Speech #1140029015

President. I appreciate Chairman HATCH and Ranking Member WYDENS work on this bill. and agree that this bill provides accountability and transparency. On immigration. I have expressed concerns every step of the way about the executive branch negotiating changes to immigration laws through trade agreements. Even before I became chairman of the Judiciary Committeein fact. when I was chairman and ranking member of the Finance committeeI opposed previous administrations attempts to include immigration provisions in trade agreements. Because of that. I demanded that the Judiciary Committee be consulted on anything related to immigration. That has been done. and that has helped stop the administration in recent years from including provisions in trade agreements requiring changes to the immigration laws. During consideration of this bill in the Finance Committee this year. I asked USTR Ambassador Froman about this issue. and specifically if they were including anything on immigration in the next agreement. specifically the TransPacific Partnership. He gave us assurances that they were not. Ambassador Froman was clear that other countries are making offers to each other in the area of temporary entry. but that the U.S. has decided not to do so. Nevertheless. Chairman HATCH and I wrote him a letter after he testified. and he wrote back with more assurances. Ambassador Froman acknowledged that there is a chapter in the TransPacific Partnership agreement on the temporary entry of persons. but that this chapter only includes "good governance provisions on transparency with respect to visa processing and cooperation on border security." He also said that this chapter includes commitments of other TransPacific Partnership parties to make information on requirements for temporary entry publicly available. The U.S. already is very transparent about its visa application processes and eligibility requirements. and already processes visas as expeditiously as possible. When the committee took up the bill. Chairman HATCH and Ranking Member WYDEN. at my request. included language in the accompanying report that would make it very clear that Congress will not tolerate changes to immigration laws. policies. or practices. This language is very strong and sends a signal to negotiators that trade agreements will not pass if they require changes to our immigration system. prevent us from changing our immigration laws or policies or even just repeat commitments we may have unfortunately made in previous trade agreements. I appreciate the Chairman and Ranking Members attention to this issue.