Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise to speak about my amendment to H.R. 549, which grants temporary protected status, or TPS, for Venezuelans from Nicolas Maduro's oppressive regime and reforms the broken TPS program.

I would like to thank my friends, Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who have been tireless advocates for the Venezuelan people as we fight for freedom in Latin America and across the globe. I am proud to have worked with Senator Rubio, along with my colleague from Utah, Senator Lee, and other Republican Senators to offer protection for the Venezuelan people while making necessary reforms to TPS.

The crisis in Venezuela is a defining human rights issue of our time. Maduro is starving his own people, and innocent children are dying. What is happening in Venezuela is pure genocide. We have to act, but we also need to be responsible. The courts have basically made a temporary program permanent, which is not sustainable.

My amendment protects the vulnerable Venezuelan population while making sure that human rights violators are clearly identified as ineligible to come to the United States. My bill grants TPS for Venezuelans right now.

The amendment also makes much-needed reforms to our TPS program. The amendment grants TPS to Venezuelans for 18 months. It requires congressional approval for TPS extensions, no more than 18 months at a time. My amendment limits the ability of illegal aliens with no connection to the TPS designation to benefit from TPS. It ensures that human rights violators identified under the Magnitsky Act are not eligible for TPS status. It includes provisions to distinguish that TPS status does not count as admission for purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under my amendment, TPS recipients cannot return to the TPS country during the period of designation. And finally, the amendment requires that current TPS designations will come up for congressional review 2 years after the enactment of this amendment.

We want those seeking refuge from war and oppressive regimes to have a safe haven in our country, but we need a system that works and that is truly temporary.

I am honored to work with my colleagues to get something done today to help Venezuelan families and to make some much-needed changes to our broken system.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. We need TPS now. I stand with the people of Venezuela, and I will continue to fight for freedom and democracy in Latin America. It is time for Maduro and his thugs to leave power.

549. I ask unanimous consent that the Scott of Florida amendment be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

What I propose is a bill that grants TPS to Venezuelans right now. It also makes much-needed reforms to the TPS program and gives Congress real oversight.

I am very disappointed that my Democratic colleagues would block this commonsense compromise. Republicans support it. The sponsor of the House-passed bill supports it. I believe the President would sign it. It is clear that the Democrats actually don't want to get something done on this issue. Unfortunately, they decided to use the Venezuelan community as a political prop, instead of working with us to find a solution. I think that is shameful. Even though the Democrats stood up and blocked TPS for Venezuelans today, I will never stop fighting to support the Venezuelan community here.

My amendment is a solution that can be passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will help us to get this done.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that Nicolas Maduro is killing his citizens. It is genocide. Every passing day, the situation on the ground grows worse. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans are fleeing the violence and starvation of Maduro's socialist regime, and they need our help.

While extending TPS to Venezuelans is the right move, the United States and freedom-loving nations around the world need to do everything in our power to isolate Maduro in Venezuela and cut off the supply of money from Cuba to Caracas.

It is time to help Venezuelan families. It is time to get TPS reform done in this country. Temporary protected status was never meant to be endless. It was meant to help families in need. We need to get this program to work. We need to get TPS for Venezuelans today.

I look forward to working with all my colleagues to help all the families in Venezuela and finally get a real long-term solution to TPS.

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