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Rep. Gutiérrez on Today’s Omnibus Vote


Washington, DC –(ENEWSPF)–December 18, 2015.   On Friday, Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) voted against passage of the omnibus government funding bill for 2016 saying it fell short of his expectations on a number of different fronts.  He gave five specific reasons for his vote against the package.  The following is a statement by Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez:

I voted against the omnibus because the ban on crude oil exports should not have been lifted and only increases our reliance on fossil fuels.  I believe in science and facts, so I take global warming seriously and think both parties in the U.S. Congress should as well.

Despite intentions to enact policies to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt next year, I voted against the omnibus because it does not guarantee schools, police, and hospitals will function for the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico tomorrow and next week.  It is a crisis that should have been addressed now, not next year.

For 17 years we have prohibited research into gun violence, a self-defeating masquerade enforced by the gun lobby to keep our national head in the sand about the toll that guns take on society every year.  It should have been stripped from this bill and was not.

While I support the goal of sharing information between the private sector and the U.S. government to advance our national security goals, the cyber security act incorporated into the omnibus will fail to adequately provide safeguards to protect Americans’ private information and will lead to surveillance and searches without warrants.

The H-2B visa provisions in the omnibus are piecemeal immigration changes that should not be legislated through the back door of an appropriations bill.  Any immigration amendments should be debated in regular order with the rights of U.S. workers and the rights of immigrant workers considered simultaneously and given at least as much consideration as the desires of U.S. employers and this measure falls short.

Source: www.gutierrez.house.gov


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