[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4610-S4614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  VOTE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate 
that debate on the bill (S. 1664) shall be brought to a close? The yeas 
are automatic.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 100, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 107 Leg.]

                               YEAS--100

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Brown
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Burns

[[Page S4611]]


     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Faircloth
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Heflin
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nickles
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pressler
     Pryor
     Reid
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Shelby
     Simon
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 100, the nays are 
0. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to the immediate 
consideration of H.R. 2202. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 2202) to amend the Immigration and Nationality 
     Act to improve deterrence of illegal immigration to the 
     United States by increasing border patrol and investigative 
     personnel, by increasing penalties for alien smuggling and 
     for document fraud, by reforming exclusion and deportation 
     law and procedures, by improving the verification system for 
     eligibility for employment, and through other measures, to 
     reform the legal immigration system and facilitate legal 
     entries into the United States, and for other purposes.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all after the 
enacting clause will be stricken, and the text of S. 1664, as amended, 
is inserted in lieu thereof.
  The question is on the engrossment of the amendment and third reading 
of the bill.
  The amendment was ordered to be engrossed, and the bill to be read a 
third time.
  The bill was read a third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the 
question is, Shall the bill pass? The yeas and nays have been ordered. 
The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 3, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 108 Leg.]

                                YEAS--97

     Abraham
     Akaka
     Ashcroft
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Brown
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Daschle
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Faircloth
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Frist
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Heflin
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nickles
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pressler
     Pryor
     Reid
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                                NAYS--3

     Feingold
     Graham
     Simon
  The bill (H.R. 2202), as amended, was passed.
  (The text of H.R. 2202 will be printed in a future edition of the 
Record.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. SIMPSON. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.


                Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 1664

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1664 be 
placed back on the calendar.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (Mr. FAIRCLOTH assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I will not be overly long. I just want to 
take a few minutes to thank my colleagues. This bill is the culmination 
of 17 years of work. It is interesting for me, as Senator Ted Kennedy 
and I were both on the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee 
Policy 17 years ago. With this bill, we have brought to fruition most 
of the things that Father Ted Hesburgh and that commission suggested to 
us then. We have also taken welcome direction from the U.S. Commission 
on Immigration Reform, and the late Barbara Jordan, who chaired that 
body. I think with what we have done in this bill, the recommendations 
of those Commissions--instead of remaining as studies which stayed on 
the shelf--have become sweeping measures to control illegal 
immigration. This bill is truly sweeping.
  I want to thank Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy has worked with me and 
has helped me over quite a few hurdles. He chaired the Subcommittee on 
Immigration before I came to the Senate. After the Republicans became 
the majority party in 1980, I chaired it. There were times when we 
disagreed, but we were never disagreeable. He is a very special friend 
and a remarkable legislator of the first order.
  I also want to thank Senator Bob Dole, who has consistently arranged 
so that we could go forward with this important legislation. I 
personally appreciate not only his leadership, but his friendship. 
Serving as the assistant Republican leader--his assistant--for 10 years 
was one of my greatest honors and privileges.
  I must also thank my staff. My staff includes Dick Day--the 
``Reverend'' Day, I call him. He is not a Reverend, but he should have 
sainthood. Back in Cody, WY, I told him, I have an issue of disaster, 
one filled with guilt and racism, and I will be called everything in 
the book, but I need somebody to move to Washington to help me and love 
me and help me along. Well, he did that. He has lost 5 pounds within 
the last 13 days. I want to thank Charles Wood, who was been with me 
via Harvard and Berkeley and who is willing to hang in there late at 
night; John Ratigan, who has come to my staff from the State Department 
with his wealth of knowledge; John Knepper, a wonderful, bright young 
man from Wyoming, a very able person to assist me in these matters; 
Trudy Settles has been a wonderful addition to our staff; and I must 
also thank Kristel DeMay, Maureen McCafferty, and Uzma Ahmad--some our 
marvelous interns at the Subcommittee on Immigration. I also want to 
thank Ted Kennedy's staff, including Michael Myers; he and Dick Day 
work together without any kind of partisanship or things that set them 
apart in that way. Then there are Patty First, Bill Fleming, Ron Weich, 
and Tom Perez--all of whom have been a great help in moving this bill 
through the Senate. There have also been so many staff for so many 
Senators who have worked so diligently on this issue.
  I must say that we have completed 51 hours and 45 minutes on this 
piece of legislation over 8 days--although that 51 hours 45 minutes 
would have been considerably shortened without the minimum wage 
activities of Senator Kennedy. Nevertheless, he may have actually saved 
us a great deal of time because when we went into the cloture, with its 
parliamentary limitation of germaneness, we were saved a great deal of 
time on some very controversial amendments. I do not want to give him 
too much credit, though, because I am sure we will be trying to undo 
him in a few hours.
  Do not go home and analyze the votes of each Senator, though, because 
you will never be able to explain them. Every Senator's staff is 
wondering why he voted this way or that. This immigration issue is 
about America, and America is about conflict and resolution. It is 
debate about these issue that pull and tear at our hearts, and that is 
what makes us the country we are--the most magnificent country on this 
bright earth.
  This debate is the essence of America--passion, conflict, 
controversy, all the rest of it. It has been an exceedingly pleasant 
experience. I mean that. I love the work. I wish Senator Kennedy well 
as he proceeds forward with it in the years to come. I will be 
observing from my future teaching post at Harvard, being assured that 
he is

