American Safe Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. REID. Mr. President, I think we have the makings of an agreement here, at least the way I understood the Republican leader.

We agree that refugees should go through a robust screening process. The bill we are talking about before the Senate, though, is stressing bureaucracy and paperwork. Each refugee who comes to this country--and there are about 100 a day--would have to be signed off by three Cabinet Secretaries. That is 300 personal signatures a day. We don't want more paperwork.

What we have said is we want four amendments to change the underlying bill. We are not going to be demanding days of debate time. We would be happy--we would be very reasonable with whatever the leader felt appropriate. We believe we should move forward with real solutions, not paperwork.

We are not saying we don't want to get on the bill. We are willing to get on the bill. We want four amendments. That is it, four amendments. I am sure the leader will look this over and get back to me at the appropriate time, but we are willing to work on this bill.

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Mr. REID. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

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