Lawmaker News

Rubio has somewhat of a mixed record with the immigrant community.

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Puerto Rico deserves to become the 51st State of the Union with the same rights that legislation pending in the U.S. Senate would grant to 11 million of undocumented immigrants in this country.

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I have much in common with my home state’s junior senator, Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
 
Like Cruz, I was not born in the U.S.
 
Like Cruz, I moved to Texas at the age of 4 and grew up pledging allegiance to the American flag.
 
Like Cruz, I graduated as valedictorian of my high school class and then attended college at an Ivy League university. As a law student, the senator undoubtedly walked the same Harvard Yard that I cross as a rising undergraduate senior. In fact, like Cruz, I hope to also embark on a career in public service.   
 
Also like Cruz, I am in Washington, D.C., this week at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup of immigration reform legislation. Why am I choosing to miss Harvard’s senior week and celebrating my friends’ graduations in favor of a bill markup? Because of a major, troubling difference I have with Cruz.

Puerto Rico’s governor recently wrote about the results of the U.S. territory’s November status referendum (“Moving forward together,” May 20), painting a picture that bears little resemblance to what actually transpired.    
 
The governor supports Puerto Rico’s current territory status, while I support statehood. I cannot comprehend how one can defend a status that deprives the 3.7 million U.S. citizens residing in Puerto Rico of voting representation in their national government, denies them equal treatment under federal law, and is the root cause of the significant economic and security problems on the island that the governor bemoans.
 
Pro-status quo leaders are entitled to their beliefs. But they are not entitled to distort the referendum results simply because those results are not to their liking. 

I arrived in America as a refugee from Cambodia when I was only one year old. This country is the only place I know.
 
But during my first year of college at George Mason University in 2000, I made a mistake that could have led to me being banished me from my home and sent back to Cambodia. I was arrested with friends for having ecstasy on me after going to a party. I know, a stupid thing to do, but perhaps made more understandable because I was only 19 at the time.
 
But if an amendment proposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is included in the final immigration reform bill that is currently being marked up in the Senate, immigrants who are convicted of similarly minor crimes, and even those who are not convicted of any crime, could be detained indefinitely, even for life.

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Last November my administration was tasked with tackling the many challenges facing Puerto Rico, including, rampant crime, high unemployment and an economy in deep recession. Sadly, ever since losing the election, instead of joining me in addressing these challenges, the previous administration has chosen to focus on misrepresenting the outcome of the 2012 Puerto Rico plebiscite on self-determination. Falsely claiming that a majority of Puerto Ricans voted in support of statehood, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and his allies from the prior administration continue to spread in Washington the politics of division.

In their zeal to attempt to demonstrate support for statehood, the New Progressive Party has worked tirelessly to mischaracterize the results of the plebiscite – so much so that both houses of the Puerto Rican legislature felt it necessary to pass a joint resolution on Wednesday to set the record straight. 

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The message from Congress is clear: inconvenience trumps hunger.

Several weeks ago, Congress passed the Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013, giving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the flexibility to spend up to $253 million of its current budget to ensure that more flights depart on time. As a frequent flyer, I certainly appreciate it when my flight takes off on schedule. However, as the president of Bread for the World, I find lawmakers’ swift action on air travel irresponsible, considering that people living in hunger still face drastic cuts to anti-poverty programs.

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Vice President Biden intoned, “On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 46. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes, the amendment is not agreed to.” Moments later, from the gallery, Patricia Maisch, survivor of the horrific Tucson shooting, shouted at the senators below, “Shame on you!”

The Senate had defeated the bipartisan compromise background-check amendment worked out by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), 54-46. Adoption of the amendment required 60 votes under a unanimous consent agreement. Proponents had agreed to set that threshold in order to avoid a threatened time-consuming filibuster.

This was not the Senate’s proudest moment.

Small businesses expect direct decisions and actions from Congress this year. We expect Congress to carry out the people’s business in an orderly fashion. On the surface this seems peripheral to business, and that specific bills or budgets should be the order of the day; however, those bills that come up to Congress that seem to be socially weighted dramatically effect small businesses. Should the government act on banning assault rifles? Maybe, but there is more than the gun industry that is affected by this decision. Many school districts are scrambling to find budgets for additional private security, and one issue facing them is imminent need, and with the assault rifle being viewed as a direct threat, you can bet local authorities are developing budgets and asking for federal assistance to hire companies.

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a eulogy for the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye Friday at the Washington National Cathedral.
 
As the tragic events of recent days remind us, often when death visits, it comes too soon.
 
A plane crash takes a parent from us.
 
Cancer deprives us of a sibling or a friend.
 
An automobile accident steals away a child.
 
Lives are cut short. Dreams are denied.
 
Often death is troubling. We ask, “Why?”
 
Why him? Why her? Why now?
 
And although I wish I could answer those questions with authority, often the “why” of death is a mystery.
 
But in the case of Senator Daniel Inouye, there is no mystery. And although there is sadness, there is no regret.
 
Ecclesiastes 3:2 tells us, “To everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.”
 
It was Daniel Inouye’s time.