[[Page S4612]]

doing it correctly. I thank my colleagues. I thank those on the floor. 
I thank my former co-assistant leader, Senator Ford. He helps me when 
he can and vexes me whenever he has the opportunity. Yet, I had come to 
enjoy him thoroughly in my work when we served together as assistant 
leaders of our parties. He did not care what I did, as long as we did 
not do anything with the motor voter law. That was easy to accomplish.
  David Pryor, who sits here, is a friend who came with me to this 
place. Bill Bradley and I have a great friendship, and we will go on 
and do other things, and while the rest of you will be here to do the 
work. As I look around the Chamber--I do not intend to address all the 
Members here, but I see my colleague from Montana, who is a very 
special, wonderful and earthy friend. Then there is Bob Dole, who is, I 
think, a most remarkable leader for this body--and perhaps other 
places, too.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the vote that was just taken, 97 to 3, I 
think, says it all. The U.S. Senate has been debating this issue for 8 
days. It has been closely divided on a number of different issues. But 
I feel that most of the Members, or virtually all of the Members, feel 
that their views were given an opportunity to be presented and to be 
examined and to be considered and to be voted on. And the final outcome 
of this is 97 to 3. It is really an extraordinary personal achievement 
and accomplishment by my friend and colleague, the Senator from 
Wyoming, Senator Simpson.
  Al Simpson and I have been friends for many years. Although we have 
some differences, we have a deep sense of mutual respect and 
friendship, which has been valuable to certainly me and, I think, to 
him. Why a Senator from Wyoming would be willing to take on this issue 
on immigration has always been extraordinary and interesting to me. 
This is not a burning issue in his particular State.
  In my State of Massachusetts, they still remember the bitter whip of 
the national origin quota system that divided groups and communities on 
the basis of where one was born. Senators from the western part of the 
country remember the Asian Pacific triangle that discriminated on the 
basis of race and discriminated against Asians up until 1965. And in 
many parts of the country, in between, there are communities and 
families who have cared very deeply about this.
  Senator Simpson has seen the importance of this issue as a national 
issue and an issue for the country. This issue, as he has described it, 
involves so many different aspects of human emotions of passion, and 
discrimination, and reunification of families, and exploitation, and he 
has taken this on as a member of the Hesburgh Commission for Legal and 
Illegal Immigration, as a key figure.
  We passed the Refugee Act in 1980, and then in 1986, and in 1990, and 
now again, to deal with something, which is of very important concern 
to all Americans, and that is the whole question of the illegals that 
come to this country.
  This legislation, I think, will be extremely important and, I 
believe, effective in stemming the tide of illegals, not just because 
of the expansion of the border patrols, although that will have some 
effect, and not just because of the increased penalties in smuggling, 
as all that will have an effect; it will have an important impact in 
helping American workers get jobs and be able to hold them and have the 
enhanced opportunity for employment.
  That, I think, is very, very important as well. But most of all I 
want to pay my respects to Senator Simpson for his dedication and focus 
on this issue. If this issue had come up over a year ago, after the 
1994 campaign, when the flames of distrust and anger were being fanned 
in many parts of the country, we would not have had this 
legislation. It has only been because of the exhaustive time that the 
Senator has taken with each and every Member, Republican and Democrat, 
in the Judiciary Committee and talking to each of the various groups 
that have a particular interest that we have gotten to this point, and 
his willingness to listen to the recommendations of Barbara Jordan. I 
thought of Barbara Jordan when I heard that last rollcall because this 
was an issue which Barbara Jordan, a distinguished lady and an 
outstanding congresswoman, that struck the conscience of the Nation on 
many different occasions, and tireless in her own pursuit of justice 
and the elimination of forms of discrimination. She took on an 
enormously challenging task when few others would touch it, and in 
working through, made a series of recommendations. That has been the 
basis of this particular proposal.

