“Republicans have finally engaged in constructive conversations that have produced a two year bipartisan budget deal. This agreement, reached by House and Senate leaders, would increase funding equally for defense and non-defense investments and will help ensure that our economy continues to grow while providing opportunities for middle-class Americans. Unfortunately, this deal does not eliminate cuts mandated by sequestration and does not fix our core budget problems in the long-term.

During the disastrous debt ceiling debate in 2011, Congress passed the Budget Control Act, which I opposed. While that legislation temporarily addressed the debt limit, it also stipulated that if Congress did not find $1.2 trillion in savings, sequestration would take effect. Sequester cuts were designed to be so damaging to our national defense, the economy, and other important federal programs, that Congress would be forced to act.  Since then, Congress has only been able to make progress with limited-term budget agreements.

Ideally, a budget must support our working families, invest in innovation and infrastructure, and advance comprehensive immigration reform. A responsible budget must create jobs and strengthen the middle class.  This budget agreement is not perfect and much of it needs careful review, but it is a move in the right direction. This agreement is preferable to governing from budget crisis to budget crisis and will allow for the American people to plan for the future.

This budget deal is paid for in a balanced way by ensuring that Wall Street pays the taxes they owe and cuts billions in wasteful spending. Furthermore, this agreement protects critical priorities, keeping intact programs that working families depend on and protecting Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries from harmful cuts. The deal will avoid cuts to the Social Security Disability Insurance program that are projected to take place at the end of next year and also avoids an increase in Medicare Part B premiums.

I have long called for Congress to permanently address the sequester. While the bipartisan budget agreement does not eliminate the sequester, this deal is a necessary compromise. The agreement will more reasonably fund our national and economic security through 2017, while ensuring the full faith and credit of the United States is not put at risk. Moving forward, Congress must eliminate sequestration altogether and implement a long-term spending plan that provides certainty to our economy, the Department of Defense, and the entire federal government.” 

“Last week, despite multiple hunger strikes, public protests over conditions, and lack of transparency in contract negotiations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed a new contract with the GEO Group to operate the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) for the next nine years and six months.”

“This contract is a symbol of systemic problems in our immigration detention system that we must fix. We need to get private, for profit companies out of the business of running immigration detention facilities and get those with pending immigration cases who pose no risk to society out on community-based Alternatives to Detention (ATDs). We also must ensure that there are clearly established, transparent and humane standards within immigration detention facilities.”

“One of the keys to achieving these goals is repealing the detention bed mandate. Due in large part to this misguided policy which directs ICE to have at least 34,000 detention beds for immigrants at any given time, private, for-profit prison companies run detention facilities. Under this policy, ICE is incentivized to detain largely nonviolent people whose immigration cases should be monitored through community-based ATDs. Last week, I offered an amendment to remove the detention bed quota from the short-term Continuing Resolution for Fiscal Year 2016. The amendment was rejected by the House Rules Committee, but I will continue to work with my colleagues to end the detention bed mandate.”

“We also need to make sure that local contracts, like the one just signed by ICE and GEO Group for the NWDC, have no minimum bed guarantees within them. Minimum bed guarantees are essentially detention bed mandates in individual contracts. I am a cosponsor of federal legislation that prohibits ICE from negotiating contracts that contain a minimum bed quota.”

“For those we must detain, we should have clearly established baseline standards for immigration detention facilities. My bill, the Accountability in Immigration Detention Act, outlines such standards as well as stresses the need for increased use of ATDs and elimination of the detention bed mandate.”

“In March, I wrote a letter to ICE Director Saldaña to relay the need for these changes with respect to the then-pending NWDC contract negotiation.  I am very concerned that this contract will continue the status quo by allowing NWDC to be managed by the same private prison company that has run it for years. Until Congress takes action to address these issues, we are left with a flawed detention policy that benefits private corporations at high cost to taxpayers, detainees and families of those affected.”