Speech #960205029

Mr. Speaker. when this bill was before the House of Representatives on December 20. I opposed this bill on the grounds that it separated out our policy on refugees from our policy on legal immigration and the fact that there are millions of illegal immigrants in this country. The conference committee report does not solve the problem of coordination of policy of various groups of aliens in this country and should be rejected for that reason. But there is also another reason to reject this conference report. In three material parts on the powers of Congress to review the actions of the administration on refugees the conference committee decided to go along with the weaker version of congressional powers. For example. the House version of the bill provided for a sunset of the 50.000peryear normal refugee flow. The conference gave that away. The Senate version of the bill required a hearing and a report within 30 days by the Committee on the Judiciary of both the House and the Senate. The House version did not. The conference report does not. Finally. the House version of the bill provided for a oneHouse veto for any action of the administration exceeding the normal flow of 50.000 refugees per year. And the oneHouse veto was negotiated away by the conference committee as well. On several occasions this year on unrelated matters. the House of Representatives has very strongly supported a congressional veto over actions of the executive branch of Government because. basically. many of the decisions that are being made by the executive branch of Government are legislative in nature. How many refugees we admit to this country over and above the normal flow established by Congress I would submit is a legislative decision that this House and this Senate ought to be able to veto if the people of the United States do not want to have a higher normal flow of refugees. To the Members of the House who have strongly supported a congressional veto over the actions of the bureaucracy. I would urge them to cast a no vote on this conference committee report. to send it back to the conference committee so that the powers of the Congress to review the actions of the administration will be strengthened and so that we can have a meaningful say in what our refugee policy is once this bill is passed and signed into law.