Mr. Speaker, what an underhanded, sneaky rule and bill this is. The Social Security Act has a provision that prohibits, that prohibits the use of Social Security trust funds for changing the Social Security cards. This bill repeals that provision. CBO estimates the cost that could be incurred there by between 5 and $10 billion to be looted out of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds by that provision of this bill.

Now, I offered an amendment to restore this provision, to repeal the repeal. Mr. Thomas ran into the Rules Committee at midnight last night with his own amendment, because they saw the damage this could do. And his own amendment ostensibly repeals this, but it does not. The Thomas amendment only applies to the Social Security trust fund, but allows the looting of the Medicare trust fund. It allows monies from all trust funds, including Social Security, to carry out section 707 of the bill, a smaller expenditure, but a major expenditure.

The Thomas amendment limits the prohibition against raiding the trust funds to title VII of the current bill. My amendment prohibits the use of these monies for any costs incurred in developing and implementing any change in Social Security cards. The Thomas amendment leaves open the possibility of future legislation looting all the trust funds.

Why will we not simply restore the provision, as my amendment would, that this bill would take out? Why are we opening up the Social Security and Medicare and disability and unemployment insurance trust funds to be looted for these purposes? Mr. Thomas's amendment undoes a little of the damage, but it leaves wide loopholes. Wide.

Does anybody know that in the immigration bill we are debating is permission to take $5 billion to $10 billion out of Social Security and Medicare and unemployment and disability? Is that what we want to do?

I urge the Rules Committee, if it wants to make sure this is honestly done, make my amendment in order, not just Mr. Thomas's amendment, which is self-executed in this rule, although only brought to the Rules Committee at midnight last night. Make my amendment in order so we can stop the looting of the Social Security, disability unemployment, and Medicare trust funds.