Jared Polis

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. We have the chair of my committee to file a rule here on the floor the House. Sadly, it is not a rule for comprehensive immigration reform, but it is a rule for something very important, the budget, which hopefully we will be able to agree on in the next 2 days. And as we discussed earlier before the chair of the Rules Committee joined us, I think we all agree that passing the budget is a very good use of our time here on the floor. Some of us, Mr. Speaker, in this hour, have talked about the need for immigration reform. We have in the past criticized the apparent urgency with which asbestos bills were somehow rushed out of committee and brought immediately to the floor when we weren't able to move forward on immigration, but this week we are working on something more important. We need to continue our work to bring up immigration reform. I am speaking from the side of the Chamber traditionally used by Republicans. I had hoped to give this spot up to a member of the majority party, a Republican, who we hope to continue to extend this invitation to debate immigration reform and bring forward an immigration reform bill.

Mr. POLIS. I would like to point out that my friend from Miami, Florida, placed out some of the arguments that we hear our friends making as to why immigration reform is not happening. We did not present those as a straw man. We invited our friends from the other side of the aisle to come make the arguments themselves. There is no one here in this Chamber, despite our invitation, to represent why we are not staying here next week to vote on immigration reform. So we are guessing why. We are guessing, saying maybe it is because they don't like long bills. I don't know. A short bill can be pretty bad, too, if it is a bad bill. You can have a good short bill or a bad short bill, a good long bill or a bad long bill. I mean, you know, when you want to address border security, you need to make sure that you devote enough of the bill to border security to do it. So we are here guessing at their reasons because our friends on the Republican side of the aisle are not here to explain, despite our invitation, why they are not bringing immigration reform up. And if they are not ready for H.R. 15 or comprehensive, why at least we are not making some kind of down payment on it next week, why we are not doing something, for instance, for the DREAMers, the kids that are currently in a deferred action program so that they can have some degree of certainty to get on with their lives. Why we are not making sure that we have working permits for the people who are already here and already have jobs and are an important part of our economy. We could be doing any of that next week. But instead, Mr. Speaker, the House is being sent home on vacation while most Americans have a full additional week to work before Christmas.

Mr. POLIS. Each of those deportations, Mr. Speaker, cost you and I, cost American taxpayers, approximately $15,000. So guess who is paying for the 2 million deportations? Guess what is one of the growing causes of our deficit spending? Our broken immigration system.

Mr. POLIS. Will the gentleman yield for a moment?

Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Florida. Mr. Speaker, what is particularly frustrating is that Congress is going home on December 13, not to work for the remaining 2\1/2\ weeks of the year. I think most Americans would love to get off a week early for Christmas. They don't have the opportunity to set their own schedule at work. So it is not like there is not time to do this, Mr. Speaker. We can stay here next week. It is not like there is not support on the floor to pass immigration reform, Mr. Speaker. There is. There is support today to pass H.R. 15, comprehensive immigration reform, brought to the floor. We could then send it to President Obama's desk. What a Christmas gift to our country that would make, a Christmas gift in the form of reducing our deficit by over $200 billion, creating over 6 million jobs for American citizens, restoring real security, and finally gaining operational control over our southern border and stemming the tide of people who are immigrating here illegally, requiring workplace authentication to make sure that employers no longer hire people under the table for cash outside of our system, strengthening Social Security and Medicare by making sure that people working here pay into our important programs that retirees stand to benefit from. Immigration reform is not only demanded, but widely popular. Six in 10 Republicans support a path to citizenship for immigrants currently living in the United States; and a vast majority of every group--age, gender, ethnicity--here in this country knows that our immigration system is broken. When we look at ourselves in the mirror at night, Mr. Speaker, how can we be proud of a system that betrays our values as a Nation of laws and a Nation of immigrants, a system that rewards lawbreaking, a system that encourages illegal activity, a system that, as my good friend and colleague Ms. Lofgren from California likes to say, effectively places two signs at our southern border: one says ``help wanted'' and the other says ``keep out''? That is the state of our current immigration system: confusing, expensive, job destroying, companies can't acquire the men and women they need to remain competitive so they are forced to expand overseas in other countries in offshore jobs rather than expand here in the United States. Thankfully, Mr. Speaker, the answer is simple. Groups from across the spectrum--faith-based groups including evangelical and Catholic Americans, businesses including small family farms to large international companies that employ hundreds of thousands of people, law enforcement--all support H.R. 15. Based on the Senate bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill, that would solve all of these issues that we have before us, create jobs for American citizens, and reduce our deficit. And as we talk about the budget, at least frankly, Mr. Speaker, this week we are debating something very important for our country. In other weeks, my colleague, Mr. Garcia, and I have taken to the floor when there has been nothing that has even been done that entire time that had any consequence to anybody. At least this week, Mr. Speaker, we are discussing something important. I don't bemoan that. I think it is legitimate to discuss the budget of our country this week. That is why I think we should stay here another week and discuss immigration next week. This is an important discussion. But as we look for what we call ``pay-fors''--how do we pay for making sure the Medicare reimbursement rate doesn't go down as scheduled at the end of the year, how do we pay for reducing the sequester, how do we pay for the investments that we want to make--guess what, comprehensive immigration reform would fill our coffers with over $200 billion of revenue. Now, how about that as a pay-for for what we call the ``doc-fix'' and making sure we don't reduce Medicare reimbursement rates or any of the other items that are on the budget table this week? That is the kind of contribution that H.R. 15 and immigration reform can make.

Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Florida. I will speak briefly, and then I will have more later. Mr. Speaker, there are so many activists in our country who are fasting, who are sitting in offices, who are writing their Congresspeople, who are demanding action--action to unite their families, action to stop the deportations of family members--and answers to emerge from this indefinite state of limbo that has frozen the lives of so many would-be Americans that H.R. 15 and comprehensive immigration reform would address. Today, I am disappointed that our Republican friends didn't show up to discuss and to debate the most pressing issue of our time-- immigration reform. We extended an invitation to our friends on the other side of the aisle to join us today and have a discussion. Sadly, there is no one here to yield to. There are no solutions from the empty Chamber on the right. Some responded that they were double booked. Others responded that they had other engagements. Some simply didn't respond at all. The American people, Mr. Speaker, are demanding a response. Just