Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1044 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
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Mr. LEE. I know of no further debate on the bill.
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor my friend and colleague, Congressman Rob Bishop. After 18 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives, he has decided to hang up his gloves and embark on his well-deserved retirement. Rob Bishop has served Utah's First Congressional District with integrity, tenacity, humility, and humor, and it is my high privilege to have worked with him over the last 10 years and, in the process, to have become his friend.

Born and raised in Kaysville, UT, Rob has been a lifelong resident of Utah's First Congressional District, with the exception of the 2-year mission where he lived in Germany while representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He graduated from Davis High School with high honors and later graduated magna cum laude from the University of Utah with a degree in political science.

The embodiment of a public servant, Rob began his career as a high school teacher at Ben Lomond High School and Box Elder High School, teaching courses in German, AP U.S. history and government, and coaching debate. He notoriously had one rule in the classroom: I am never wrong. That might tell you something about Rob Bishop.

An avid lover of musicals, he was active in community theater, where he happened to have met his wife Jeralynn. They first met on the production of ``South Pacific'' at the Palace Playhouse, and they later starred together as the prince and princess in a production of ``Once Upon a Mattress.'' In their real-life love story, they have five children--Shule, Jarom, Zenock, Maren, and Jashon, with spouses Melissa, Kristin, Shalise, and Courtney, as well as nine grandchildren.

Inspired in his public service by Barry Goldwater, he was also involved in local politics from a young age, working at various levels of government and of the Republican Party. He has gone from being a precinct chair to a member of the Republican National Committee and from being vice chair of the Davis County Teenage Republican Club to the adviser to the Utah Teenage Republicans in 1996. Starting in 1997, he served two terms as chairman of the Utah Republican Party.

At just 25, he was elected to the Utah House of Representatives when he was known for always wearing sweaters and no socks. He served in the State legislature for 16 years and, during the last 2 years, having been unanimously elected, served as speaker of the house of representatives.

In 2002, after serving in the State legislature and having spent 28 years of teaching, he decided to serve at the national level. As Rob Bishop said in one of his most popular campaign slogans: ``Utah has plenty of Bishops--send this one to Washington!''

Rob has faithfully devoted his life to representing Utah's First Congressional District, and he has been doing that ever since making that critical decision to run for Congress.

I remember one of the first times I worked with him when Rob was a relatively new Member of Congress and I was serving at the time as general counsel to then-Governor Jon Huntsman. At the time, a private fuel storage organization was trying to store spent nuclear fuel rods in above-ground storage casks along the Wasatch Front corridor, just miles from Utah's major metropolitan area and just under the low- altitude flight path of fighter jets flying between Hill Air Force Base to the Utah Test and Training Range.

Out of all of the Members of Utah's congressional delegation at the time, all of whom, I would adhere, were similarly opposed to this proposal to store spent nuclear fuel in this particular place in this particular way--our congressional delegation was united in that regard--but Rob Bishop stood out as one who was particularly concerned about it and was particularly determined to prevent such a dangerous idea from taking place.

Congressman Bishop had a full understanding of the problem, and he had a complete mastery of the scientific facts of the issue, and he had detailed, helpful ideas about how to address it. He also understood the significant and long-lasting potential ramifications that this plan could have had for Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range.

Thanks to Rob Bishop's vision, direction, and determination, he developed a strategy and worked hard to implement that strategy and eventually worked to pass a bill designating the area in question as wilderness--creating a wilderness curtain around the designated storage area--making it impossible for the storage plant to be completed. Rob Bishop thus successfully prevented spent nuclear fuel rods from coming to Utah and being stored in a particularly unsafe way and in an unsafe place close to Utah's major population center.

Though relatively new to Congress at the time, Rob was punching way above his weight. Why? Well, because he is awesome and because he was willing to dive into the nitty-gritty details of an issue and put in the hard work, not knowing and, frankly, not even caring who got the credit. Rob Bishop just wanted to get it done. That is who Rob Bishop is, that is how he serves, and that is why we love him. That has characterized Rob Bishop's entire time in Congress: doggedly, thoughtfully, and honestly working for Utahns' best interests, and never really caring much who got the attention.

