Real ID Act of 2005
REAL ID ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - February 09, 2005)
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Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
I have been watching this debate all morning, and I am really concerned about what is happening here on the floor of the House of Representatives. I have never heard so much mis statement of fact about a piece of legislation that is very important.
The problem is, this legislation never had a hearing in committee, never had public review. We have never looked at the language; I doubt that any Members have read the bill in its entirety. That is not what this House is all about, because this law is a very, very serious law, and it is going to affect people's lives.
I have heard statements here on the floor that the recommendations in this bill are in the 9/11 Commission. Let me give an example. Section 102, which deals with the border fence, the commission never even mentioned the border fence. Why? Because it is not a problem. We have been building it. What we have run into is a couple of environmental snags. So what does this bill do? It says okay, waive all that. Waive the law. This is a precedent that has never been done before in the United States Congress. Waive all laws, whether those laws pertain to Indian burial grounds, whether they are labor laws, discrimination laws, small business laws, environmental laws. We will just waive them. And guess what, no court, as it says, ``no court shall have jurisdiction.''
What kind of a measure is this? Do we just run into problems and we come to the floor of Congress and say, just get rid of the law? Here is a country that celebrated the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, a country that celebrated the elections in Iraq so people will have the rule of law; and then when we have the rule of law, we just waive it. There was no request from the State of California for this bill. Mexico, our biggest trade partner, nothing like this; and what we are saying to the world is, do not worry, we are just going to cram through everything and forget the law.
This is wrong, and I am going to have an amendment on the floor tomorrow to repeal it. I hope everyone votes for it.
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