The Standing Rules of the Senate are drafted to encourage vigorous public debate on our nation’s most important issues. Indeed, the U.S. Senate is often referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” The Rules allow any Senator to seek recognition from the Chair at any time and, absent a temporary agreement to the contrary, to speak without interruption so long as he or she wishes. Debating important questions before the Senate is one way a Senator can highlight an issue, advocate for a change in policy, or voice his or her opinion on pending legislation.
Senate debate occurs in public, and is televised on CSPAN and transcribed in the Congressional Record. For your convenience, I post transcripts of my Senate floor speeches on this site for your review. I hope you find them informative and useful. My web site also makes available information on my voting record and legislation that I have sponsored in the Senate.
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Sen. Sessions Speaks on our Broken Immigration System
This is important. It is important for the Senate to undertake this. I believe we should follow through, in the wake of last year's defeat of the massive amnesty proposal, with what so many Members have promised: real reform and real enforcement and border security first. That was what we decided last summer, I think, by most observers. We decided that amnesty before enforcement was backwards, and we needed enforcement first. That is what we talked about, and that is what the vote indicated when there was a massive defeat of that comprehensive bill.
Now, the majority leader this morning, to my dismay, called that discussion yesterday fanfare. He said he hoped the American people can see what is going on here. Let's be frank about what is going on here. The majority leader, by those words, indicates to me he has no intention of moving forward with enforcement legislation. The leader of the Democrats in the Senate has indicated he does not want to go forward with it and that he is still in last year's and the year before's philosophy that the way to handle immigration is to refuse to pass anything that impacts positively enforcement until he is able to force through a massive amnesty.
I will not go into the details of that discussion last year, but it was honest and detailed and long. When the debate was over, the American people and this Senate voted it down. We rejected it because it will not work that way. We must have the enforcement first. There are so many loopholes out there.
It is disappointing. That is, frankly, where we are. Fourteen of his colleagues on the Democratic side voted to reject that plan. There were only 46 votes for it. You needed 60 to pass it. The suggestion that we are going to go back to a comprehensive plan such as that is not sound.
These bills that have been offered by a fine group of Senators are excellent, responsible pieces of legislation. They help control some of the problems we have. I am disappointed it looks as though we are going to have to work hard to force an opportunity to even get votes on some of these critically needed pieces of legislation.
Of the 15 bills that are in the package that was announced yesterday, over half of them have had prior votes in the Senate.
Senator DeMint's fence completion bill, S. 2712, has been the subject of four votes. The fence completion bill--and we voted on it, voted on it, and it wins every time--but you look out here, and all we have is a broken virtual fence that will not work, and very few miles of fence, very little of the double border. It is not occurring.
Senator Domenici's bill, to keep the National Guard there longer, has been voted on twice.
My bill requiring mandatory minimums for those who enter the country illegally has been voted on twice. It is a pretty tough bill. Somebody said we introduced a tough package. It would require 10 days detention at a minimum if you come here illegally. How extreme is that? If you come back a second time, a longer period. My legislation would also establish new worksite enforcement measures. That has been voted on at least twice in the Senate.
Various forms of the Chambliss-Isakson bill, creating effective partnerships between law enforcement and the Federal Government in State and local agencies, has received numerous votes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 5 minutes.
There are a number of other bills from Senator Vitter, Senator Inhofe, Senator LAMAR ALEXANDER, Senator ARLEN SPECTER--and I have his remarks, which I will submit for the Record, and all of these things we voted on, many of which passed and some of which were in last year's comprehensive bill.
I see my colleague is here, Senator ELIZABETH DOLE, who is so thoughtful on these issues and is a superb Senator and who has given a lot of time and interest in trying to do this thing right. I know she has a piece of legislation she would like to discuss.
I yield the floor.
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