. Augustine, who, 17 centuries ago, said: ``Any government that is not formed to promote justice is just a bunch of thieves.''

That is what St. Augustine said 17 centuries ago. He, Benedict, His Holiness, goes on to say: Sometimes it is hard to define what justice is, but in doing so, we must beware of the dazzling blindness of power and special interest.

That is what he said. But this doesn't have any of that. This has social justice, it has camaraderie, it has good spirit. It is based on faith, hope, and charity. Pope Francis, when he came, spoke so beautifully, as he always does, about respecting immigrants. He is living in a much more complicated world of immigrants coming into Europe, but, again, respecting the dignity and worth of every person.

And he came here in this Chamber and spoke about a few subjects. As you recall, one of them was poverty and how we respect the dignity and worth of people that Christ mentioned so many times in the Bible. As we know, poor people are mentioned in the Bible hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times because of how important our responsibility is to them.

But he also talked about immigration. He talked about immigration in a very important way. And as I get his statement, I will instead read from Gloria Rinconi, a medical assistant from Dallas, Texas.

She said: ``I am a girl who you graduated next to, the girl who you talked to daily, the girl who has finally decided to step away from the shadows and into the light for you to see her.

``See me as for who I am, not for someone who told you I would be.

``I immigrated to the United States when I was a year old with my parents. My parents had taken the decision to immigrate to USA due to being in a country that offered no future for their family. Even though both my parents ran a successful business and my mom had a college education, the violence and underemployment was no future for us. The first place we called home was a small apartment in Dallas, Texas, who we shared with another family. We lived in Texas for a year and moved to Statesville, North Carolina. We then moved to the outskirts of the little town in some rundown trailer homes.

``We had nothing. My parents slept on the floor while I made a makeshift bed out of a piece of cardboard and a blanket. After months of saving up money, my dad finally had enough to rent an apartment near downtown Statesville. After 9 years, we moved again to Texas. Growing up, my parents never hid the fact that I was undocumented from me. They always told me, `Just because you were not born here, does not mean you are any less. You are loved by many, regardless of what you might hear on TV.' ''

``Those words became my rock when I was in high school. When I was a freshman, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. For months she struggled trying to find treatment at an affordable rate. Doctors would turn her down simply because of her illegal status, even though she offered to negotiate a payment plan. She was dying, and no one seemed to care. Her only sin was to be an undocumented woman with stage 4 cancer. She eventually found treatment, but I had seen firsthand how dehumanizing people can be towards the undocumented. During this time, DACA was put into place and it officially opened the door for me. . . .

``DACA gave me wings, the wings I hoped for all my life when I was in school. I participated in national pageants placing as a national achievement finalist. I graduated high school with a medical assistant certification and became a recipient of TheDream.US scholarship, which helped me pursue my higher education. DACA has also given me a chance to give back to other DREAMers by being an intern at My Undocumented Life blog.''

``U.S. DACA recipients are not here to harm the U.S. The U.S. is our home and will always be our home. We are part of the fabric that makes the American flag. For that, I am willing to come out of the shadows so you can see me.''

Again, this American Dream of making the future better is recurring in all of these stories, and in all of these stories there has been success. Again, though, it is not just about the DREAMers. It is about who we are.

Luis Roberto. I talked about Luis already. I gave his speech. We had his speech from his graduating class.

Luz Divina writes: ``I came to the U.S. from . . . Mexico when I was 2 months old. I didn't know I was undocumented until sophomore year of high school when I realized I couldn't get a driver's permit, apply for jobs, or go to college programs like all my friends were doing. I felt depressed and oppressed for years until I finally applied for DACA when Obama implemented his executive order. I finally had a chance at the real world. I started a collective in high school named `The Luzdivina Collective' that helped DREAMers in my high school and victims of social injustice in my community. I am currently trying to get into education--either ethnic studies or art, maybe both. The announcement of DACA ending has put me back into a state of depression, but I'm trying my hardest to overcome this with the help of my friends and family. My dream is to be an educator, activist, and writer, to inspire DREAMers like myself who are currently or have been in a state of depression due to their legal status.''

We have to remember how strong the DREAMers are but how fragile some of their existence is when they have no certainty as to what the next steps will be for them. Again, this is all about family, about parents who had the courage to bring their children at an early age to America. This happened 100 years ago.

Do you think all of the people who came here all came documented? Maybe we should all look up our ancestry and just find out what the facts are about that. We assume so, but do we really know?

And there are many people--as I said earlier, Italians were called wops, without papers. That was a derogatory term. It is disgusting for me to say it, being an Italian American and so proud of my heritage. As I said earlier, we

grew up thinking that the world was divided among two people in America: those who were Italian American and those who wanted to be Italian American. Certainly, it feels that way in Little Italy in Baltimore, where I grew up, and in San Francisco, whom I have the honor to represent.

But, in any event, we all take pride in our heritage, and that is the best--best--qualification for recognizing the pride that other people take in their heritage. I say this to the Italian Americans all the time: Because I am so proud to be an Italian American, I understand full well why people from Mexico or Puerto Rico or Africa or wherever they are from take pride in who they are, their dignity, the authenticity of their heritage, and who they are.

And in America, that beauty, the beauty is in the mix. It certainly is in my district. But in some communities, the contributions of immigrants are not as recent as in others. But in every community, it has made a difference, constantly reinvigorating America.

And so when His Holiness Pope Francis came to speak here in the Congress, as a Catholic Italian American--that is the essence of my being--it was really a thrilling day. It was for all of us, regardless of our background or our faith. I was particularly thrilled to hear what he said about immigration.

But you recall, he talked about Martin Luther King and the march from Selma to Montgomery. He talked about people living in poverty, and he talked about a number of subjects, but I will just speak to what he said about immigration. The Pope solemnly said: ``In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent''--because, as you know, His Holiness is the first Pope from the Western Hemisphere.

``We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants''--Italian, by the way.

``I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants. Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those people and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present. Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our `neighbors' and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident we can do this.''

How beautiful. And then he goes on to talk about immigration in the rest of the world. And then he says:

``We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to disregard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.''

I will submit his whole statement for the Record because it goes on in such a beautiful, beautiful way. It also talks about climate in there, Laudato Si, which is his first encyclical about God's creation, this planet, and our responsibilities to be good stewards of it.

I am talking about His Holiness. Getting to the Bible is part of it. We talked about the Bible earlier. I thought maybe we could say a Rosary on the floor of the House, not just five decades, the full Rosary, all of the mysteries of the Rosary, that is 15 decades of the Rosary. But, nonetheless, I think these people telling their stories are very prayerful, and so I will use the time to put their stories on the Record.

But let me just say how proud I am of the statements made by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, their courage in fighting for immigrants across our country, from our cardinals, our bishops, et cetera, from their esteemed platforms, whether it is the DREAMers or TPS or comprehensive immigration reform. But right now, today, we are talking about the DREAMers.

The evangelicals in our country, Reverend Sam Rodriguez' statements, have been so spectacular about, again, the spark of divinity that exists in every person that must be respected, strong supporters of President Trump also believing that it is possible for all of us to have enough goodness in our hearts to get this job done, go past any obstacles that may be there.

Again, the Southern Baptist Convention, their leadership, all across the spectrum, of course, the Jewish community, across the full spectrum of faith-based organizations, all speaking out and rallying as people rallied when we first saw the Muslim ban.

The people of faith are people of faith. They believe, and they believe that we have obligations to each other. They have spoken out in a very courageous way.

In terms of the badges, I told you some stories about DREAMers who have come forth to help with law enforcement. By and large, we have had strong support from the law enforcement community about support for the DREAMers.

And the business community, oh, my, they have been spectacular in terms of raising the profile, treating their employees who are DREAMers with respect, advocating for them.

And this Congress of the United States, they seem to have a strong voice on some issues. I wish they would be listened to as attentively on issues of social justice here. But they do have access.

And one of the things I want to praise them for is I think that the 90 percent, 80 percent, 70 percent ratings, depending on if it is citizenship or what, but the high numbers across the board for DREAMers would not have been possible without people hearing from the bishops, from law enforcement, and from the business community making this a very high-profile issue about how their companies have benefited from the DREAMers and how they truly believe.

This is not an issue that is going to go away. It is a value. It is not an issue. It may be a subject for legislation, but this is an American value that is deeply felt across the board. And I am determined that the stories of at least some of these DREAMers--I can't do 800,000, although I am willing to take the time. That might lose impact after awhile, after some of these great stories.

Listen to Maneri: ``I'm 18 years old and from Los Angeles. I just graduated high school and will be attending UCLA to study political science in the fall. Being an undocumented student has been tough. Coming to this country at 6 years old completely changed my life. Learning English and doing well in school was a battle since everyone in my finally only spoke Spanish. . . . Being a DREAMer also shaped who I am, what I stand for. . . . After graduation, I hope to go to law school. . . . ''

I already told you this story, but it bears repeating.

