In effect then. immigration benefits our economy and labor force. as long as it is selective and controlled. This bill will allow greater selectivity and greater control. Mr. President. what we are about to consider is the fruit of the efforts of many people over many years: voluntary organizations. who year after year raised their voices against the hardship of the quota system. members of the other body. such as Representative CELLEt of New York and Representative FEIGAN of Ohio. who have vigorously pursued reform. and many others. May I say that my efforts on this subject have been brief in comparison with theirs. If this is a historic occasion. if we are about to take a long awaited step. there are many Senators. here now and with us in the past. whose efforts made them far more worthy of the honor of guiding this bill to passage than those of the junior Senator from Massachusetts. I think of the late senior Senator from New York. Herbert Lehman. who introduced the first bill to repeal the national origins quota system after the report of President Trumans Commission in I think of our distinguished Vice President. who cosponsored such a bill in each Congress. and spoke for it around the country. I think of President Kennedy. who as a Senator sponsored much of the legislation that breached the quota system to unify families and who first proposed the principles of this bill in 1963. I thank the Senator from Michigan . who has introduced his own bills in the past. as well as this bill on behalf of the administration. And I think of all their colleagues who joined with them. year after year. to make this fight.
Keywords matched
quota system immigration national origins quota