Speech #990184082

On February 17. 1983. the socalled SimpsonMazzoli bill. or bills. were reintroduced in this body and the other body. On February 28. 1983. the Attorney General. William French Smith. testified in favor of immigration reform before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. Just less than a week later. on March 1. 1983. the Attorney General then testified in favor of the immigration reform proposal before the House Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law. Very shortly after that. on April 18. 1983. the other body acted to adopt the immigration bill. There was not. as I would suggest. the urgency expressed and manifest in the House that had been manifest in the actions in the other body. Therefore. on October 19. 1983. at a Presidential news conference. President Reagan said to clear up any question about his support of the bill. "I supported actively and worked hard for the passage twice. of the Senate bill on immigration." Another direct quote: "I want to sign as quickly as possible immigration legislation." On December 2 of that year. in questions and answers with student visitors to the White House. the President said. "We have legislation. however. in the Congress right now that weve been trying to get passed." He went on later in that session with students to say "Were trying with this legislation to restore our country to legal immigration." In late 1983. the President reaffirmed his support of immigration reform in conversations with congressional leaders. This happened in the context of suggestions by some in this body that the bill was not going to be moved in this House until or unless the President indicated he supported it. Again. there was a suggestion at that time by some that the President did not support immigration reform in spite of all of the history that I have related thus far. The President went out of his way at that time to indicate his support for immigration reform in a conversation. or in a number of conversations with congressional leaders. Now at this same period of time. some will recall that we had difficulty getting the attention of the leadership of the House of Representatives to schedule any bill. I. and other Members of the House of Representatives took to the floor almost on a daily basis. certainly on a weekly basis. demanding. requesting. cajoling. humoring. using every method of persuasion that we could think of to try and get the attention of the leadership of this House to schedule consideration of the immigration bill. On January 13. 1984. the President was addressing the Republican Women Officials at a White House luncheon. In the course of that address. he said. "We have what we think is a sensible program for immigration and were going to keep pressing for it until we get it." Following that. in January. in February. in March. in April. in May. many of us who supported immigration reform were pushing to have it considered here in the House. We had the Presidential support. We had the history of Presidential support.