``I dream that one day, your immigration status doesn't define your path. . . . ''

Alonso: ``Growing up undocumented in Utah truly shaped me into the person I am today. My experiences growing up in the margins of society inform the work I do and the work I seek to continue doing in this life. I am passionate about working with undocumented students and families and strive to share all of my knowledge and experiences with the undocumented community as well the community as a whole.

``I was born in Peru and emigrated to the United States when I was 11. I arrived in Utah with my brother to unite with our mother, who had come to the U.S. a year before our arrival. Six months after arriving in the U.S. with a tourist visa, my visa expired. . . . ''

So he came into the country with legal status. And this is something I think that is really important. Not everybody who is undocumented came here in an undocumented fashion. Some of the documentation is expired and, in the case of DACA, just a question of when the mail hit and what day it was received by the government.

``I was 12 and a hardworking student, earning good grades working toward a future that would allow me to repay my mom for all of her sacrifices. As a high school student, I enrolled in honors and AP courses, which challenged

me and furthered my plans of earning a higher education.

``I graduated from high school with a diploma of merit and went to the University of Utah, where I would major in sociology and be mentored by incredible individuals. Most pointedly, Matt Bradley Ph.D., rest in peace 2012; Caitlyn Cahill, Ph.D.; and David Quijada Cerecer, Ph.D. My mentors showed me that my work, insight, and contributions as an undocumented student are important. . . . ''

Now, imagine, this child came in documented but became undocumented when the visa expired.

``. . . and I truly owe them for showing me that I matter for being who I am.

``In 2013, I graduated from the University of Utah with an honors bachelor of science in sociology, and in 2016 with a master's in education . . . with an emphasis on higher education administration. I am currently the Dreamer Program Coordinator for the University of Utah, which is the first center for DREAMers in the State of Utah.''

God bless you, Utah.

``In the future, I would like to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology with a focus on immigration and labor studies.''

This is important because, once again, as has been consistent in these themes, the DREAMers are grateful for the mentoring they have received from people in our country, some of whom shared their heritage, most of whom did not. That is the beautiful thing about the DREAMers: they know that they have a dream, but somebody else had a plan for their own dream that inspired the DREAMers to have their plan.

When Yuri Hernandez was only 3 years old, her family brought her to the United States from Mexico. Yuri grew up in the town of Coos Bay in Oregon. In high school, she was an honor roll student who was very active in her community. Yuri went on to attend the University of Portland, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work.

Yuri is now a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She is planning to graduate with a master's in social work in the fall of 2017. In her spare time, she tutors and mentors high school students. Yuri dreams of becoming a social worker and giving back to her community.

Rey Pineda was brought to America when he was 2 years old. The first in his family to attend college and a devout Catholic, Rey is now a priest in the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, Georgia. If DACA is eliminated, Father Rey will lose his legal status and could be deported back to Mexico, a tragedy for Father Rey and his congregation.

After the most divisive election in recent memory, Father Rey and other DACA recipients have a key role to play in healing the differences that divide us.

Oscar Cornejo, Jr., was brought to Park City, Utah, when he was 5 years old. He was an excellent student throughout his childhood and now attends Dartmouth. If DACA is eliminated, Oscar will lose his legal status and could be deported back to Mexico, a country he hasn't lived in since he was 5 years old.

Will America be stronger if we deport Oscar? Will America be stronger if we deport Oscar, or if he stays here and achieves his dream of becoming an educator? The answer is clear. DACA works.

Lisette Diaz was just 6 years old when her family brought her to the U.S. from Chile. Growing up in Long Island, Lisette excelled in school and was involved in her community. She went on to attend Harvard, where she received numerous awards and participated in a variety of extracurricular activities. Lisette recently graduated Harvard with honors.

Lisette and other DREAMers have so much to contribute to our country, but Donald Trump and other Republicans have made their agenda clear. They want to shut down DACA and DAPA and deport hundreds of thousands of DREAMers and American children.

That is Lisette's view. I hope that we have a better understanding of where the President may be on this. We don't want Lisette to be deported back to Chile, a country where she hasn't lived since she was 6 years old.

When Cynthia Sanchez was just 7 years old, her family came to the United States from Mexico. Cynthia grew up in Denver, Colorado, and was an excellent student. She went on to attend the University of Denver, where she received numerous awards and scholarships and was an active volunteer.

In 2010, Cynthia graduated from college with a degree in cognitive neuroscience, which is a double major in psychology and biology, as well as a minor in chemistry.

In 2013, she applied for DACA and was approved that summer. By September, Cynthia was working at Northwestern University in Chicago doing clinical research in the Department of Medicine's Division of Cardiology. Her research focuses on improving treatment for patients who suffer from heart disease.

Cynthia said: ``DACA has meant a new realm of opportunities for me, it has opened new doors for me, and it has allowed me to once again see my dream as a reality. I truly believe that if those opposed to DACA or the Dream Act had a chance to sit and chat with undocumented students, their opinions might change. They would see capable, smart, hardworking individuals who are Americans in every sense of the word, love this country, and want to contribute to its prosperity. After all, this is our home.''

That is really very beautiful. I do believe that the more our colleagues know the DREAMers, the better it will be for our country.

Vasthy Lamadrid came to the United States from Mexico when she was only 5 years old. Despite her family's modest means, Vasthy felt safe and excelled in school. Math was her best subject, and she had nearly perfect scores on standardized tests.

In middle school, Vasthy discovered the love of engineering. She excelled academically and was active in her community.

Vasthy has gone on to attend Arizona State University, again, I mention, a great school. Because of her immigration status, she does not qualify for any government assistance and has to pay out-of-state tuition, despite having lived in Arizona for most of her life.

To help pay for her education, Vasthy decided to crowdfund her college education. Vasthy shared her story online, and this brought in enough contributions to pay for her tuition. She is currently in her second year of college. In her first semester, she made the dean's list with a 3.79 GPA in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Thanks to DACA, Vasthy is able to work to support herself and volunteer in her community. As a result of her volunteer work, Vasthy has decided that she wants to become a science teacher.

Okay. So I have been going through some of these rather quickly in order to get as many of them in the Record as possible. But I do want to change my pace a little bit because some of these stories are so emotion-filled, and I can place the statement in the Record, but I want to deliver the stories.

I am trying to be respectful of other people's time, but I am also trying to be respectful of the challenge that we face and the need for us to find a solution which is clear in sight for our DREAMers.

Fernando's family came to the United States when he was 9 years old. In high school, Fernando was an AP Scholar and received the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the achievement award in foreign language for French.

Fernando continued to excel academically at Santa Clara University, where he graduated cum laude with a double major in biology and french. Now a third-year doctoral student at UC San Francisco--the ultimate, fabulous place, right--Fernando--it is very hard to get in--works at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he is working hard to provide new insights into many diseases and disorders. Again, giving back.

Denisse Rojas--in 1990, Denisse tells her story that when she was an infant, her parents carried her across the Southwest border with the hope of giving her and her siblings a better life. Just think of this family, so courageous. Denisse's family settled in Fremont, California.

Denisse said, in her words: ``In grade school, I recall feeling different from my peers; my skin color was darker, my English was stilted, I was poor, and I was undocumented.''

In 2012, when President Obama established DACA, Denisse's life changed. As a DACA recipient, Denisse's dreams finally seemed within reach. She was able to apply to medical schools that before would have turned her away because of her immigration status. This meant that she could focus on pursuing a career in medicine and no longer fear the possibility of losing the only home she had ever known.

Denisse said: ``I have pledged allegiance to this Nation's values since my first day of school; I consider the United States my home. Furthermore, serving others has instilled in me the notion that everyone deserves the opportunity for prosperity. I thus aim to dedicate my life to serving others as a physician and continuing to be a voice for immigrants.''

Reading Denisse's story about her being concerned in grade school, ``I recall feeling different from my peers; my skin color was darker, my English was stilted,'' I am reminded of my own grandson. He is Irish, English, whatever, whatever, and Italian American. He is a mix, but he looks more like the other side of the family, shall we say.

When he had his sixth birthday, he had a very close friend whose name is Antonio. He is from Guatemala, and he has beautiful tan skin, beautiful brown eyes, and the rest. This was such a proud day for me because when my grandson blew out the candles on his cake, I said: ``Did you make a wish? And he said: ``Yes, I made a wish.'' We said: ``What is your wish.'' He said: ``I wish I had brown skin and brown eyes like Antonio.'' It was so beautiful, so beautiful.

The beauty is in the mix. The face of the future for our country is all-American, and that has many versions.

Kok-Leong Seow: ``None of my friends from my hometown know. My parents raised me to be gritty, never to complain or take handouts. I didn't want to have a victim mentality or be known for being undocumented. But I realized that sharing my story would be therapeutic, raise awareness, and help other underprivileged people.

``I came to America when I was 6 years old. My parents grew up poor and risked so much to move us here with hopes of giving us a better life. My dad is a waiter at a small restaurant, which is enough to put food on the table and clothes on our backs. We pay taxes, abide by all laws, and don't live on welfare.

