Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLAWSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this is America. Everybody matters in America. I grew up with somebody who seemed to have bad luck from day one. Where I seemed to catch breaks, he could get none. And recently, mid-last year, because of a move, he needed to find a job. He went months without finding full-time employment, never got benefits, never got the stability that he looked for for him and his wife. And I love him very much.

When the President made his edict, he called me on the phone. He said: Curt, I don't understand what y'all are doing in Washington. I want to know if what is going on right now is going to help me get a job or not.

And I said: Unfortunately, you have got a lot of new competitors in the labor force.

I say, this is America, and everybody matters. I say, the unemployed folks, the 18 million underemployed and unemployed, they haven't been a part of this conversation like they needed to be. I say that unilateral actions by a leader who doesn't take all stakeholders into account makes those that aren't taken into account not matter. I say we need to have this conversation again.

This is America. Everybody matters, not just those that came over the border legally but those that have been here looking for jobs for long periods of time. I say we can do better. I say we can have a broader conversation. I say everybody matters.

You all know these people that are unemployed. They are in your family. They are your close friends. They are the people you see every day doing the jobs that some of us wouldn't want to do. I say, those people matter.

I say, Mr. President, before you do a cram-down of the law for the benefit of one group of our society, I say all the other groups in this society, particularly the unemployed, also matter.

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