  So I give respect to my chairman, the chairman for the remainder of 
this session. I think all of us who know the importance of this issue 
will know that Alan Simpson has played an extremely important role, 
addressing in a serious way, bringing judgment, conscience, 
consideration, and intelligence to this issue. I think this country is 
better served by his service.
  I want to mention just briefly, Mr. President, other members of our 
committee: Senator Simon. Senator Simon, I, and Senator Simpson for a 
brief period were the only three members of the Immigration Committee. 
He has been a steady contributor and has an unwavering commitment to 
fairness which has marked his career.
  Senator Feinstein, for her own integrity and effectiveness in dealing 
with our immigration laws; Senator Grassley; Senator Kyl; Senator 
Specter--all active on the subcommittee.
  My colleague, Senator Biden, Senator Feingold, Senator Abraham, and 
Senator DeWine are deeply committed to our immigrant heritage and made 
major contributions to legal immigration and effectively in relation to 
illegal reforms.
  Senator Hatch, who is chairman of our Judiciary Committee, has long 
been involved in the human side of immigration and has handled lengthy 
and contentious markups with fairness. We had very extensive markups 
with broad attendance--virtually unanimous attendance--and he presided 
over them with fairness;
  Senator Graham, who has presented the case for a safety net for legal 
immigrants and the need to avoid the unfunded mandates, as well as 
Senator Chafee and Senator Leahy on those issues of asylum. That has 
been a matter of particular interest and concern to him. He has been 
very effective on this bill on that.
  Finally, I want to mention Michael Myers, who has been of such value 
and help, I believe, to the Senate and to the country, as our other 
staff have, with Democrats and Republicans. I think all of us perhaps--
maybe there are those; I do not--but there are those who underestimate 
the power of good will and intelligence of those who provide such 
assistance to all of us and make our jobs easier. Michael Myers has 
been there:
  Patti Frist, Tom Perez, Bill Fleming, Melody Barnes, Ron Weich, 
Michael Mershon; and I think that we on our side have felt that the 
Republican staff, Dick Day, Chip Wood, John Knepper, John Ratigan, and 
Chuck Blahous have also been not only working for Republicans but 
Democrats alike.
  Carlos Angulo, who has been working with Senator Simon; Leeci Eve 
with Senator Biden, and Bruce Cohen for Senator Leahy; all of those and 
others have been of great help.
  Finally, I want to thank Tom Daschle as well, who as we were going 
through different times and phases of the consideration of this 
legislation and different aspects of it, has been a constant source of 
strength to me and the other members of the committee.
  We look forward to the conference, and we will do our very best to 
bring back to the Senate a conference that carries forward the 
commitments of the Senate to the extent that we possibly can. This is a 
bill that deserves to be signed by the President of the United States.
  Mr. BURNS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry. What is the order of 
the day?
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, if I may--if the Senator will yield for a 
moment to let me propose a unanimous-consent request, and then the 
Senator from Montana may proceed.
  I just want to add one note. I failed to pay tribute to Chuck 
Blahous. He has not been part of the immigration staff, but he is my 
legislative director, and was he pressed into service on this bill in a 
most extraordinary way.
  I, too, thank my colleagues on the subcommittee: Senator Kennedy, of 
course; Senator Simon, a steady friend

[[Page S4613]]