``As for me, I can't legally work, drive, fly, or have health insurance. I've missed out on numerous opportunities because of my situation. Fortunately, I was able to pursue college.

``Fast forward 4 years, I have graduated magna cum laude in computer engineering from Wichita State University. I was at the top of my class, number one in my major, wrote two first-author papers, won research awards, and have a patent pending.

``Consequently, I was accepted into graduate school at Columbia University. However, due to my status, I'm unable to obtain a stipend to continue my education. Receiving DACA would grant me the opportunity to acquire the funding I need, provide for my family, and master my craft to realize my full potential. But due to election results, applying for DACA is simply not a favorable option anymore.

``Without DACA, many live in daily fear of deportation. I've had friends whose families were torn apart.''

This is Kok-Leong Seow.

``These are genuine, everyday struggles, and it's easy to dismiss it because it's not happening to your family. To truly empathize, you need to dig deep and allow yourself to feel our pain and our anxiety.''

This is a very important message, for us to dig deep and experience their pain and anxiety.

``Many non-Native Americans seem to forget that they, too, have immigration in their blood. Just like everyone else, we simply want an opportunity to contribute to the only home that we know. Ironically, I've enjoyed the adversity. I feel alive under pressure. I am unfazed and undocumented. I'm not going anywhere.''

He is not leaving.

Gladys Klamka, Phillispburg, New Jersey. ``Patience and heartache is how I would describe my past. I was 2 when my family made the most important decision for us. Moving to the U.S. meant a second chance for me. If we had stayed in Mexico, my folks would have made a decision to give me up for adoption. We settled in NJ for economic relief.

``Unfortunately, at the age of 4, my innocence was stolen from me. I was sexually molested by a 16-year-old boy, but my parents didn't report it, they didn't understand the law, for fear of deportation. Both of my parents worked full time to keep a roof over our heads. I wasn't able to go off to college financially or drive or travel. I got used to doors slamming in my face,'' Gladys writes.

``I was about 14 when my parents explained to me about our status. Confused about my future, I decided to push harder. I finished school, worked full time, and contributed back to the community.

``I received a taxpayer ID issued by the IRS in 1997. I always thought it was funny that the government will take our money but not let us work legally in this country.

``I applied for DACA in 2012. I still remember the day I opened my approval letter. My father said: `Now I don't have to worry about you.'

``I now own my own home, car, and I work in the healthcare system. After election day, I wondered if this dream would soon end. It's been a hard reality check that privileges could be taken away. I only hope for other young DREAMers and undocumented children like myself to make the leap to push that shut door open, to know a dream of wanting more is not impossible.''

This is one of the DREAMers I met at the State of the Union. Perhaps you remember, America is her name. She was the guest of David Price from North Carolina, and she spoke at our press event with the DREAMers.

America immigrated to the U.S. when she was 2 years old and has lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, for 22 years. Thanks to DACA, she was able to earn bachelor's and master's degrees. She now teaches English as a second language at Sanderson High School in Raleigh. She was just so lovely. We thank David Price for introducing her to us.

Another guest at that same press conference, as some of you may recall, was the guest of Senator Kamala Harris. Denea Joseph is her name. Denea is a DACA recipient who came to America from Belize when she was 7 years old without her mother, father, or siblings. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she advocated for the creation of an immigration attorney position and worked to increase financial aid for undocumented youth across the UC system. I wish you could have heard her personally tell her story with such intellect and such passion.

She goes on here to say: As a Young People For fellow, Denea addressed undocumented youths' educational access and retention. Her story was featured in the LA Magazine's historic immigration issue, and is currently on display as part of the Undocumented Stories Exhibit at downtown UCLA Labor Center. She is a communications coordinator for UndocuBlack Network--UndocuBlack is a resource to us. Many of the DREAMers are Black--where she advocates for the representation of UndocuBlack immigrants within the mainstream immigrant narrative. She aspires to be a human rights attorney, advocating for the rights of the most marginalized around the globe.

I mentioned here that her story is featured in LA Magazine's historic immigration issue and is on display at the downtown UCLA Labor Center, and now it will be part of the Congressional Record.

Miriam Ochoa-Garibay said: ``I'm 18 years old and I'm a DACA student currently enrolled at the University of California, Riverside. I came here from a Mexican background. I was born in the Mexican state of Michoacan, but I've been living in the United States since I was 2. I went to preschool, kinder, elementary, intermediate school, and high school in the State of California. I always loved school. I remember being a little girl and getting home from school, and the first thing I did was start my homework. I remember that, as early as elementary school,

there was this test called GATE. It was supposed to be the smart kids' test, and every year I passed it. I remember being an honors student. My parents were very persistent on me getting good grades because that meant a better future. It wasn't until I was in high school where I realized that maybe it was going to take more than just good grades to go to college. I became really aware that I was undocumented. I became fearful that I was not going to have a `better future' because I was undocumented. I knew that, financially, my parents weren't going to be able to pay for college. So when DACA came into place, it was a huge relief. There was finally a program that accepted me, an undocumented student. DACA means everything to me. Not only do I have financial aid for my college tuition, but I was granted the opportunity to work legally''--to work legally. How lovely--``to find a job and be able to make money for my needs. DACA became a reassuring force to many students like myself, whose only desire is to be given an education in order to become a successful factor of this society. I am proud to be Mexican, but I'm also proud to be part of America's great educational system. DACA has given me the opportunity to dream of my own white picket fence one day.''

This is interesting to me because, as an Italian American myself, I always reference, which is so obvious when people are proud of their heritage, especially newer immigrants, to see the pride that they take in their heritage and the fierce patriotism they have for America. That was what we saw in our community when I was growing up: fiercely patriotic Americans, while very proud of their heritage. And that is who people are. That is their authentic self: patriotic Americans proud of their heritage. We want to make this, as was said in this, to be legal.

Ana Sanchez is from Elgin, Texas. I don't know if they say Elgin in Texas. Ana says: ``Like any other beneficiary of DACA, I, for once, have been given the opportunity to pursue my dreams by attaining higher education and a job. I am Ana Sanchez, an 18-year-old undocumented student who was brought to this country when I was only 2 years old. Due to living conditions in my home country, my parents decided to immigrate to the United States to offer me and my sister a much better education and a better future. Growing up, I was aware that I had been born in Mexico, however, I did not know the effects of being undocumented until high school came about. Now that I am older, I realize who I am in the eyes of the government, and it saddens me to know that people believe these misconceptions of us. I mean, ever since we arrived to Texas, my dad has risked his health and life by working under dangerous conditions just to earn enough money to provide food and shelter for my family. When it was announced that DACA would be available for people like me, my family did not think twice. We all knew it was an advantage and a precious opportunity the country had given us. Finally, we were given the chance to prove that we are part of this country's future and success.

``Because of DACA, I am able to say that I am a part-time student and part-time staff for an afterschool program. I am two steps closer to becoming a businesswoman and a teacher, and that gives me hope. Sadly, however, the new administration has posed threats that will make my hope and my dreams unreachable. If the permit is taken away, our hard work will become worthless. I want to give back to this country, so I yearn Congress to give me that chance.''

Many of the stories that I have been reading so far have been, but not all, about people in our own hemisphere. But it is important to note that many undocumenteds are from the Asian-Pacific region. Many are from Africa or from the Caribbean. That is our hemisphere, but not in terms of Latin America, but in terms of the Caribbean. So some are even from other places that are not necessarily ethnically diverse.

Here is one story about Ha Eun Lee. Today I want to tell you about Ha Eun Lee. When Ha Eun was 6 years old, her family came to the United States from South Korea. She grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Here is what Ha Eun says about her childhood in the United States of America: ``I was fortunate enough to grow up learning that diversity is encouraged and differences are not just tolerated but welcomed.''

Ha Eun was a good student and committed to public service. In high school, she was a member of the National Honor Society, received the Principal's Academic Achievement Award, and was an Oakland Activities Association Scholar Athlete. She was a member of the track and field team for all 4 years of high school.

Ha Eun is now a senior at the University of Michigan, majoring in English. She volunteers with the Red Cross and is the co-president of an organization called The Supply. The Supply raises money to help students in Nairobi, Kenya, to attain an education.

She is from South Korea, an all-American girl, now a co-president of an organization that raises money to help students in Nairobi, Kenya, to attain an education.

As co-president, Ha Eun has expanded the organization's efforts to include volunteering locally with Detroit charities.

Ha Eun was also a policy and programs intern for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Center. As Ha Eun completes her last year of college, she dreams of becoming a lawyer to defend civil rights.

Ha Eun wrote me a letter, and she said: ``Although I'm legally labeled as an `alien' in this country I call home, I believe I am American. And I believe this not solely because I live, study, work, and contribute in this country, but because I believe in the core values all Americans shares as a nation: liberty, justice, and prosperity.''

