ON THE HOUSE FLOOR
This week, the House passed an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to fund ongoing operation in the War on Terror that did not contain artificial timelines for military retreat. After 107 days, Democrats have finally presented a bill that we do not expect to be vetoed by the President and does not take military decisions out of the hands of the Commander in Chief and generals on the ground by micromanaging the war from Capitol Hill. The measure cleared on a vote of 280-142. Less than two hours later, the Senate voted 80 to 14 to send it to the president.
The funding package also included $425 million for the Secure Rural Schools program in 2007. Counties in my congressional district will receive over $23 million of these funds, which I hope will prevent some of the layoffs of teachers and public works officials that were scheduled to occur.
The House also passed H.R. 1427, the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007, by a margin of 313 to 104. It reforms the regulation of housing related government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
AMENDMENT PASSED
Last week, I announced that I had introduced an amendment to H.R. 1427 that would block federally-sponsored lenders from aiding illegal aliens with mortgages. On Tuesday, the House approved my amendment by a margin of 217 to 205, which included the backing of 34 Democrats, before passing the overall bill. I am gratified that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle supported this common-sense approach to fighting illegal immigration.
My legislation will prohibit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which dominate the secondary home loan market, from purchasing residential mortgages for anyone without a valid Social Security number, thus preventing illegal aliens from getting loans. The primary duty of the federal government is to protect our national borders and defend our national security. To do that, it is essential that we curb the tide of illegal aliens that now inflicts an average cost of $1,200 per year on every legal resident of California. Rather than helping people to settle down comfortably after violating our laws, we need to abolish incentives for illegal immigration. This week’s bipartisan vote goes a long way towards making that happen.
INTERNMENT REMEMBERED
Yesterday, I introduced legislation aimed at preserving a remnant of World War II history – the largest camp used to intern Americans of Japanese descent. The bill would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to determine the suitability and feasibility of making the site of the Tule Lake Internment Camp (Tule Lake) a unit of the National Park Service (NPS). Tule Lake, located in rural Modoc County, was the largest and longest-lived of the ten camps built by the War Relocation Authority to house the nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans relocated from the West Coast during World War II. ne of the most powerful and moving symbols of Tule Lake is the stockade, a prison within a prison for those who dared to speak out against the violation of their civil liberties. The stockade, however, has been rapidly deteriorating, so in 2005 I sponsored a congressional earmark which provided funding to preserve it. The internment of Japanese Americans during the World War II is a dark chapter of American history, nonetheless, it needs to be remembered. This is an important step in preserving the experience endured by thousands of our fellow countrymen, including my friend and sometimes political adversary, the late Congressman Bob Matsui.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“To those who say border control is impossible – often these are the same people who said better policing could not substantially reduce crime, until it did – one answer is: It took just 34 months for the Manhattan Project to progress from the creation of the town of Oak Ridge in the Tennessee wilderness to the atomic explosion at Alamogordo, N.M. That is what America accomplishes when it is serious.” – George Will on the achievable nature of enforcing immigration law, The Washington Post, May 24, 2007.
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