CÁRDENAS TO FORCE VOTE ON COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley), a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, released a statement regarding the committee’s mark-up of H.R. 4725, the Common Sense Savings Act of 2016.
“Today, the Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a mark-up of H.R. 4725, the so-called Common Sense Savings Act of 2016. I submitted an amendment because we must focus on aggressive ways to reduce the Federal deficit and the passage of comprehensive immigration reform is one of the most effective ways to do that.
“Our nation doesn’t win when we pass legislation that takes desperately needed health care benefits away from our most vulnerable and voiceless people that call our country home, like many of the so-called ‘mandatory savings bills’ that the House will consider this week do. Our nation wins when we level the playing field and give people the tools they need to build a life for themselves, saving taxpayers billions of dollars in the process.”
Undocumented immigrants in the United States pay $11.64 billion in state and local taxes every year. This number would increase by more than $2.1 billion under comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive Immigration Reform would lower the deficit by more than $900 billion, while creating an additional 120,000 jobs each year.
“If Congress is really serious about reducing the Federal budget deficit, we cannot continue to ignore the beneficial impacts of passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform. H.R. 4725 pulls the rug out from under low-income children and folks who are most at risk of being uninsured. It is disingenuous to do this in the name of deficit reduction while ignoring the positive economic effects of immigration reform.”
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