mr. chairman , i thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time , and i rise in opposition to the so-called real id act of 2005 . 
mr. chairman , while i have enormous respect for the gentleman from virginia , the chairman of the full committee , i must take exception to the assertions that have been made by a lot of speakers here today that somehow this bill will prevent or would have prevented the 9/11 attacks from occurring . 
i just want to point out that regardless of the number of licenses that the terrorists held on september 11 , they were all obtained because those individuals were in the country legally on student visas . 
and student visa holders in the future , even after this act is passed , will still have the opportunity to get licenses . 
so that argument is indeed bogus . 
but i want to talk about the most egregious parts of this bill . 
under this bill , it would allow the secretary of the department of homeland security to nullify all of our laws while fulfilling his responsibilities under the scope of this act . 
and putting aside the schizophrenic immigration policy we have heard from the republican party , you have a president that wants to have open borders and basically amnesty to allow open borders for low-wage workers to come in , and then you have a republican house that is saying that all those coming in must not have licenses . 
they must be pedestrians . 
mr. chairman , under this act , what this means for american citizens is , our civil rights laws will be set aside under this bill . 
our nondiscrimination laws will be set aside under this bill . 
our health and safety laws will be set aside under this bill . 
our environmental laws will not apply under this bill . 
and child labor laws will not apply under this bill . 
most troubling of all , the public bidding laws of this country will not apply under this bill for this project . 
right now on the committee that i serve with the esteemed chairman , we are investing no-bid contracts that were given to halliburton . 
we have millions of dollars in overcharges to the united states taxpayer , we have bribery charges , and we are doing all kinds of investigation on that no-bid . 
there is no reason that the civil rights laws and the public bidding laws should be set aside . 
if that were not the most extreme example , they have removed any opportunity for judicial review under this act . 
there will be no review of the secretary 's action in setting aside all of those laws , no recourse . 
it is ironic , mr. chairman , that while we have our soldiers in uniform protecting democracy , we are giving it away under this bill . 
