Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 549
Floor Speech
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The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). Is there objection?
The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN.
I have met with many of my constituents of Venezuelan heritage and have discussed with them the crises that their relatives back in Venezuela face every day--shortages of food, water, medicine, and state-sponsored violence, which has caused 4.3 million people to flee the country.
That is exactly why I joined many of my colleagues in supporting legislation from many months ago of granting temporary protected status to people who flee the horror in Venezuela. Of course, the House of Representatives passed legislation to do exactly that. I have a copy of H.R. 549 in my hand, and it is sitting here in the U.S. Senate.
I say to my colleague, the Senator from Florida, that I am happy to sit down with him and discuss how we can revise and reform the entire TPS system in our going forward. In fact, I introduced legislation back in March of this year, S. 879, to extend temporary protected status to all of the people who are, right now, in great fear of being deported from the United States when their protected statuses expire. Yet I recognize there may be reforms we can make to the overall system.
I suggest that a bill that is just focused on TPS to Venezuela is not the place to try to reform the entire TPS system, about which I am more than happy to have a discussion. As the Senator knows, we have people with TPS status from many countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and a number of African countries. To try to overhaul the entire system in one piece of legislation by passing something right now for Venezuela doesn't make a lot of sense, which is why I support what the House did, for it immediately addresses the situation in Venezuela with our current TPS system.
Let's not try to rewrite the whole TPS set of rules now. Let's address the emergency situation right now. The Senate can do that by passing the House bill, which, in a moment, I will ask to take up.
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