for 25 years; Senator Feinstein; Senator Grassley, who is always there, 
always steady, always someone to count on; Senator Kyl, who will leave 
a great impression and mark, along with Senator Feinstein, on this 
subcommittee in the future; Senator Specter and his steadiness; Bill 
Roth, my old steady friend who campaigned for me back when it was not 
safe to do that. I see him here. I thank him for his work.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the honorable majority 
leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, first, let me congratulate my colleagues, 
Senator Simpson and Senator Kennedy, for completing action on what I 
consider to be a very good bipartisan immigration bill. It took 8 days. 
We had it scheduled for 3. So we have lost a little time. But I think 
the end product is probably worth it, and we hope to make up the time 
in the next few weeks on other matters.
  Mr. President, we have before us an issue of great national 
importance--reform of this Nation's laws on illegal immigration. But 
while many Members have worked hard to move this issue forward, let's 
face it: The moving force has been my colleague and friend, the Senator 
from Wyoming--Senator Simpson. There are so many ways to describe how 
he has served America, but I believe that his work in this area will 
always be at the top of the list.
  Illegal immigration reform is not a partisan issue. It is not a 
simple issue.
  But make no mistake about it, this legislation is long overdue.
  Mr. President, we are a nation justly proud of our heritage. That 
heritage is inseparable from the human experience of millions upon 
millions of immigrants--from every country on Earth.
  That heritage is also bound up in a reverence for the rule of law--
for playing by the rules.
  The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act combines 
both of these strands of our national character.
  We cannot remain a great country and fail to control our borders.
  We cannot evade one of the principal obligations of the Federal 
Government and expect the States and local communities to pick up the 
tab.
  We cannot reward those who break our laws by picking the pockets of 
hardworking Americans.
  In short, Mr. President, we are proud that our country is a nation of 
immigrants and a land of opportunity--but we will insist that everyone 
play by the rules.
  The legislation before us provides for increases in the numbers of 
enforcement personnel and creates additional detention facilities. 
Perhaps most important, it provides for the first time some realistic 
hope that our Border Patrol can cope with the overwhelming nature of 
illegal immigration by increasing the numbers of agents.
  The bill, however, also recognizes that fully half of the illegals 
currently in this country were once here legally under a visa, but then 
simply stayed. This is not a problem that can be addressed by fences 
along the border--this is a matter of the will to enforce our laws.
  Visa overstayers are here now--when we discover who they are they 
should be sent on their way.
  The bill also provides strong measures for perhaps the ultimate 
insult to our national sovereignty. This is the case when those who 
violate our immigration laws, the violate our criminal laws as well.
  I am particularly pleased that the Senate adopted the Dole-Coverdell 
amendment which closed some of the loopholes that currently exist in 
our deportation laws.
  Under the Dole-Coverdell amendment, violations of domestic violence, 
stalking, child abuse laws, and crimes of sexual violence have been 
added as deportable offenses.
  It is long past time to stop the vicious acts of stalking, child 
abuse, and sexual abuse. We cannot prevent in every case the often 
justified fear that too often haunts our citizens. But we can make sure 
that any alien that commits such an act will no longer remain within 
our borders.
  Mr. President, I salute my colleagues who have worked so hard on this 
legislation. They have rendered America a great service, and it is my 
hope that a strong, bipartisan vote in favor of this bill will send a 
message that America will no longer stand by passively--we will take 
control of our borders. And most of all, Mr. President, we will ensure 
that no one cuts in line in front of those who play by the rules.
  So I salute my colleagues who have worked hard on this legislation. 
They have rendered America a great service. It is my hope that we can 
come out of the conference with a strong bipartisan bill.
  I again congratulate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for 
their efforts. I yield the floor.
  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, today the Senate passed much needed 
legislation to restructure our Nation's laws with respect to illegal 
immigration. I want to take this opportunity to commend my colleagues 
Senator Simpson and Senator Kennedy for their diligence and leadership 
in crafting legislation to address this issue. As this debate has 
shown, the highly emotional and diverse views on the issues surrounding 
both legal and illegal immigration makes it very difficult to get a 
consensus on legislation reforming our immigration laws.
  Despite previous efforts by Congress to control illegal immigration, 
the evidence shows that thousands of people cross the border illegally 
each year. Clearly, our Nation simply cannot continue to absorb this 
unregulated stream of illegal aliens. The costs to society of 
permitting a large group of people to live in an illegal, second-class 
status are enormous. It strains not only the financial resources of our 
local, State and Federal governments, but also the compassion of our 
people. The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act will 
help ensure that the Federal Government meets it's responsibility to 
enforce our Nation's illegal immigration policies.
  This legislation nearly doubles the number of Border Patrol agents 
over the next 5 years, authorizes an additional 300 INS investigators, 
increases criminal penalties for alien smuggling and document fraud, 
and authorizes additional detention facilities for illegal aliens. 
Through these increased enforcement activities, our Nation will be 
better equipped to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across our 
borders and to respond to the problems and abuses which accompany the 
presence of a significant illegal population. For these reasons, I 
voted in favor of final passage of this legislation.
  I did so not without some reservations. While I believe in the 
underlying principles of the legislation, I have serious concerns over 
some of the provisions agreed to in this bill. I am concerned about the 
costs and administrative burdens this legislation may impose on the 
States by the extension of deeming to all Federal means-tested 
assistance programs. Additionally, by failing to exempt some minimal 
emergency and health services from deeming, I am fearful that we will 
discourage legal aliens from seeking basic treatments such as 
immunizations and prenatal care. As we know, this can lead to adverse 
effects to the public health and safety.
  In addition, the original version of the bill contained provisions 
which imposed unwarranted new bars to an individual's ability to seek 
political asylum in this country. Due to my concern about these summary 
exclusion procedures, I joined Senator Leahy as a cosponsor of his 
amendment to limit the use of summary exclusion except in emergency 
migration situations.
  Mr. President, most persons who are fleeing persecution do not have 
the luxury of asking their governments for appropriate exit papers to 
leave their countries. Many flee without documents. Others flee with 
fraudulent documents. The summary exclusion provisions in the 
underlying bill had the potential of excluding these people if they 
failed to convince an INS border officer that they have a credible fear 
of persecution.
  I can understand the concern that our asylum laws have been abused in 
the past. But we have taken steps to reform the asylum system. In 1995, 
our asylum system was tightened and adequate resources have been 
invested to root out these abuses. This effort has been successful; 90 
percent of claims are now adjudicated within 60 days of their receipt. 
There has been a drastic decline in new asylum applications, from 
13,000 per month at the end of 1994 to 3,000 per month currently. One 
reason for this is that asylum seekers are

