Immigration Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleague from Rhode Island. As usual, he is graceful and thoughtful as well as being an outstanding legislator with a great deal of passion. I know he wants to speak on the issue he is ready to speak about, but, again, his grace and kindness are always present and I appreciate it.

I return to the floor to just say some words of thanks. We had limited time before, so I wanted to speak to the issue. I wish to thank some people.

First I thought I would mention how much a dream this comprehensive bill has been to so many people. At the top of the list, of course, is Ted Kennedy, who was one of the greatest human beings I ever met in my life. He had the immigration subcommittee before me. This wouldn't have happened without his guidance and leadership.

Did we make changes from what he did? Obviously. But did his basic feeling, structure, and knowledge that it had to be bipartisan all carry forward on this bill? Absolutely. We know Ted is smiling as he is looking down on us today. We know he will continue to inspire not only those of us in the Senate but also the country as we move forward.

I wanted to spend a few minutes--and I very much appreciate my colleague from Rhode Island for yielding--to thank my staff. We are lucky to have the leadership of Mike Lynch, our chief of staff. We are a team, and it is an amazing team. Everyone covers each other and everyone looks out for each other.

Sometimes when I am upset and I say: Who did what, nobody did anything wrong. They are all watching each other's back. That is the lesson Lynch has taught all of them, and it is a great lesson. We are close-knit. We socialize. We have fun. They truly like each other. This certainly would not have happened without them.

Before I talk about my staff, I wish to praise each of my colleagues. I have done that repeatedly on the Gang of 8. I mentioned this outside, but I want to mention it on the floor. I can say exactly the same thing for each of the eight in the gang: It would not have happened without their presence. It was an amazing team. Each contributed something in his own way. Each contributed a great deal in his own way, and at impasses different people rose to the floor and lifted us out of those impasses. It was an amazing group.

I am not going to get into each individual right now, but I do want to thank the Gang of 8. We have bonded, we have become friends, and we have accomplished something that will hopefully carry forward and become law.

Now I wish to thank my staff. My staff, similar to all Americans, are the children or great-grandchildren or great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren of immigrants. They have shared their stories through this process. I know this was deeply personal for each of them. Every week just about the entire staff got together for an immigration meeting, and everybody contributed.

So I wish to take some time to thank them all. They worked so hard to fix this system. It was not only a dream of so many in this Senate, it was a dream of theirs. One thing is for sure, without them, we wouldn't be here.

In fact, I think everyone in the Gang of 8 grew to respect our staff just as we respected their staffs. That is another great thing that happened, the bonding.

I want to mention some of the individuals. First, my chief counsel, Stephanie Martz. She poured her whole heart and soul into the bill. She has young kids who have soccer games. She has a very busy schedule, but for this bill she missed bedtimes due to late-night meetings or conference calls. How many times on a Saturday did I talk to her when she was at some athletic event for one of her kids. I could hear the cheering and the running up and down in the background.

But Stephanie has a unique ability to help build coalitions. When one group or another was upset--and believe me, that probably happened every 5 minutes in this legislation--there was Stephanie, soothing them, calming them but telling them the truth, so they trusted her. She was an indispensable part of our ability to get this done.

Through the rough patches, she never gave up on our team. I know that Kyle, Nora, and Pip are going to be happy to have mommy back, and maybe there will be another ice hockey tournament in Rochester next year when whatever legislation we are working on then rises to the fore.

To the great genius--and I started referring to him at our meetings as my immigration genius--and he was. The intellectual force, the creative force who propelled this effort was one Leon Fresco, the son of Cuban immigrants from Miami. I think it was about 5 years ago he took this job. He was a very successful immigration lawyer, but he took this job because he wanted to do immigration reform. He has worked on many other things. His creativity has shown its mark in ``Schumerland'' on so many different issues, but this was his dream, and he put every atom of his body into this.

Like me, he is voluble. During our staff meetings we would yell at each other, and it became a joke because I once said: Shut up, Leon. So John McCain greeted him at each meeting: Shut up, Leon. And we all loved it. But Leon, your fierce determination, your innate intelligence, your deep love of this country, is great. And thanks to Mama Fresco, Leon's mom, who is so proud of her son. It was great to meet your parents who are immigrants, who are the American dream.

The people I spoke about on the floor a few minutes ago are embodied in the Frescos. How about Sofie, Leon's wife. Sofie got pregnant during all of this, so he wasn't devoting 100 percent of his time to immigration reform, but close to it. And there she was, Sofie, indomitable and quiet, doing the job.

Our legislative team is a great team--and everyone pitched in to do immigration--led by Heather McHugh. Heather's advice and counsel were invaluable. She communicated with our colleagues. Each one of our staff has great attributes. Heather is always wary of me going a little too far, a little too fast, or a little too quick, and she will come into the office and say: You know, you better think about this. Then I know I have trouble. But, again, she is incredible.

Because immigration is so multifaceted, all of our staff contributed, including Meghan Taira, whom I consider--no offense to all my colleagues--the best health L.A. on the Hill. She helped create the ACA. But, of course, there were many benefit issues that occurred, and there was Meghan.

Anna Taylor, the only person on our staff with a deep southern Arkansas accent, came from Blanche Lincoln's staff. There were tax issues and there she was, solving them all.

