The News with Sen. Cruz - July 2, 2013
Greetings,
As you prepare for Independence Day, I wanted to send an update on the latest in the Senate. Last week, the Senate passed the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill, we took a major step toward bringing accountability to federal agencies, and we prevented another attempt to raise the debt ceiling without addressing our addiction to spending.
Please keep reading below for more and then share this newsletter on Facebook and Twitter. I hope you and your family have a safe and happy Fourth of July as we all celebrate the birth of our great nation!
All the best,
Ted Cruz
STAND FOR LIFE
Last Friday, Sen. Cruz addressed the 2013 National Right to Life Conference where he stressed the importance of protecting our nation's most precious resource, our children. Texas and the nation are currently in a battle to defend the unborn. Indeed, just yesterday, the Texas legislature convened a second special session to pass legislation that would defend innocent life. Please take moment to watch Sen. Cruz's remarks here, and then share the video with your friends and encourage them to stand for life.
DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY
Earlier last week, Sen. Cruz wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell notifying them of his intent to hold all diplomatic nominations until a State Department Inspector General is nominated by the President. This crucial oversight position has been vacant for nearly five years, during which time there have been deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Libya, mismanagement of security contractors at our embassy in Afghanistan, and hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars wasted for police training in Iraq.
On Friday, the White House finally nominated Mr. Steve Linick to fill this role at the State Department. That the President has finally announced a nomination - after allowing this vital post to remain unfilled for nearly 2000 days - is welcome news to all who value good governance and accountability within our federal agencies. Regardless of what brought about the announcement, Sen. Cruz believes it is a concrete step in the right direction and he looks forward to discussing his concerns about the State Department with Mr. Linick in the near future.
PREVENTING PROCEDURAL TRICKS TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING
On Wednesday, Sen. Cruz once again took to the Senate floor to fight back attempts from several Senators who have requested to proceed to a budget conference that would allow the Senate to raise the debt ceiling with a simple partisan majority rather than the 60-vote threshold that would exist under regular order. Sen. Cruz is committed to ensuring that back-room deals, like those used to pass Obamacare, are not used to dig this nation even further into debt. Watch the video here.
THE SENATE VOTES ON THE GANG OF EIGHT BILL
Thursday afternoon, the Senate voted to pass the Gang of Eight's immigration bill. Sen. Cruz voted against this legislation because unfortunately, all of the concerns that he had repeatedly raised about this bill remained: it repeats the mistakes of the 1986 immigration bill; it grants amnesty first; it won’t secure the border; and it doesn’t fix our broken legal immigration system.
This bill doesn’t solve the problem because the process it went through was fatally flawed– it was written behind closed doors with special interests; in the Judiciary Committee, the Gang of Eight and Democrats blocked all substantive amendments because of a previously cooked deal; and on the Senate floor, the majority blocked any attempts to fix the bill.
Further, in conjunction with Obamacare, the Gang of Eight bill creates a tax penalty on employers – effectively, up to $5,000 – for hiring U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. But that penalty does not apply to those with RPI status, giving a powerful incentive for job creators to hire illegal immigrants instead of U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Sen. Cruz believes this is indefensible, and he filed an amendment to fix this defect, but was blocked by Senate Democrats from receiving a vote on that solution.
Sadly, this bill fails to fix the problem with our immigration system and will only encourage more illegal immigration and human suffering. Sen. Cruz strongly supports commonsense immigration reform that secures the border before legalization, fixes our legal immigration system, and upholds the rule of law, but bill isn’t it.