as House Speaker Boehner plans to close for business on Friday while hundreds of millions of Americans continue to have to work another week before Christmas, we have Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, who will mark the 40th day of his fast for immigration reform. He is chair of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He will be 40 days and nights--approaching fast--without solid food. As the reverend said recently: There are 11 million people here right now who require intervention. We looked the other way when they came in. We use them on our farms; we use them in our hotels; and we use them in our restaurants. Then we have the audacity to deport them. It is morally reprehensible to play politics with 11 million people. So said Reverend Samuel Rodriguez in his nearing his 40th day in fast. Yet, in the entire first part of the 113th Congress--in the entire first session, in the entire year of 2013--there was only one vote on the floor on any measure relating to immigration. Was it a bill that would address even part of the immigration problem or any piece of the meal that was being promised? No. It was a bill to defund DACA, to defund the Deferred Action program, subjecting hundreds of thousands of DREAMers to deportation--a bill that Republicans voted for and that passed in this body. Thankfully, it didn't become law. The Deferred Action program continues. Thank goodness that it provides at least a temporary reprieve for hundreds of thousands of aspiring Americans, but we owe to all Americans the restoring of the rule of law, allowing people to get on with their lives. I yield to my colleague from Miami (Mr. Garcia), the chief author of H.R. 15, the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the House.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Computer Science Education Week, a time in which educators, businesses, policymakers, and communities can come together to celebrate the important role of computer science. In the next 10 years, there will be more than 1 million more computer science jobs than we have students studying computer science. We need to address that gap. That is why Representative Brooks and I introduced the Computer Science Education Act, H.R. 2536. Without creating any new Federal programs or requiring any new spending, our bill would allow existing Federal funding to support computer science programs across our schools. This week, students across the country can try out computer science by participating in the ``Hour of Code.'' On Monday in my district, St. Vrain Valley School District students worked with Oracle to develop apps to help get K-8 students excited about computer science. At CU- Boulder, college students designed their own video games that allow people with no coding experience to create their own 3-D worlds. Through the National Center for Women and Information Technology in my district, more than 300 companies are working to increase the participation of girls and women in computing. I hope you join me in supporting Computer Science Education Week either by participating in the ``Hour of Code'' or supporting the Computer Science Education Act.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, this amendment is important. First, I like the way my colleague Mr. Chaffetz put it: the right to face your accuser in court is an important part of our justice system. There is a long way to go with regard to demand letter transparency, but this amendment is the first step. I encourage my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chairwoman, I thank the gentleman from Virginia. When we look at the cost, not just of litigation, but of companies having to consult with lawyers at times because of completely frivolous letters that they get that are vague with regard to what the abuses are, the damage is not only to the company that receives the message; the damage is to all consumers. The extra price is simply passed along to all of us who use goods and services in a digital economy. This bill makes an important step forward for bringing our patent process into the 21st century, taking into account digital innovation. There is a long way to go. When our patent system was first put together for mechanical innovation, for which it still works, people didn't even know what software or biological innovation was. We have come a long way. I think we have learned a lot over that time. One thing we have learned is that we need to fine-tune how software and digital innovation interact with our intellectual property protections. This bill takes an important step in this direction. While it doesn't wholly fix our patent system, it will undeniably deter abusive patent suits that are brought by patent entities and trolls that raise prices for consumers, destroy jobs, are particularly onerous on start-up businesses and entrepreneurs, and have essentially a tax across our entire economy on innovation and job growth. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I appreciate the good work of Representative Goodlatte and Representative Lofgren in bringing this bill to us on the floor today.

