[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 69 (Monday, May 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3019-H3020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  VOTE FOR H.R. 3722, UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE 
                           AMENDMENTS OF 2004

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, today the American people should pay 
close attention to the debate when the House takes up H.R. 3722. If one 
is concerned about the flood of illegal immigrants pouring into our 
country, this is the debate to watch. And H.R. 3722 is the vote on 
which to judge your Member of Congress.
  There has obviously been a conscious decision made by certain 
powerful people that massive immigration into the United States, legal 
or illegal, is good for America or at least good for certain friendly 
interest groups. This vote on H.R. 3722 is clear-cut. The American 
people can determine who is on their side and who will channel our 
scarce health care dollars to illegal immigrants, thus encouraging even 
more illegal immigration into our country.
  H.R. 3722, which will come for debate here later today and will be 
voted on tomorrow, is designed to undo the harm done by an amendment 
that was slipped into the Medicare bill that was passed just a few 
months ago. That surprise and somewhat covert amendment established a 
$1 billion fund to reimburse American hospitals for the emergency care 
they provide illegal immigrants.
  The perverse, unintended consequences of this are easy to predict. 
Americans and legal residents who lack health insurance will be sent to 
the back of the line when seeking help for a medical emergency because 
the hospitals will naturally give primary service to those illegal 
immigrants whose tab is being picked up by the Federal taxpayers. This 
is a travesty.
  Anyone voting against H.R. 3722 is voting to put our kids, voting to 
put our seniors, at the end of a long waiting line moving the illegal 
immigrant to the front of the line. At this time when we cannot afford 
the money to pay for prescription drugs for our seniors, we are going 
to be spending $1 billion to treat people who have come here illegally.
  Those against H.R. 3722 are voting to spend our limited health care 
money to make America the HMO of the world. And then they act surprised 
when even more tens of millions of illegals flood into our country.
  Watch the vote on H.R. 3722. Listen to the arguments. The other side 
will claim that the legislation causes hospitals more paperwork. That 
is a bogus argument. However, the public will decide when they are 
listening to the debate whether they are hearing legitimate arguments 
or whether it is simply noise being generated to confuse people so they 
will not know who is ripping off their health care dollars and giving 
it to strangers.
  The flood of illegal immigration has already had horrible impacts on 
our society, on working Americans and middle-class Americans in 
particular. Wages are being kept down. Our educational and criminal 
justice systems are deteriorating. And, yes, our health care system is 
failing.
  A government's first responsibility is protecting our citizens and, 
yes, our legal residents, not to provide benefits and services to 
anyone in the rest of the world who can get here. Our responsibility is 
to the people of the United States and the legal residents here of the 
United States. Our responsibility is not to the rest of the world and 
to provide any benefits that we can't provide to our American people, 
to provide them to anyone in the world who can get here. That will 
break our bank. If we are going to try to do everything for everybody, 
we are not going to be able to do anything for anybody, even our own 
people.
  H.R. 3722 is the litmus test. There is always a good sounding excuse 
for voting against any bill that tries to come up and tries to come to 
grips with the out-of-control flood of illegals coming into our 
country. But the issue is clear in H.R. 3722: Are America's limited 
health care dollars going to treat illegal immigrants rather than being 
used to treat our own people?
  Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents. H.R. 3722 
is a first good step in stemming the tide of illegal immigrants into 
our country. It will be debated here in just a few hours. America 
should pay attention.

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