Speech #990183191

In both instances the majority of those elected to represent the American people have supported a Guestworker Program. One might therefore ask. what could possibly have happened in the interim to establish this issue over any other as the source of the current legislative deadlock? In a case where both Houses of Congress have expressed themselves similarly on separate occasions. how could this issue now present itself as the stumbling block to immigration reform? While I will expand on this question somewhat. for purposes of brevity one can probably best describe this dilemma in terms of the exercise of raw political power. The reason that the immigration bill has not come up. is that it has not been allowed to come up. because some with the authority to bring it up. did not like the likely outcome on the agricultural labor issue. In other words. what we have here is a process that is outcome determinative. If you do not like the probable outcome of legislation. simply sit on it in the hope that through backroom political maneuvering you may succeed in frustrating the will of the majority. Now mind you. such a process can be obfuscated with Aesopian descriptions of what is actually taking place. In this instance we are told by many that immigration reform legislation has been held up in order to negotiate a compromise to break the deadlock over the temporary foreign worker issue. Yet as I mentioned before. the fact that the deadlock exists only In the minds of those with dispositions contrary to the majority is Itself reason enough for skepticism. One might paraphrase Adam Smiths observation that when two or more come together to promote their own interests. seldom can the interests of the majority be enhanced. While the premise for delay in my judgment is without foundation. the purported attempt to resolve this illusory deadlock ironically has given issue to more controversy than the deadlock itself. I just might add that I use the characterization "purported" attempt to resolve the illusory deadlock only because my observations have thus far been limited to rumors and what I read in the newspaper. The fact that I happen to be the ranking minority member on the Immigration Subcommittee evidently is not sufficient to make me privy to firsthand information. The fact that the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky is the chairman of the subcommittee is evidently not enough to allow him to be privy to the firsthand negotiations currently ongoing. Let me make on thing clear. this is not partisan bitterness. for as I mentioned. the chairman of the subcommittee himself has been adamant in attempting to bring this issue to the floor of the House of Representatives.