Ha Eun and other DREAMers have so much to contribute to our country. But without DACA or the Dream Act, they will be deported back to countries where they haven't lived in since they were children.

Will America be a stronger country if we deport people like Ha Eun?

The answer is clear. That is a question that has arisen throughout. We asked it earlier.

Will America be a stronger country if we deport--fill in the blank with the name?

But I love what Ha Eun has said: ``And I believe this not solely because I live, study, work, and contribute in this country, but because I believe in the core values all Americans share as a nation: liberty, justice, and prosperity.''

Tomas Evangelista is a DACA recipient from Auburn, California. At the age of 2, he came to the United States from Mexico with his mother in search of a better life. Unfortunately, after a year of being together in the United States, his mother passed away from cancer.

Can you imagine?

His grandparents took him in and he grew up in northern California, where he ran cross country and track at Pacer High School.

These all-American kids, it is just a beautiful story.

Following his high school career, Tomas received an associate of arts in social science, and, in 2014, he completed his bachelor's of arts degree. Today, he works for the nonprofit organization Latino Leadership Council. He also intends to attend Lincoln Law School in Sacramento, California, in spring of 2018.

Tomas cofounded California Dreamers with fellow DACA recipient Doris Romero. They seek to change the negative narratives surrounding immigration with facts. They want to change the narrative with facts, the truth, through sharing personal stories. The ultimate goal is to encourage immigration reform and to establish a pathway to citizenship.

Vanessa Rodriguez story: ``My name is Vanessa Rodriguez, and they all call me Undocumented Dreamer. Undocumented because I was born south of the United States border, and Dreamer because that was the inherent last name that my parents gave me when they risked their souls to give me a better future.''

They called her Dreamer--called her Dreamer as her last name.

Vanessa continues to say: ``I have lived in Texas for 12 years, and for 12 years I have known no other home. My father works in construction and my mother works as a housemaid. Their hard work and humble occupations have given my family a chance to do more and dream higher; a chance that

made me the salutatorian of my class and a recipient of the State of Texas Student Hero Award. However, their work only granted me a chance to dream, not a chance to accomplish. Only the government could grant me that. So, for years, I lived under the notion of fear and uncertainty. DREAMers like me kept their dreams and secured them in a box called `limitations.' It was until the arrival of DACA that things changed for us. DACA enabled us to pursue and achieve more. For me, it meant an opportunity at pursuing hiring education, obtaining a job, and acquiring something called temporary security. One year of this security from deportation was what made the beginning of my dream a success. I was free from fear of deportation that enabled me to gain competence in my abilities.''

People sharing their stories in such a clear way, and, in many cases, a very well-written way.

Vanessa continues to say: ``A few weeks ago I finished my first semester at the University of Texas at Austin''--which is a very hard school to get into, by the way--``and although I was a full-time student with two part-time jobs, I still managed to obtain an outstanding GPA. DACA has made all these accomplishments possible and it has been the difference between simply existing and living a dream.

``As the time approaches for the new administration to come in, the fear is starting to become more evident. The uncertainty and anxiety is real.

``My question to Congress is: When will you unchain my dreams? When my only hope is taken away alongside DACA? Or will you fight to protect students like me from deportation?''

It is not even a fight. It is a simple decision. It is a simple decision. It has been made easy by separating it from the more complicated and controversial aspects of comprehensive immigration reform, which we must address. It is about the children. It is about the children.

Alonso R. Reyna Rivarola's story goes like this. ``I will always remember the day DACA was announced. It was June 15, 2012, and I was camping for a retreat with students, friends, and colleagues from the Mestizo Arts & Activism Collective, a youth participatory action research collective in Salt Lake City, Utah. At approximately 10 a.m., the group took a break from the agenda, which I used to go back to the tent to check on my phone. When I turned my phone back on, I was taken aback by the number of text messages, missed calls, and voicemails I was receiving. Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.

`` `The Dream Act has passed!' shouted a close friend of mine, a fellow DREAMer, in a voicemail. I was excited, yet confused by her words, knowing at the time no Dream Act bill was being debated in the U.S. Congress or Senate. However, as confused as I was, I was too adrenalized at the possibility that a quiet Dream Act boxcar bill had made its way into becoming a law.

``After returning her call, we shared our feelings of excitement and confusion regarding the matter at hand. Then she informed me President Barack Obama would be making an announcement at any moment. As soon as I hung up, I read through a few more text messages, called my mom, and ran outside the tent to inform the MAA family about the news.''

Can you just imagine the excitement? They were out camping.

Alonso continues to say: ``Within a few minutes, all MAA participants crammed ourselves into two cars in Little Cottonwood Canyon, where we tuned into the radio eager to listen to President Obama announce the program which we all have come to know as consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA.''

``My story is one of hundreds of thousands of DACA stories across the United States. We all have different backgrounds, first and last names, interests, journeys, and goals; however, we all have at least one thing in common: we are all American DREAMers. Since DACA, I have earned an honors B.S. in sociology and M.Ed. in educational leadership and policy from the University of Utah. I am an active community member and have most recently been honored to serve as the Dream Program Coordinator at the University of Utah, where I seek to support undocumented students, with and without DACA, to access, persist, and achieve a higher education in the country we all call home.''

The way they write these stories and the excitement and the anxiety that they convey is really something that the printed word may not convey. But I hope at least the Record will show the cumulative effect of all of these stories. I wish you could see them.

A person who has seen more of them than anyone honors us with his presence in the Chamber. We all get emotional on this subject, but no one has put more brainpower and passion into this subject than the distinguished Senator from Illinois.

He has served in this body for a long time, so we know of his leadership and his values. But for all the years he has served in public life before Congress and since, and in the House and now as a leader in the Senate, the DREAMers have been a priority for half of his service in public life.

He first introduced the DREAM Act in 2001 into the Senate. It was introduced over on our side by Lucille Roybal-Allard around the same time. She is the mother, the godmother of the DREAM Act that has been advanced.

In 2010, we were able to pass the DREAM Act in the House under the leadership of Mr. Durbin, Senator Durbin. It received a majority of the votes in the United States Senate but did not reach the 60 threshold, and so the discussion goes on. As you know, shortly thereafter, a couple of years later, President Obama issued the DACA executive order.

None of this success would have been possible without the leadership, persistence, optimism, and the courage of Senator Durbin. He has heard all of these stories, so many of these stories firsthand for nearly two decades. I congratulate him.

And as I have said earlier, our call today is for our Speaker to give the same opportunity to House Members to vote on a DREAMers bill, just as they were able to achieve in the Senate.

Senator McConnell, the Senate leader, has been working with a bipartisan group of which he has always been a part--it has always been about bipartisanship--pledged to bring to the Senate floor a vehicle that the Senate will act upon, no guarantees. The Senate will work its will. What dignity that brings to the United States Senate, what commitment to the purpose of America that is there.

We feel like second-class Members of Congress over here when it is not within our realm to discuss something that is being discussed across the country, in the Senate of the United States, at the White House. But here, we can't have the opportunity to officially discuss legislation that is on the floor.

That is why I am taking this time, my congressional leadership 1- minute, to read into the Record these inspiring stories. Again, it brings tears to my eyes. Excuse me for being emotional about it, but when I think of the contribution that Senator Durbin has made to this, the stories he has heard, the stories he has told--I have seen him receive with great respect and honor across the country getting so many awards from people who see him as a person who understands their anxiety and concern but, as important as that, their possibilities and their contribution to America.

That is why, as I said earlier, Senator Durbin should think of this as the CHIP versus healthcare; as the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, has described in front of the Rules Committee, think of this as CHIP versus healthcare, children versus comprehensive immigration reform.

This is one clear opportunity where we can come together not as a substitute for comprehensive, but as a step, confidence building, trust building, in a bipartisan way, with transparency and in a unifying way for our country.

So I thank the gentleman, Senator Durbin.

Because of the leader minute, I am not able to yield; otherwise, I would have nearly 200 people seeking recognition on the floor to tell the stories of their DREAMers. I have told some of them, but our colleagues are so committed and unified on this subject, and their constituents are.

But even if a colleague on the other side of the aisle would say, ``Will the gentlewoman yield?'' the rules do not

allow me to yield, so I am keeping the time.

As said earlier before the gentleman came, I thought about saying the Rosary on the floor to pray for our leadership to act with a heart full of love, both here and at the White House, on this subject. I said not just 5 decades, all 15 decades, including the Glorious Mysteries. They were the sad ones in the middle: the Agony in the Garden, the Crowning with Thorns, Scourging at the Pillar, the Crucifixion. Then it takes us to the Glorious Mysteries. But all of it is prayerful. I believe in prayer.

And so many of our, as I call it, Bible constituency--not the National Catholic Conference of Bishops but the evangelical community-- has been so spectacular in supporting immigrants to our country and, especially in this case, of DACA.

This is the statement of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops:

``The president and vice president, along with the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops''--in this case, meaning the president of the organization--``along with the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have issued a statement denouncing the administration's termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program after 6 months.