Mr. POLIS. I am happy to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino), an original sponsor of the underlying bill that I introduced with him 2 weeks ago and a cosponsor of this amendment.

Mr. POLIS. I am happy to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), a cosponsor of the amendment.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I would point out that very little of the arguments made by the gentleman from California were related to this particular amendment. Much of that was stuff that may have been loosely related to the overall bill. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), the cosponsor of the amendment.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the chair of the committee.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I am thankful for Chairman Goodlatte and his staff and the committee for their work on this bill and increasing demand letter transparency in both the committee mark and working with us on the floor to incorporate a bipartisan amendment that we were able to work on with Representatives Connolly, Chaffetz, and Marino that builds upon the language in the bill. Very simply, our amendment would ensure that trolls can no longer hide behind shell companies to conceal their true identity from demand letter recipients. Our amendment is a step in the right direction in providing businesses and entrepreneurs the tools to better assess the validity of demand letters. I do have a comprehensive bill, along with Representatives Marino and Deutch, that moves further in that direction that we introduced 2 weeks ago, and our bill would clarify that the FTC has the authority to go after patent trolls. As we move to enhance the value of demand letter transparency, I am pleased that Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Terry, a few minutes ago, expressed the intent of the committee to further examine this issue. And this amendment is an important step in the right direction. I urge my colleagues to support the Polis-Connolly-Chaffetz-Marino amendment and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, while I am actively encouraging Members on both sides of the aisle to get behind the Innovation Act and the Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act, I must urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question, as well as a ``no'' vote on the restrictive rule. I hope that we can send the message that we need to bring immigration reform to the floor of this House, rather than let the four bills that have already emerged out of committee stay sitting and aging and not getting any better while we fast-track asbestos and while we fast-track modest patent reforms. The time has come to act on immigration reform. Please join me on voting ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. I will be happy to talk about TPP for a moment. I have some time coming up on a different topic. But one of the issues around it has been the secrecy under which it has been negotiated. I actually, some months ago--to show that these are not just partisan concerns--sent a bipartisan letter, with Darrell Issa, requesting that there is more transparency about this process. I have had the opportunity on three occasions to review the text in my office. My own staff wasn't allowed to even be there with me. The American people are unable to execute the proper oversight over something that is of great economic importance to our country because of the secrecy under which it is being negotiated.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I am here today, unfortunately, to talk about the continuing inaction of this body on immigration reform. It has been 159 days since the Senate passed a commonsense immigration reform bill securing our borders, creating jobs for Americans, restoring the rule of law, requiring employment verification, uniting families. And this body has failed to act. The House's failure to act on immigration reform has already cost our economy over $6 billion. Today, Madam Speaker, I want to talk about the human cost as well. In the week following the Thanksgiving holidays, I want to recognize those individuals that are suffering because of our inaction, families that are torn apart, immigrant workers so critical for our economic success, living in the United States, who even helped put our Thanksgiving dinners on the table this year. I want to begin by telling the inspiring story of a Capitol Hill staffer, sadly, a former Capitol Hill staffer, Erika Andiola. I had the opportunity to meet Erika and her mother today, and I hope that her story will inspire this body to finally reform our broken immigration system. Erika wrote this letter to many of her friends, including some of your staffers, Madam Speaker, just the other day about why she is leaving: Dear friends, today is my last day on the Hill. While ``last day on the job emails'' are customary, I wanted to share the unfortunate reason I am leaving. A few days ago, I informed my boss I would be leaving my job on Capitol Hill to return home to Mesa, Arizona, and fight against efforts to deport my mother. After a year as a congressional staffer, during the push to bring millions of people out of the shadows in the U.S., I am now needed most as a daughter to my mother. In many ways, my life represents a broad spectrum of experience for undocumented young people in our country. I am facing the most painful aspect of the record-setting deportations of the Obama Administration: family separation by deportation. My home was raided by ICE on the same date I began my work in Congress. The raid stemmed from a traffic stop. While ICE is supposed to prioritize deportations for violent crimes, they decided to go after my mother, who has never committed a violent crime. Families being separated is nothing new. The administration is currently nearing the 2 million deportation mark. Behind that number is an even larger number of families, like my family, being left behind. I had the opportunity to meet Erika Andiola and her mother earlier today, and I can tell you we will miss her service in this body for the Member she worked for. She has her legal status, thanks to President Obama's Deferred Action program, or DACA, that allows her the paperwork to work, again a result of the inaction of this body, that the Executive had to take action, with the limited authority he has, to at least give a temporary reprise to Erika. But no such help for her mother. And who among us wouldn't, if forced to choose between our job and our family, who wouldn't choose our family? As Erika returns home to Arizona, I wish her and her mother well and good luck in ensuring that they can stay together in a country that I hope values families, just as it valued Erika's service to her country as a