Scalise Talks Moving Goodlatte-McCaul Immigration Bill, Touts Tax Reform Wins

WASHINGTON, D.C.— At the House Republican Leadership stakeout today, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) highlighted several key statistics showing the positive effects the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is having on the nation's economy. He also discussed his goal for passage of the Goodlatte-McCaul immigration reform bill, which addresses several immigration reform priorities including, DACA, securing our border, and ending chain migration.

Click here to watch his full remarks.

On economic growth due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:

"It's a real exciting time for our economy. When you see this tax-cut bill having such a positive impact throughout our entire economy, and for workers, for people that have been working really hard for a long time, in many cases not seeing an increase in pay, now they’re finally getting bonuses and pay raises. And the list of companies continues to grow.

"We have a list on majoritywhip.gov of over 300 businesses who have already given bonuses and pay raises to their workers. And we keep that running tally. And the good news is it grows every week.

"CNBC just reported that this is the best time in 25 years for employees to get a pay raise or a bonus in their paychecks.

"We just saw the National Federation of Independent Businesses. They survey their members every year. And they said, 'This is the highest percentage' -- over 30 percent of their companies reported that they're looking to expand, to actually hire more workers.

"And it coincidentally happens to be the highest percentage of businesses looking to expand since 1986. And of course, 1986 is the last time that we had a major reform and overhaul of our tax code.

"So, cutting taxes is working for small businesses. And more importantly, it's working for hard-working taxpayers. And as people see more money in their paychecks this month, and every month, they're going to continue to benefit from the work that we did here in Congress, working with President Trump, to cut taxes for hard-working families."

On the Goodlatte-McCaul immigration reform bill:

"It starts with securing the border, and the Goodlatte-McCaul bill is a bill that we're going to be whipping today, asking our members to support this bill that addresses those pressing issues. It puts money in place to build a wall. It makes sure that we have real, both border security and interior security.

"And again, both Chairman Goodlatte and McCaul worked very hard with a cross-section of our members to put together a bill that confronts those issues. It ends chain migration, ends this lottery system that everybody agrees makes no sense. Why should you be picking names out of a hat, instead of having a merit-based system that actually works for our country? Much better than the current broken system.

"And then finally, it confronts the DACA issue. This is an issue that Barack Obama put on the doorsteps of America when he created DACA, a program that -- that really had no path for anybody. It just encouraged a lot of people to come to our country, and said, "Well, somebody else is going to have to deal with it." Well, we're finally dealing with it.

"President Trump laid out the pillars of what he wants to see in a bill that can get to his desk, that he can sign. And the Goodlatte-McCaul bill addresses all of those issues in a way where, if we get this bill passed through the House, and if it ultimately gets to the president's desk, he would sign that bill.

"And I think it's important to give people certainty, and to finally address the problems that have been existing in our broken immigration system for a long time. We finally confront that. And the Goodlatte-McCaul bill is the bill that we're moving. And if you look at where we start today, we are finally at least working on a way to come together to address this problem."