``The following statement from the USCCB''--that is, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops--``President Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, along with USCCB Vice President Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles; Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, chairman, Committee on Migration; and Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, chairman of the Subcommittee on Pastoral Care, Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers says the `cancellation of the DACA program is reprehensible.'

``Over 780,000 youth received protection from the DACA program since its inception by the Department of Homeland Security in 2012. DACA provided no legal status or government benefits but did provide recipients with temporary employment authorization to work in the United States and a reprieve from deportation.''

A quote by the Bishops: `` `The cancellation of the DACA program is reprehensible. It causes unnecessary fear for DACA youth and their families. These youth entered the United States as minors and often know America as their only home. The Catholic Church has long watched with pride and admiration as DACA youth live out their daily lives with hope and a determination to flourish and contribute to society: continuing to work and provide for their families, continuing to serve in the military, and continuing to receive an education. Now, after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people face deportation. This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.' ''

The bishops go on to say: `` `The Church has recognized and proclaimed the need to welcome young people: ``Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the One who sent me''--Mark 9:37.' ''

That is so beautiful because what they are saying is, when you reject these newcomers, you are rejecting who sent them, and who sent them but our Lord.

Today, our Nation has done the opposite of how Scripture calls us to respond. It has stepped back from the progress that we need to make as a country.

``Today's actions represent a heartbreaking moment in our history that shows the absence of mercy and goodwill and a shortsighted vision of the future. DACA youth are woven into the fabric of our society and our Church, and are, by every social and human measure, American youth.

``We strongly urge Congress to act and immediately resume work toward a legislative solution. We pledge our support to work on finding an expeditious means of protection for DACA youth.''

The bishops go on to say: ``As people of faith, we say to DACA youth, regardless of your immigration status, you are children of God and welcome in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church supports you and will advocate for you.''

That is such a beautiful statement.

As I noted earlier, tomorrow is the National Prayer Breakfast, and many people who will be gathered there are among those who have been so supportive of our DREAMers. We thank them for their leadership and their courage. I mentioned some earlier. I don't know if these people will be there tomorrow, but certainly members of their church. As I mentioned, Dr. Sam Rodriguez, Reverend Sam Rodriguez has spoken out as a leader in the evangelical community.

So, hopefully, tomorrow, as they pray and come together, they will be speaking about what we see from the pulpit, from the bishops, from the evangelical community. If you believe that we are all God's creation, as I do, as people of faith do--and I do believe faith is a gift that everyone doesn't have.

So you may not have that same perspective, but if you do believe--and I believe that everyone gathered there tomorrow will believe--and many people across our country subscribe to ``In God We Trust,'' then you must subscribe to what the Bible tells us. To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship; to ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us, dishonor the God who made us, reflected in the Gospel of Matthew that I referenced earlier.

So when we are thinking about this subject, we also have to recognize the diversity in our DREAMer population.

In 2002, Luke was 11 years old. His family brought him to the United States from South Korea.

The Senator has left us, but Senator Durbin inspires us. He is such a great leader on this subject because it is from the heart and the right thing to do, but with great intellect, to have a vision and a dream, but an intellect with a plan to get the job done.

There is a clear path. It exists in the Senate. We don't know why that door is shut to us in the House. We call upon the Speaker to open the same door in the House, through discussion, that is in the Senate.

I want to commend, once again, Senator Durbin for his extraordinary leadership. DREAMers know him.

In 2002, when Luke was 11 years old, his family brought him to New York State from South Korea. Luke grew up in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Here is what Luke said about growing up in Palisades Park:

``It didn't take long for me to adjust and assimilate because my elementary school offered bilingual classes in Korean and English. This is the kind of America I have known and experienced--not just mundanely accepting diversity, but going above and beyond to serve the unique needs of a diverse community.''

From an early age, Luke had a passion for science. He was accepted into a math and sciences magnet high school called Bergen County Academies, which was ranked by Newsweek as one of the top five public high schools in the country. At Bergen County Academies, Luke won several awards at regional science fairs. He also volunteered as an emergency medical technician in the local ambulance corps.

In 2013, Luke graduated--are you ready?--summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemistry and received an award for the highest grade point average of any chemistry major.

This brilliant young man is currently a Ph.D. graduate in chemistry at the University of Chicago. He also works as a researcher at the university. In his spare time--in his spare time, how does he have spare time--but in his spare time, he also works as a researcher. He volunteers for the Chicago Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, an organization that provides services to disadvantaged members of the community. Good for you, Luke.

Consider this: without legal status, Luke's talents would have been squandered. But now, thanks to DACA, when we had DACA, Luke was on the road toward making his childhood passion into a promising career as a scientist.

Luke has written: ``DACA did much more than shielding me from deportation and changing my immediate circumstances; it gave me a new faith and brought out a new me to reject fear and continue worthwhile pursuits. DACA has been tremendously empowering. Wherever I find myself in the future, I hope to mentor, encourage, and ultimately empower others.''

Luke and other DREAMers have so much to contribute to our country.

Do we need more talented scientists like Luke Hwang in America? Of course we do. Will America be stronger if we deport Luke Hwang or if he stays here to contribute his talents to America's future? The answer should be obvious. I thank Luke.

Her parents brought her to the United States from the Philippines when she was 5 years old. Mithi grew up in California. She was an excellent student who dreamed of becoming a doctor. In high school, Mithi was on the principal's honor roll and was an AP scholar. She received the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and is a Governor's Scholar Award recipient. Mithi was admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the Nation's top universities. Congresswoman Waters would attest to that. UCLA is one of the Nation's top universities. We all are proud of the UC system.

At UCLA, Mithi volunteers as a research assistant in lab studies of infants at high risk of developing autism. That was her field. She also volunteers as a crisis counselor for UCLA Peer Helpline advising students who are victims of rape, child abuse, and substance abuse. Mithi eventually became a trainer for new counselors.

Mithi also volunteers as a mentor and tutor for at-risk middle school children in Los Angeles. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology. But her options were limited, Mr. Speaker, because of her immigration status. She was unable to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.

Then, in 2012, President Obama established the DACA program, and Mithi's world changed. Mithi began working as a research assistant at the UCLA School of Medicine, and she applied to attend medical school.

During her spare time, Mithi continues to volunteer with the Autism Research Lab where she started her research career 7 years ago. She also serves as a peer mentor to 10 undergraduate students at UCLA.

Mithi wrote to Congress these words: ``Please, please listen to our stories. This is my home, and the only country I know. DACA gives us greater opportunities to give back to the country we love.''

Listen to that sentence again, Mr. Speaker. Mithi wrote: ``DACA gives us greater opportunities to give back to the country we love.''

That is what the DREAMers are about. Their dream is to give back to America. They have benefited from our country. They want to give back; and the courage, optimism, and fortitude that they have is really a blessing.

Mithi and other DREAMers like her have so much to contribute. Will America be stronger if we deport Mithi and others like her? Will we be a better country if we tear apart American families? Of course not.

This is going to be a hard name for me to pronounce. It is Jirayut New Latthivongskorn. His parents brought Jirayut to the United States from Thailand when he was 9 years old. New--we will call him New. New grew up in San Francisco. New said: ``I forced myself to read mystery novels, dictionary in hand, in order to expand my vocabulary, one word at a time. I mispronounced words, even in the face of ridicule, until I mastered the English language.''

New became an excellent student and dreamed about becoming a doctor. Throughout high school, New worked 30 hours a week at his family's Thai restaurant. Here is what he said about the experience: ``I spent most of my time at the restaurant working as a waiter, cashier, and chef, scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, and mopping floors. It taught me to have faith, work hard, and persevere.''

New's hard work paid off. He graduated as a salutatorian of his high school class with a 4.3 grade point average. New was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley, one of the top schools in California--in the Nation. He won a scholarship that would have covered most of his tuition, but he was unable to accept it because of his immigration status.

Despite the setback, New persevered. In May, 2012, he graduated with honors with a 3.7 grade point average with a major in molecular and cellular biology.

Just 1 month after he graduated, President Obama established the DACA program. As a result of DACA, New was able to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. That fall, New began medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, a very difficult school to get into. During his spare time, he volunteers at the homeless clinic that is run by the students of the University of California, San Francisco. In his spare time.

New has cofounded Pre-Health Dreamers, a national network of more than 400 DREAMers who are pursuing careers in healthcare. New and other DREAMers like him have so much to contribute to our country. Will America be a stronger country if we deport New and others like him? Will we be a better country if we tear apart American families? Of course not. We all agree on that.

Aaima Sayed was brought to the United States from Pakistan when she was only 3 years old. She grew up in Chicago like a typical American kid. Aaima says: ``I have no memories but those of living in the United States. I am an American in every way, except on paper.''

Aaima was an outstanding student. She graduated in the top 10 percent of her high school class where she was secretary of the Spanish club-- mind you, she is from Pakistan. She was secretary of the Spanish club, secretary of the math team, and a member of the National Honor Society of High School Scholars. Aaima's dream was to become a physician.