He served on the Armed Services Committee, the powerful House Rules Committee, and the Science Committee. As both chair and ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, he chaired hearings with his characteristically witty quips and wry jokes. He has also chaired the Congressional Western Caucus, served on the House German Caucus for his whole tenure, including for 2 years as chair, and he helped found the 10th Amendment Task Force.

When Speaker of the House John Boehner created committees for congressional reform, Rob Bishop was named chairman of the Committee for Procedural Reform and, later on, leader of the Rules group. Under Speaker Paul Ryan, he was named chair of the Federalism Committee. Rob did all this in addition to being a staunch advocate for the military and, in particular, for Hill Air Force Base.

One of his proudest achievements was getting an extension of the Michaels airstrip at the Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County. When he was told that there was no funding for it to be attained at the Federal level, he successfully got the Utah State Legislature to appropriate the funding to make it happen. He was instrumental in establishing Falcon Hill, an aerospace research park just outside of Hill Air Force Base and a public-private partnership between the Air Force, the State of Utah, and private developers that was the first of its kind anywhere in the country and a model of many more like it to come.

Rob has also brought his love of baseball with him to Washington. A huge admirer of Mickey Mantle and Ernie Banks, Rob is known to have actual dirt from the pitcher's mound at Yankee Stadium in his Washington, DC, office. He has been a long-time supporter of the Salt Lake Bees, even championing the construction of their stadium while he was in the State legislature, and he is a diehard Cubs fan. Every year, he dons a uniform himself, leading his office in the intramural baseball league on Capitol Hill, with their team name known as the ``Raucus Caucus.''

Rob has brought the same passion he has for baseball to serving his constituents. He has, for years, worked with the Close Up Foundation to bring high school students to Washington, and he has partnered with teachers and students to put on an AP government conference every year.

He has famously led constituent and student groups on long, expert nighttime tours of the Capitol Building. In fact, he is known as the guy who gives the very best Capitol tours in all of Washington, and he has consistently spent hours upon hours late into the night making personal phone calls to each constituent who writes in to his office.

One of my favorite things about Rob Bishop is precisely how understated and down to Earth and often self-deprecating he is. It is a true feat when you have been in Congress as long as he has and accomplished as many things as he has.

While he is known for his sharp three-piece suits here in Washington, I can't count the number of plane rides I have taken with Rob Bishop where he shows up on the plane actually wearing gym shorts, sandals, and a hoodie. In fact, basically every time, he has given me the sage advice not to torture myself wearing a suit while on a 4-hour plane ride.

In fact, just the other day--just this week, as we were flying from Salt Lake City to Washington, DC, he commended me for finally having gotten the memo. At least this time, as he noted, I wasn't wearing a suit, although he derided me a little bit for not wearing shorts.

But when you have a conversation with Rob Bishop, you never feel that he is trying to advance his own agenda or gain attention or fanfare. As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. It feels like a real conversation with a real goal to fix a problem. He simply tells it like it is--an altogether rare, refreshing, and much needed quality on Capitol Hill.

When Rob ran for Congress, he said it was his goal to make Congress less powerful when he left than it was when he came. In all of his time here, he sought to put power in Washington back in the hands of Utahns and back in the hands of people across the country in their respective States. Just so, in all his time here, he slept on either an air mattress or on a futon so that he wouldn't get too comfortable, so that he would never feel too ``at home'' in Congress.

Rare is the person who can come to change Washington but not ever be changed by Washington. Rob Bishop has managed to do just that. He has made a real difference for the people of Utah and the people of the United States of America.

It has been a distinct pleasure to call him a friend and a colleague, and I have to say I am going to miss Rob Bishop's service here in Washington. Just the same, we have all benefited and we will all continue to benefit for many decades to come from what he has done here, who he has been here, and what he has stood for here so valiantly and consistently and faithfully and with such great decency and humility.

Thank you.

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