Real ID Act of 2005
REAL ID ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - February 09, 2005)
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Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time, and I rise in opposition to the so-called REAL ID Act of 2005.
Mr. Chairman, while I have enormous respect for the gentleman from Virginia, the chairman of the full committee, I must take exception to the assertions that have been made by a lot of speakers here today that somehow this bill will prevent or would have prevented the 9/11 attacks from occurring. I just want to point out that regardless of the number of licenses that the terrorists held on September 11, they were all obtained because those individuals were in the country legally on student visas. And student visa holders in the future, even after this act is passed, will still have the opportunity to get licenses. So that argument is indeed bogus.
But I want to talk about the most egregious parts of this bill. Under this bill, it would allow the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to nullify all of our laws while fulfilling his responsibilities under the scope of this act. And putting aside the schizophrenic immigration policy we have heard from the Republican Party, you have a President that wants to have open borders and basically amnesty to allow open borders for low-wage workers to come in, and then you have a Republican House that is saying that all those coming in must not have licenses. They must be pedestrians.
Mr. Chairman, under this act, what this means for American citizens is, our civil rights laws will be set aside under this bill. Our nondiscrimination laws will be set aside under this bill. Our health and safety laws will be set aside under this bill. Our environmental laws will not apply under this bill. And child labor laws will not apply under this bill. Most troubling of all, the public bidding laws of this country will not apply under this bill for this project.
Right now on the committee that I serve with the esteemed chairman, we are investing no-bid contracts that were given to Halliburton. We have millions of dollars in overcharges to the United States taxpayer, we have bribery charges, and we are doing all kinds of investigation on that no-bid.
There is no reason that the civil rights laws and the public bidding laws should be set aside. If that were not the most extreme example, they have removed any opportunity for judicial review under this act. There will be no review of the Secretary's action in setting aside all of those laws, no recourse.
It is ironic, Mr. Chairman, that while we have our soldiers in uniform protecting democracy, we are giving it away under this bill.
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