Here is how she explains it: ``It completely breaks my heart to see thousands of children die of treatable diseases due to inadequate basic healthcare facilities, and I want to have the skills and ability to change that.''

In January 2012, Aaima graduated from Rutgers University magna cum laude, Mr. Speaker, with a major in psychology. She was on the dean's list six times and has a grade point average of 3.75 out of 4. She was a research assistant at Rutgers Department of Psychology and an intern with the local cardiology practice. Aaima took the medical college admission test, the MCAT, and scored in the 90th percentile--better than 90 percent of those who took the test.

Shortly after she graduated, President Obama announced the DACA program. Because of DACA, Aaima is now a medical student at Loyola University pursuing her dream of becoming a physician. After she graduates, she will work in a medically underserved area of Illinois.

Here is what Aaima said about the DACA impact on her: ``I went from feeling hopeless and full of uncertainty regarding my future to feeling confident and optimistic that I will one day get the opportunity to help my community and people in other poverty-stricken areas.''

But if the House Republicans have their way, Aaima won't be able to attend medical school and become a doctor. Instead, she will be deported back to Pakistan, a country she hasn't lived in since she was a toddler.

I wouldn't attribute it to the Republicans. I think that plenty of Republicans are on board to help our DREAMers. That is what I am hopeful about, just that we need to be given the chance to have a respectful vote on all sides of the issue which we have bipartisan Democrats' strong support, but strong Republican support as well.

Give us a vote, Mr. Speaker. Give us a chance. Treat this House with the dignity it deserves so that we can represent the people and the wishes of our country.

Will America be stronger if we deport Aaima? Of course not.

Today, I want to tell you about our Al Okere. Al was born in Nigeria. In 1990, Al's father was killed by the Nigerian police after he wrote a newspaper column criticizing the Nigerian Government. The killing of Al's father was documented in the State Department's annual Human Rights Reports. In 1995, Al's mother fled Nigeria and brought him to the United States. He was only 5 years old at the time.

Al's mother applied for asylum, but her application was denied, and she was deported in 2005, when Al was 15. Now, mind you, her husband had been assassinated for articles that he had written criticizing the Nigerian Government, a well-founded fear of persecution or danger in Nigeria, yet her application was denied in 2005. Al was 15.

Al graduated from Rogers High School near Tacoma, Washington. He attended Central Washington University where he was an honors student with a 3.5 grade point average. He was an active volunteer in his community.

Here is what Al said about his goals for the future, and I quote Al very proudly: ``I have been in accelerated academic programs most of my educational life and hope to be a medical doctor some day to contribute to the well-being of my fellow humans. I hope to continue to emulate and walk in the great academic shoes of my late father, who earned a Ph.D. degree from a university in Paris, France. My family and community support has been enormous, and it gives me the zeal to work hard in my studies, to be able to lend a hand to others in need, and to realize a bright future!''

Al grew up in this country. We have already invested in Al, who has received his entire education from kindergarten to college in the United States. He has great potential to contribute to our society. He does not remember anything about Nigeria and cannot speak any of Nigeria's native languages.

Here is what Al said about the possibility of being deported: ``I do not remember anything about my mother's country of Nigeria. I cannot even speak the language. Every experience I have had in life that I can remember have been in the United States of America. Everyone I know and care about are all here, except for my mother, who was sadly removed and remains in hiding in fear of her life.''

Would America be stronger if Al Okere were deported? Of course not. Al is not an isolated example. There are literally thousands of others, hundreds of thousands of others like him around the country. I thank Al for being so generous in sharing his story.

I want to tell you about Novi Roy. Novi Roy grew up in the State of Illinois. Novi was brought to the United States from India as a child. He attended Evanston Township High School. This is a story that Senator Durbin provided.

He attended Evanston Township High School where he graduated with a 3.9 grade point average. During high school, Novi began volunteering at a soup kitchen in Rogers Park in Chicago, which he continues to do today.

Novi went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics. Novi graduated from the University of Illinois with two master's degrees, one in business and one in human resources. Novi's dream is to be able to provide affordable healthcare to the less fortunate.

Here is what he said in the letter he wrote to Dick Durbin: ``I love America for all its opportunities, and, like any other aspiring student, I want a chance to realize the American Dream. I owe the State of Illinois, its taxpayers, and America a huge debt of gratitude for the level of education I have attained thus far. I'm confident that my education will serve me well enough to make a difference in people's lives. There is nothing I would like more than to give back to the community that has been so good to me.''

Novi grew up in this country. We have already invested in Novi, and he has obtained a first-class education in Illinois. He has great potential to contribute to our society. Will America be a stronger nation if Novi is deported? Of course not. He has overcome the odds to achieve great success. He would make America a strong country.

Again, Novi's story comes to us when he came from India as a child. There is a large number of Asian-Pacific American Dreamers.

Yaniv Steltzer was brought to the United States by his parents from Israel when he was just 3 years old, a DREAMer from Israel. He grew up in this country like any other American child. In 2010, he graduated from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey with a bachelor's degree in hospitality and tourism management.

In college, he was the chair of the Jewish Student Union/Hillel Club and was an active volunteer with several other student groups.

Yaniv's dream is to open a restaurant. He wrote a letter, which said:

I fell in love with cooking in high school when I took a

home-economics class, and I knew this is what I wanted to do

for the rest of my life. I would love to give back to America

by opening my own restaurant, creating jobs, contributing to

the economy, and becoming a citizen in the country I love.

Unfortunately, under our immigration laws, Yaniv cannot become a citizen. His father was born in the United States. But Yaniv was born in Israel, so he is not an American citizen. Yaniv's father applied for Yaniv to become a citizen, but because the process took so long, Yaniv is no longer eligible.

Under our immigration laws, once Yaniv turned 21, his father could not petition for Yaniv to become a citizen.

So, Yaniv, who has lived his whole life in this country since he was 3, since his father is an American citizen, he is an undocumented immigrant. The only solution for him is the Dream Act.

Here is what Yaniv said about his situation:

America is the only country I know. I grew up here, all my

family and friends are here, and everything I know is

America. The Dream Act is important to me and also to many

others like me who are in the same situation. We have the

resources to help this country greatly, but don't have that

piece of paper that allows us to do this. I have high hope

and optimism that Congress will do the right and humane

thing, put all political issues aside, and pass the Dream

Act.

Yaniv is right.

I ask my colleagues: Would America be better off if we deported Yaniv?

The answer is very obvious.

Eighteen years go, in 1992, Minhaz Khan's parents brought him to the United States from Bangladesh. Minhaz was only 4 years old at the time, and has overcome great obstacles to complete his education. In 2009, he graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience.

Here is what he said about his dreams for the future:

``My dream is to make several contributions to science, and become a physician's assistant as a career, and eventually a teacher as well. I have great aspirations, but I do not dream of big houses or tons of cars. I want normality, stability, and liberty.''

Today, Minhaz lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, who is an American citizen. Minhaz spoke about what it would mean for him if the Dream Act were to become law. Here is what he said:

``Imagine the countless numbers of individuals ready to contribute to our society as law-abiding, successful individuals who live life with a sense of strength and morality. Abraham Lincoln once said, `I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice,' and this is more true now than ever. I have a great amount of hope, optimism, and belief in this country and that one day we will see the Dream Act enacted into law.''

This is his statement, Minhaz Khan, from Bangladesh.

Another child brought here from India, as was an earlier DREAMer, Mandeep Chahal. Mandeep was brought to the United States from India 14 years ago, when she was only 6 years old. A beautiful little child.

Mandeep has been an academic all-star. She was an honors pre-med student at the University of California, Davis, where she majored in neurology, physiology, and behavior.

Mandeep is also dedicated to public service. In high school, she helped to found One Dollar for Life, a national poverty relief organization. She was voted the member of her class ``Most likely to Save the World. Imagine, most likely to save the world. At her college, Mandeep is the co-president of STAND, an anti-genocide group.

Mandeep has so much to offer to our country. She wrote: ``I . . . consider the United States my only home. My family, friends, and future are in the United States, which is where I belong. My dream is to become a pediatrician so I can treat the most helpless and innocent among us. I hope to serve families in low-income communities who otherwise are unable to afford medical care. I wish to remain in the United States so that I can continue to make a positive difference and give back to the community that has given me so much.''

How beautiful. You see the recurring theme of the DREAMers: wanting to give back to America, appreciative of the opportunities they have received here--the mentoring, the friendship, the love; wanting to give back.

Dominique Nkata and Tapiwa Nkata. There are two.

Tapiwa's and Dominique's parents, John and Joan Nkata, brought their family to the United States from the African county of Malawi in 1990. At the time, Tapiwa was 4 and Dominique was only 11 months old.

The Nkatas came here legally. They had work permits. John, an ordained Christian minister, worked as a hospice counselor. Joan, his wife--their mother--worked as an accountant.

