Speech #1130126809

Finally. while I am pleased this omnibus bill will fund most of our government through fiscal year 2015. I am disappointed that programs and agencies funded through the Department of Homeland Security will only be funded through February 2015. Yet. for monthsfor nearly 18 monthsHouse Republican leaders refused to bring to a vote the bipartisan Senatepassed immigration reform bill. We had hundreds of hours of markups. hearings. and a debate on this floor. Twothirds of Senate Republicans and Democrats joined together to pass the immigration bill that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is political hypocrisy on the other side when they say: Oh. look what President Obama is doing on immigration. We have to stop him. They had the chance to pass a bill that would have trumped whatever the President might do. They refused to even vote on it because they were afraid that it would pass. They wanted to talk about it. They wanted to talk about immigration. They want to talk about what they wanted to do. but they never wanted to vote one way or the other. We stood up here in the Senate. Democrats and Republicans together. and we passed an immigration bill. They refused to even vote on it so they could talk about what is wrong with immigration. It is political hypocrisy at its worst. The bill would have passed. and we would not be where we are today.