[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 21 (Wednesday, March 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           ORDER OF PROCEDURE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia has the floor.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, may I ask the distinguished Senator from Virginia how 
lengthy a statement he wishes to make.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I inform my good friend, the President pro 
tempore, I would like to introduce two bills, taking about 6 minutes 
for each, but I will adjust this to suit the accommodation of the 
Senate and the Senator.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator. I intend 
to speak on the immigration bill which was introduced by Senator 
Simpson earlier today. I am a cosponsor of this legislation. I would 
like to make a statement.
  I do not want to discommode the distinguished Senator from Virginia 
by keeping him waiting. If he could limit his statement to----
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, what I would like to do is return at a 
more appropriate time and allow the senior Senator from West Virginia 
to proceed, and then I can return a little later today. There is no 
great urgency.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the distinguished Senator. I would be happy to 
yield for 5 or 6 or 7 minutes. I do need to proceed as soon as I can 
but I am happy to yield.
  Mr. WARNER. If the Senator will yield me 5 minutes I will introduce 
the bills.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may yield to 
the distinguished Senator from Virginia [Mr. Warner] for no longer than 
6 minutes--there is no controlled time--but that I may I do that 
without losing my right to the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. WARNER. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Warner pertaining to the introduction of S. 1886 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. WARNER. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Warner pertaining to the introduction of S. 1887 
located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and 
Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. WARNER. I thank the Chair. I thank my distinguished colleague 
from West Virginia, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank my friend from Virginia, Mr. Warner.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Byrd pertaining to the introduction of S. 1884 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I was here especially to listen to the 
remarks of my senior colleague from West Virginia because he has joined 
me throughout my legislative activities with regard to immigration 
reform.
  Senator Byrd, some may not recall, was on the Judiciary Committee for 
many years, and was on the committee when I came to join the Judiciary 
Committee of the Senate in 1979. He extended to me every courtesy, and 
was a great source of learning for a new, freshman Senator.
  Then he watched as I was appointed by President Carter to the Select 
Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, and would say to me 
often: How are you coming with your work? Do you have good staff? Will 
you be presenting some legislation to us?
  And we did. The Commission responded with the fabric of two bills; 
one to control illegal immigration and one to control legal 
immigration. I think probably the Senator from West Virginia would have 
a better institutional knowledge, but I do not know many commissions 
appointed by the President that actually can say that they did what 
they were supposed to do in the form of legislation. They often compile 
their reports and their staff volumes, and then they gather dust 
somewhere. But we went forward.
  Father Ted Hesburgh of Notre Dame was our President. We began our 
work, and throughout all those years there was always one vital ally, 
through the best and the worst times of immigration reform, legal and 
illegal immigration reform. There was an initial question that Senator 
Byrd had--he expressed it to me with regard to his State--that had to 
do with the H-2 worker programs with regard to agriculture. We resolved 
those not just for that State but with my own State and other States, 
and then we moved forward with the reform.
  I can tell you, in my years of conference committees and activities 
of being in the majority and the minority, especially in conference 
committees in the early times when Senator Byrd was a member of the 
committee, I always felt a great lightness of step when I would have 
his proxy in my pocket on immigration reform. And it was always lodged 
tightly there as he would send me off.
  Senator Byrd has been a real warrior in the fray, an extraordinary 
ally, a very constructive observer, a most adroit advocate, and a loyal 
friend. And now has chosen to serve me once again and assist me--it is 
more assistance in every way--as an original cosponsor of a sweeping 
piece of legislation which he has just well described. But it deals 
with the entire spectrum of asylum reform, deportation proceedings 
reform, public assistance reform, some type of, obviously, better 
verification system.
  I showed you graphically how anyone can obtain those documents, this 
morning. I will not go into that again. But I thank the Senator from 
West Virginia for his extraordinary consistency and support in a very 
difficult issue which, if you are not very cautious, can often find its 
way off in the channels of emotion, guilt, fear, and racism. He has 
never allowed that to happen. I have not allowed it to happen.
  Now we go forward with a consensus in a good, strong, bipartisan 
bill. That is the way I have always dealt with this issue. I think it 
portends well for the Senate to have a very good bill coming out of 
here within the next few months, in time for the House--the House will 
be dealing with theirs--in time to go to conference.
  There are some fine people on both sides of the aisle in the House 
and the Senate that are ready to go forward with sensible, realistic, 
nonnativist immigration reform. I thank the Senator from West Virginia. 
He has been a superb friend throughout.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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