The Nkatas filed papers to stay here permanently. For years, their case was stuck in immigration court. Finally, in 2009, John and Joan Nkata were granted legal permanent residence. But by that time, Tapiwa and Dominique were adults and unable to obtain legal status through their parents. That happens at 21.

Here is what Dominique said about being deported to Malawi: ``The looming fear of having everything I know, including part of my family, here in the United States, while I am removed to the other side of the world, is crippling.''

Tapiwa said: ``I can't imagine my life in Africa. I am an American. I know this culture and speak this language. I pledge allegiance to this flag.''

It would be wrong to send these women back to Malawi, a country they don't even remember. Remember, one of them was 11 months old when she came.

In 2007, Tapiwa graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in finance. She then worked at an accounting firm. She dreams of becoming a certified public accountant.

Tapiwa explained what America means to her: ``Quite simply, when you say `The American Dream' all around the world, they know what you are talking about. People who have never been to our shores, eaten our food, or even spoken our language have heard of a prosperous nation that, above all else, grants freedom and rights to all people.''

Dominique graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in chemistry and pre-medicine. Remember, her sister graduated summa cum laude with a degree in finance. Dominique graduated with a degree in chemistry and pre-medicine and began working at University Hospital and the Jewish Hospital in the research department as a clinical studies assistant.

Dominique planned to apply to medical school. She said: ``I dream of being a doctor and of giving back to a country that has given so much to me.''

Would America be better off if we deported Tapiwa and Dominique back to Malawi?

Of course not. The Dream Act gives them a chance.

Let me introduce you to another DREAMer, Monji Dolon.

Monji's parents brought him to the United States from Bangladesh in 1991. He was 5 years old. As he grew up in his new home, he immersed himself in the study of computers and technology.

Monji wrote: ``For as long as I can remember, I have had an intense passion for technology. In middle school, that passion led to spending many nights constructing remote-controlled model airplanes and Van de Graaff generators. In high school, I fell in love with computers and the internet, spending my senior year creating an online newspaper for my school.''

Monji did not know about his immigration status until he was applying for college. He asked his parents what to say about his status on his college applications. That is when Monji learned that he was undocumented.

In 2008, Monji graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an outstanding school. Very soon, Monji began to be courted by the technology industry. He was even offered a job as the lead engineer for a startup in Silicon Valley.

Monji's prospects would be limited because of his immigration status.

The Dream Act would give Monji a chance to pursue his dream and contribute his talent to the country he calls home.

Here is what he has to say: ``I've turned down several great jobs from reputable companies because of my status. The Dream Act would let me take my passion for technology to the next level by allowing me to move to Silicon Valley and pursue my dream as an internet entrepreneur.''

So, we have someone like Monji, with his talents, his entrepreneurship, his passion, and his intellect. What a resource to our country.

I keep asking the question: Would America be better off if we deported Monji back to Bangladesh, a country he left when he was 5 years old?

Of course not.

Herta Llusho was brought to the United States from Albania when she was 11. She and her mother settled in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

Herta and her mother came to the United States legally. Shortly before arriving in America, Herta's mother filed an application to stay in the United States.

Herta quickly learned English and became an academic star. She graduated from Grosse Pointe High School with a 4.05 grade point average. In high school, she was a member of the varsity track team, won an Advanced Placement Scholar Award, and was a member of the National Honor Society.

Herta then attended the University of Detroit Mercy, where she was an honor student and studied to be an electrical engineer. She had a grade point average of 3.98 and completed two internships at engineering companies.

She is from Albania, I remind you.

Herta has been very involved with her community, volunteering at homeless shelters, tutoring programs, and her church.

Listen to what one of her friends said about her: ``I am humbled by Herta's willingness and desire to serve. I have had the privilege of going to the same church at which she faithfully serves. She spends hours tutoring kids and volunteering with the junior high Sunday school class. It is a joy to watch so many children run up to her at church because of the love they receive when they are with her.''

Would it be a good use of taxpayer dollars to deport Herta?

Of course not.

Again, there is so much discussion in the United States about the need for more young people to study what is known as STEM--science, technology, engineering, and math. Of course, we add the arts in there:

Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Are we going to be able to have Special Orders for our colleagues at the end of the session?

Okay. I didn't know if a decision had been made about that yet.

Then I will continue to read.

Amy Kele. This is from Representative Jayapal, a leader on the immigration issues, as you probably all know, an immigrant herself to our country, and now a Member of Congress. I am so proud of her.

Amy Kele and her family moved from Fiji to settle in

Everett, Washington, staying on their father's student visa.

Things change when Amy's parents left the U.S. to attend a

wedding in Fiji.

``They were only planning to stay for 2 weeks, but then my

mom's visa got denied,'' said Amy, the oldest of four

children. Amy is now 19, but the last time she saw her

parents was when she was just 11 years old.

How sad.

When Amy's parents left for Fiji, Amy's grandmother came

from California to babysit. When they weren't able to reenter

the country, she picked up her life and moved to Everett to

care for her grandchildren. ``She's the heart of this whole

family. She's kept us together this whole time. I don't know

where we'd be right now, maybe back in Fiji or in a foster

home. I'm really thankful for her in our lives,'' said Kele.

Though Amy's grandmother has been living in the U.S. for

almost 20 years, she is also undocumented. ``Because she's

also undocumented, she can't get benefits like Social

Security and things like that. It kind of breaks my heart

whenever I think about it.''

With the exception of Amy's younger sister, who was born in

the United States, the Kele children have all enrolled in

Well, that is what we asked earlier, and we had made that overture but never did get an answer back.

We have been joined by Congresswoman Judy Chu who, as I mentioned earlier, is the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, a leader fighting for family fairness and the issue of family unification in any of our immigration discussions; Congresswoman Nita Lowey, our ranking member on appropriations and really central to all the discussion this is about, about the appropriations bill that will come back from the Senate.

It will come back from the Senate with a promise from their leader, Mitch McConnell, that we would--that they, in the Senate, would have a vote on a DREAMers bill to be debated, and the chips will fall where they may. We are simply asking the Speaker for the same opportunity.

So I thank Mrs. Lowey for her leadership. Congresswoman Roybal- Allard, as I mentioned earlier, was the original--I called her the godmother--of the DREAM Act. She had the original bill, and then she joined with Senator Durbin in advancing it in 2001.

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, part of our communications group on this

and other subjects, I thank Hakeem Jeffries from New York.

Congressman Gonzalez from Texas who knows firsthand the border, the challenges that we face; Congressman Joe Kennedy from Massachusetts, again, a strong supporter, mentioned again in his response to the President.

I mentioned Adam Schiff earlier about his being involved in our discussions and our earlier meetings today on the subject; and Congresswoman Hanabusa from Hawaii, of course, very involved in this issue, as you would suspect.

So I thank so many of our colleagues for joining here on the floor. I don't know if they have--I have so many more, but I didn't know if they had any. These are from my colleagues. This is my stack, but these are from my colleagues; so I will go to those.

From Congresswoman Lowey, this is a letter from a DREAMer to Congresswoman Nita Lowey. ``I want to thank you for your support of DACA. I know you are doing all you can to fight heartless legislation and initiatives that would deport a potential 800,000 young people. I am 28 years old, and I am one of the DREAMers, having come to America from El Salvador when I was 15 years old.

``I attended school in Ramapo, New York, and now make my home with my wife in Pearl River. Life in El Salvador, where I was born, was dangerous and brutal, which is why my father moved us to America in 2005.''

And this is a story we have heard over and over.

``I am grateful every day for all the opportunities presented to me here. I currently work as a technology specialist at Apple and feel it is so important to continue achieving, setting goals, and giving back to my community.''

``It would break my heart to lose my home and life here in New York.

``The prognosis on DACA seems to be changing daily, adding to growing uncertainty. My status expires in November.

``What will my future be?

``I am reaching out to you to ask if I could meet with you at one of your local offices to discuss DACA.

``My employer has offered support and legal assistance. . . .''

That is from Hugo Alexander Acosta Mazariego.

And as I said earlier, our business community has been superlative in all of this.

Representative Torres sent a story from Leydy Rangel: ``My name is Leydy Rangel, and I have lived in the United States since I was 8. I am now 22. In June, I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, where I earned a degree in journalism. I have always known I am undocumented because I remember the first day of elementary school and how kids pointed out my brown skin so much.''

I told you my story about that before.

Leydy says: ``I know that my parents moving to the States was extremely horrifying and leaving everything behind was difficult, but it makes me feel better knowing that my future here was brighter than the one I could've ever had in Mexico.

``Regardless of not having enough food on the table, not having help on my homework, not having any resources to help me apply to college, I managed and got accepted to college and moved hours away from home with the purpose of bettering myself and my family.''

This is really the American Dream story over and over again.

She references when DACA was created, she had stability, if only temporarily, in America, the only country she knows. By repealing DACA, her hopes and aspirations were forced into another place.