[[Page S4614]]

no longer automatically eligible for work authorization. As a result of 
the reforms, our asylum system now works to ensure that legitimate 
asylum seekers are protected and those who file fraudulent claims are 
weeded out.
  We have a tradition in this country of protecting bona fide refugees. 
We have an asylum system that is working well to continue this 
tradition. The provisions included in the underlying bill would have 
undermined our good efforts to the detriment of the very people we are 
seeking to protect. The Leahy amendment appropriately gives the 
Attorney General the flexibility to address emergency migration 
situations but retains our current asylum procedures for those who 
arrive in the United States and request political asylum. I am happy to 
say that my colleagues in the Senate recognized the importance of 
retaining this flexibility and voted to include this amendment in the 
final bill.
  While I support the general principles underlying this bill, I 
believe we must also find new ways to address the problems of illegal 
immigration. I am among the first to admit that we cannot afford to 
absorb an unregulated flow of immigrants into our country. However, I 
am concerned by the shortsighted approach that is taken to address this 
problem. Sometimes we find ourselves so caught up in the crises of the 
day that we forget to look at the root causes of problems. In the case 
of illegal immigration, I think we have fallen into this trap.
  We can continue to increase our Border Patrol and our enforcement 
activities in the United States. We can build a wall that stretches 
along the United States-Mexico border and the United States-Canadian 
border. While this may make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to 
enter the United States, I do not believe that these measures will 
solve the problem of illegal immigration. Similarly, we can tighten 
employer sanctions and cut off all public benefits for illegal aliens, 
in an attempt to take away the ``magnets'' which create the desire for 
people to enter our country with or without proper documentation.
  I believe we must look beyond these so-called magnets to focus on 
creating opportunities for people within their own countries so they 
aren't compelled to leave in search of better opportunities to support 
their families. To do this, the United States must maintain it's 
leadership in promoting human rights, democracy, and economic stability 
in our neighboring countries, and around the world. Unfortunately, I 
fear that we have recently begun to retreat from this position. In the 
past few years, the United States has curtailed it's spending on 
foreign aid and humanitarian assistance programs. This year, we 
essentially demolished our international family planning program, which 
will severely affect maternal and child health around the world. 
Further, we continue to funnel arms into the poorest and most 
politically unstable countries across the globe.
  We cannot continue along this path. It is only when we address the 
root causes of illegal immigration--poverty, warfare, and persecution--
that the United States can truly address and eliminate this problem.
  One final note, Mr. President. In this bill, we have significantly 
enhanced the ability of the Immigration and Naturalization Service 
[INS] to meet one of its primary missions, to control the entry of 
illegal immigrants into this country. But, I would like to take this 
opportunity to remind my colleagues that the enforcement mission is not 
the only mission of the INS. The INS also exists to serve, to meet the 
needs of citizens, legal residents, and visitors. It has the 
responsibility to provide service to millions of individuals and 
employers who are following the rules, and trying to bring family and 
employees into the United States legally.
  Due to the recent national attention that has been given to illegal 
immigration, I fear that this part of the INS mission statement has 
been severely neglected. For example, many district and regional INS 
offices have unreliable phone service, have tremendous backlogs in 
paperwork, and fail to initiate community outreach. My State's district 
office in Portland, OR, no longer even distributes necessary forms to 
the public. I had planned to introduce an amendment to this bill which 
would have addressed this situation. It would have required all INS 
district and regional offices to distribute forms, and would have 
expressed the Senate's desire that the INS provide adequate resources 
to fulfill its service mission.
  Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to bring this amendment 
to the floor for consideration on this bill. However, I believe this is 
an issue of utmost importance and will continue to pursue enhancing the 
INS's service mission through subsequent legislation or through 
communications with Commissioner Doris Meissner. Citizens, permanent 
residents, and visitors across the country need, and deserve, to have 
access to the services only the INS can provide for them.

                          ____________________