John Jones was incredible. He stepped up and handled many issues. Dan Rudofsky and Veronica Duron drafted summaries and talking points and spreadsheets.

When things got tough, Becca Kelly and Erin Vaughn, each the mother of children less than 1, let nothing get in the way of doing this while at the same time maintaining focus on their kids and the bill.

It might surprise the Presiding Officer to know that I have a very good press team. Brian Fallon, Matt House, Max Young, Meredith Kelly, Lindsay Dryzak, Marisa Kaufman, and Josh Molofsky learned the substance of immigration and spun it into a beautiful web the public could understand.

Our DPCC team, led by Ryan McConaghy, kept policy and press teams singing off the same praise sheet, keeping our caucus up to date.

Then, of course, as every one of us, we have great administrative staffers. Al Victor, who came to the office as a young kid from Long Island, as a young helper in the Long Island office, is now my unflappable executive assistant. No matter how tough and tense things get in our office--and they do--she is just as steady as a rock, getting things done. She and her colleagues, Megan Runyan, Alice James, Jessica Bonfiglio, Kristin Mollet, Rob Kelly, Ellen Cahill, Claire Reuschel all kept us administratively going.

I mentioned the Members. They are great. I have so much to say about each of them. I want to thank Chairman Leahy, who is probably on his way back to his beautiful farm in Vermont, for shepherding this bill through the Judiciary Committee. Everyone has praised his open and inclusive process. It is well known.

I want to thank Bruce Cohen. This is the capstone of his career. We all know how important he is to the Judiciary Committee. His big shoes were ably and elegantly filled by Kristine Lucius as chief council. But J.P. Dowd and Matt Virkstis, John Amaya, Lara Flint, Alex Givens, Chris Leopold, and Anya McMurray all did a great job.

As most people know around here, Harry Reid is one of my best friends in the world, and his unwavering support and confidence that we could get this done was essential. He had the great staff who lent constant help to us: David Krone, Bill Dauster, Serena Hoy, Kate Leone, Bruce King, and Angela Arboleda all did a great job.

The staffs of the other Members, I wish to mention a few of them also. I hope they are listening: Kerri Talbot, Darissa Wilhite, and Molly Groom of Senator Menendez's staff; Joe Zogby, Mara Silver, and Vaishalee Yeldandi with Senator Durbin; Jonathon Davidson and Sergio Gonzales who work with Senator Bennet. So many staffers.

As I said, we got to know each other very well, through all the meetings. We had a lot of disagreements and tough arguments. We all stuck together. And Senator Feinstein's team--Senator Feinstein put that agriculture section together. Amazing. The growers and the farm workers are for this bill. That is because of the great leadership of Senator Feinstein. Chris Thompson, Neil Quinter, and Kim Alton all did a great job there.

We worked as closely in this endeavor with the Republican staffs as well as the Democratic staffs, and I owe them a great deal of thanks: Cesar Conda, Sally Canfield, Enrique Gonzalez--let me pay him a compliment. He was sort of the equivalent--not quite, in my opinion, but close to the equivalent--of Leon Fresco on the Republican side. Also, John Baselice, Senator Rubio's staff; Mark Delich and Katherine Zill with Senator McCain; Matt Rimkunas, Sergio Sarkany, and David Glaccum with Senator Graham.

When we had our meetings, all of these staffers were there.

Chandler Morse, at first he was giving Senator Flake some tough advice, and just as Senator McCain would talk about Leon, I would talk about Chandler. I now owe him a dinner.

I said: Chandler, I am taking you out to dinner if this bill passes the Senate. Pick your restaurant. Don't make it too expensive.

And Elizabeth Taylor, who also works with Senator Flake. Then the great floor staff: Gary Myrick and Tim and Trish and Meredith and Tequia, Dan, Brad, Stephanie--they run the place like clockwork, as recently as today when there were more requests for time and people had to go home at 4 o'clock.

Emma Fulkerson of Senator Murray's staff; Reema and MJ on Senator Durbin's staff who did a great job, and, frankly, Dave Schiappa and the Republican floor staff as well.

We got a lot of help from the Senate appropriations, finance, and budget committees, and I thank them.

I also want to thank the rest of my staff in New York and in DC. They are the wind beneath our wings. If we didn't feel good and safe in New York,

we couldn't take the risks we do here Washington, and they make that possible. So I thank them all.

Finally, Leon, always making sure everything goes exactly right. So I want to thank the legislative counsel staff who worked 24/7 to turn these legislative ideas into the 1,000-page bill, as has been remarked about over and over, and it needed that many pages because it was so complicated. But they did a great job as well.

So, once again, to my staff, from Mike Lynch all the way through, I think, as every Member probably thinks, I have the best staff on the Hill. It is certainly the best staff I have ever had in 39 years as a legislator. Without them, we couldn't do it.

So tonight we are going to celebrate the going away and the ascension of one of our old-time staffers, and we will all have a great time together. But I am blessed. I am blessed to have a family, my wife and daughters who put up with me through thick and thin. I am blessed to have two other families, my Senate colleagues, who I do regard as my family, and my staff, who I also regard as my family. So though I am not Irish, I have a big, big, big family, and they are the greatest, all three.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor. I thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his graciousness.

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