Leydy says: ``I do not have any clear memories of Mexico, and I do not know anyone in Mexico. My entire life is in the United States. Here is where I have made my life for myself, and taking that away from me is inhumane. This Nation is the only one that I aspire to contribute to and the only one I belong to.''

Graciela Nunez is a 22-year-old student, a Washington graduate, who works at a humanitarian law firm. She is a driven person with a desire to give back, and she has big ambitions for the future. She is also a DREAMer and DACA recipient who was born in Venezuela.

When Graciela was 7 years old, her parents moved. They told her that her family was going to the U.S. to visit Disney World on a short vacation. Only as she got off the plane did she realize that she was not going back to Venezuela. They were fleeing the Chavez regime, and they were in the United States to stay.

This is the only country Graciela knows. She, like 1.8 million other DREAMers in this country, has built her life here. She is as American as it gets. A piece of paper could not negate her participation in all of the things that make this country great. Graciela feels little connection to Venezuela. She doesn't know how many Presidents that country has had. She is unfamiliar with the geography, but she has got a 5 in AP U.S. history and she can talk about the documents that built this Nation with more detail than any of us.

In Graciela's words, she has been living under constant heightened stress because of the fate of DACA. And we know what that program is about.

Graciela says DACA has let people know that undocumented youth have potential. It gives them upward social mobility and a way out. It allows DREAMers to do exactly what their name implies: to dream for a better life and to not let paper limit potential.

Jimmy Panetta has sent us a story from Katherine from Salinas. I mentioned Jimmy earlier and his work in trying to find a bipartisan solution.

Katherine says: ``I'm very grateful for all the things this country has done for me, but I think it's not their turn to see what I have done for them, to see everything that I've accomplished: the awards, the high GPAs, and all the amazing people that are DACA recipients. The process you have to go through and the strictness to obtain DACA is so hard. If you have just a little detail on your record, that's it, you're out.

``We're some of America's best. And I want to know why they are taking this away from us.

``Why don't you want us here? Don't you want people with degrees? Don't you want people with cool internships and cool jobs? Why don't you want me here?

``Our parents are original DREAMers, and we're here trying to accomplish their dreams. Please be able to see that for yourselves.''

So this is that same thing about parents.

Mr. Hoyer has a story from Ivy Teng Lei, a Chinese American DACA recipient raised in Manhattan's Chinatown. She is the youngest of three and became the second to graduate college in her family from Baruch College. Today, she continues to devote her free time to empowering underserved communities. She chairs the Professional Leadership Council on Asian American Federation, hosts seminars and workshops on professional and cultural engagement activities. She is now an independent consultant for small business, nonprofits, and immigrant organizations. She just devotes so much of her free time to empowering underserved communities.

Ivy Teng Lei's story is just what this country needs. I thank Mr. Hoyer for referring her to us. She is a Chinese American.

Jung Bin Cho's family emigrated to the United States in 2001 from South Korea. They decided to leave to attain the American Dream for their children. He enrolled in first grade in Virginia, and, in 2016, proudly graduated from Virginia Tech.

Jung Cho says: ``The U.S. is the only home I know. Because of DACA, I worked and could save money to help pay for college. Where I live in Northern Virginia, you need a car to get anywhere. Because of DACA, I can drive, giving my family rides or to study.''

Anyway, these are all just very personal stories about the struggles, the obstacles, but the optimism, the determination, and the hope that all of these people have. Isn't that what America is about? America is about optimism and hope.

This one is from Representative Esty about Carolina Bortolleto. She had other testimony earlier. Elizabeth Esty from Connecticut has been a champion on this issue, and she sends this other testimony.

Carolina says: ``I was born in Brazil and moved to the U.S. with my family

and my twin sister when I was 9 years old. I came to Connecticut. I knew I was undocumented, and so I'd face a tougher path to college, but I made the decision to keep fighting.

``I was able to graduate in top 5 percent of my class and got a scholarship to Western Connecticut State University, where I graduated in 2010 with a degree in biology. In 2010, I cofounded a local organization working for the rights of undocumented students in Connecticut.

``I was able to buy my first car and obtain a driver's license. At the end of 2014, I suffered a severe medical emergency and spent 8 months in the hospital. But due to DACA, I was able to get a job that offered health insurance with the national organization United We Dream.''

Here we are again with United We Dream.

Carolina says: ``Now my DACA expires on March 2019, and, with it, I will lose my health insurance that I need to live.''

Again, these stories go on and on. I think, really, the point is that these young people have accomplished things that I think many of us would not have been able to accomplish. Perhaps some. I give everyone credit for obstacles they have overcome. But if you have all of the obstacles of economic disadvantage, plus being undocumented, uncertainty in your family, and all the emotional unrest that that causes, and to see them in the National Honor Society, the top 1 percent, the top 10 percent, the top 5 percent of their classes, giving back, volunteering over and over again in their communities, these are the best of the best. They are so fabulous.

Again, their parents were so courageous. They had a dream for their children, and some of these children are now reflecting that they are living their parents' dream for them. And that is what America has always been about.

Mr. Speaker, I have plenty more stories to tell. Some of them submitted by our colleagues, but I know that there is supposed to be a vote sometime soon.

Is that correct? Or can we just go on?

Mr. Speaker, may I ask what the order of things is here? Do I have just time to go on and on? Or is there a vote being called? Or what?

Aldo Solano was at the State of the Union address. He was the guest of Congressman Earl Blumenauer. Aldo moved from Mexico when he was 6. He grew up in one of the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation's affordable housing communities in Woodburn, Oregon. At 15, he started volunteering at FHDC's afterschool program and later interned for its Funds Development Department, creating his pathway to a career in community development and a passion for social equity.

After graduating from Woodburn High School, Aldo became a DACA recipient. He has extensive experience with electoral and community- based organizing in areas of farmworkers' rights, immigrants' rights, youth employment, and education.

Aldo currently serves as the policy director for the Oregon Latino Health Coalition, where he is part of a team that helped pass State legislation that extends health coverage to undocumented children in Oregon.

God bless you for that, Aldo.

We have been joined by Congressman Eric Swalwell from California, and we thank him for his leadership on this very important issue working with the Future Forum, visiting with DREAMers all over the country.

Also, Keith Ellison joined us, who I referenced earlier his testimony from his constituent in Minnesota as well.

Mr. Hoyer has another testimony from Chirayu Patel, an Indian American who arrived here when he was 11 years old. For 23 years he has lived here. He was from Gujarat.

Isn't that where the Prime Minister is from in India?

Chirayu has spent years and thousands of dollars to resolve our status. He says: ``However, due to incorrect filing by a notary that took advantage of my father's lack of knowledge about U.S. immigration process, our current lawyer has said that there is simply no way for us to get right with the law unless there is a change in law by the Congress.''

Again, I won't read the whole statement, but Chirayu says: ``Over the years, our family has built a life here and given back to the only country we know as home. My parents have paid income taxes, property taxes, and even business taxes. I was also the first person in my family to graduate from college. The introduction of DACA in 2012 was a consequential day for me.

``The President's decision to rescind the DACA program was a punch in the gut, and I felt the floor disappear under my feet.''

Chirayu says:

After 23 years, my life may be destroyed overnight. I

continue to raise awareness on this issue by sharing our

stories and asking our families, friends, and neighbors to

continue pushing Congress. In return, we hope that Congress

can deliver.

I thank Mr. Hoyer for submitting that.

Mr. Swalwell's testimony is from Jose from Hayward, California. He came to the United States as a child from Mexico. He has only pledged allegiance to the United States of America. He is headed to college soon and wants to be a police officer in the only country he has called home.

Thank you, Mr. Swalwell, for bringing that to our attention.

Valentina Garcia Gonzalez was only 6 years old when her family brought her to the United States from Uruguay. She grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She was a bright child and learned English after a few months of college. Valentina says: ``After that, I became my parents' right hand. Everything and anything that involved speaking to the outside world meant I was in the front translating and representing my parents. It was a lot of responsibility for a young undocumented kid.''

In addition to this responsibility, Valentina was an excellent student. She received the President's Education Award twice, once from President Bush and once from President Obama. In high school, she was an honors graduate in advanced placement, a leader in student government, a member of the Beta Club.

Somehow Valentina found time to be the president of the school's environmental group and manager of the varsity basketball team.

They have so many hours in a day, these DREAMers. She was a very accomplished student, but Georgia State law bans undocumenteds from attending the State's top public universities. As a result, Valentina applied and was accepted to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Congratulations, Valentina.

She is now a sophomore there. To help pay her tuition, she works as a projectionist at a theater, as an undocumented student. She still finds time to volunteer and mentor children.

In her letter, she wrote: ``I am beyond grateful because, by receiving DACA, the U.S. has given me an opportunity to give back to this country that has given me so much. This is my country. I have worked hard to prove myself worthy in the eyes of my American counterparts, and knowing that I am in a weird limbo in regards to my legal status doesn't make me sleep any easier. My name is registered with the government, so I might be deported if they decide to end