congressional staffer. I encourage everyone to share Erika's story and to get involved at keepustogether.org to help keep Erika's family together. Our inaction on immigration reform has also impacted our immigrant workforce, a critical part of our economy. Roughly 16 percent of all workers in the U.S. are foreign born, in diverse sectors from agriculture to information technology to hospitality to self-employed entrepreneurs. As the Aspen Institute's November series of ``Working in America'' noted, the experience of immigrant workers varies significantly. Some achieve great success, while others are employed in low-paying and substandard working conditions. In my State of Colorado, according to the 2011 census, over 11 percent of our workforce is comprised of immigrants. Among them, unauthorized immigrants comprise nearly 5 percent of Colorado's workforce. That is according to a study by the Perryman Group. If we were to remove unauthorized immigrants from Colorado tomorrow, our State, my State, would lose $8 billion in economic activity, $3.6 billion in gross state product, and it would cost our State almost 40,000 jobs for Americans that would be destroyed if we didn't have the people that are in Colorado today already working and simply lack a legal way to do that that only this body can fix. Nationwide, the millions of undocumented immigrant workers are often marginalized and exploited. In many cases, they have harvested our Thanksgiving dinners. They have harvested our onions, packed our tomatoes, perhaps cleaned your hotel room, Madam Speaker, or mine, washed our dishes. Yet, their immigration status means that when unscrupulous employers try to take advantage, they often lack a voice to stand up for stable and fair working conditions or to report crimes. Undocumented workers around our country engage in difficult, dangerous work under the harsh conditions. They often live in fear of detention or deportation. Consider the example of a worker in Nashville who, while cleaning the restaurant where she was employed, cut herself, yet her managers refused for 4 hours to take her to the hospital. Even after receiving medical treatment, her employer refused to pay any of the costs for an employment-related injury. And the injury caused her a permanent handicap, with limited mobility in her hand. Or consider the case of Raul, a North Carolina farmworker who lacks documentation. Raul shares a room and dirty and freezing bathrooms and showers with six others. Raul rises every day to provide for his family and give them the life he never had. Because his family is in another country, he hasn't seen his children in 5 years and misses them terribly, but his immigration status prevents him from even visiting his family back home and being able to return to his job here. Or consider the case of Guadalupe Hernandez, a returned migrant and former undocumented farmworker who came to the U.S. at the age of 12 and has been back and forth three times since. Guadalupe endures working for 12 to 14 hours a day at minimum wage in order to provide for schooling for her five children. So while Congress is working 113 days next session, 113 days next year--that is how much we will be here. I sure hope it is enough time to reform our immigration system. So while Congress is working 113 days, the average undocumented farmworker's workload is close to 200 days a year squeezed into 36 weeks of seasonal work, working double shifts to be able to put food on our tables for Thanksgiving. While Congress works an average of 3 days per week and Members of Congress earn $3,500 a week, undocumented workers work 53 hours a week at an average salary of $318 a week. In the time it takes Congress to hold our first vote in a series of votes--15 minutes, how long it takes people to come here and cast their vote--the average immigrant worker has picked four 30-pound buckets of grapes. Our current immigration system has allowed the situation to persist and worsen. The current system lacks a pathway to citizenship without a family member who is already a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident. Even legal guest workers under our current immigration laws are subject to workplace abuse, are poorly paid, often risk having their identity documents seized, and often live in reprehensible living conditions. H-2 guest workers, low-skilled seasonal jobs, are bound to employers who hire them and can't even search for other work. They are often overloaded with debt because of the fees that recruiters charge to bring them from their own country and arrange for transportation. Comprehensive immigration reform would protect American workers by preventing unauthorized immigrants from undermining wage and safety laws and protecting U.S. workers' rights. H.R. 15, the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill I am proud to have helped introduce in the House, would provide relief and help to all workers. The bill is similar to the Senate's immigration reform bill that passed with more than two-thirds of the Senate support, including agriculture, business, labor, tech, and many others in a broad-based coalition. We are joined here on the floor by a champion of immigration reform, a Member of the House from the great State of California. It is my honor to yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardenas).

Mr. POLIS. One of the ways that H.R. 15 was actually brought to the floor of the House and introduced was by the chief sponsor of the bill. The gentleman from Florida, in his short time in the House, has made an enormous impression, and particularly in pushing for comprehensive immigration reform. H.R. 15, which is very similar to the Senate bill--and if we were to pass it in this body, it would be able to be ratified with the changes and sent to the President's desk--continues to gain support in this body. And I am happy to yield to its principal author, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Garcia).

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, the gentle people in the gallery, the men and women who are spending their time here, would not have to be in those galleries advocating if this House simply took up the bill. Do you think they want to be spending their time here, Madam Speaker? Is that what you think, they want to be spending their time here in the gallery, probably traveling at their own expense to Washington? And you are saying we are addressing them, and that is what you are upset about, Madam Speaker? I want you, Madam Speaker, to address the reason that they are here. They are here because our government is tearing apart their families, Madam Speaker.

Mr. POLIS. Will the Speaker understand that the Speaker is obstructing H.R. 15 from coming to the floor? Will the Speaker understand that?