Speech #990259342

The Rules Committees actions were in great part. we believe. dictated and constrained by the situation in which we again find ourselves. Trying to process several major pieces of legislation in the waning days of the session. when there simply is not adequate time to deliberate as carefully and as well as in fact we should be doing. The rule affords complete and full debate on the two basic issues in the bill. the two basic ingredients. as the Hessberg Commission back in its 1981 report. that has served as a basis and an impetus of congressional efforts at reform. felt were necessary parts of any immigration bill. That is. employer sanctions and legalization of some illegals who have been here for many years. have put down their roots and made sizable contributions to our society. The rule does seek to protect an agreement reached by the committee of jurisdiction on a third issue. which is at least as politically difficult and volatile as the first twoalthough it is of much less real importance and substance in the whole scheme of things when you look at the broad problem of illegal immigration into the United States. That is. of course. the question of how to resolve the specific problem of allowing into this country each year a limited number of farmworkers to harvest the perishable crops that cannot. we are told. be adequately handled without some arrangement of this sort. The rule in effect says: Dont let the farmworker problem. which has been solved in this legislation in a manner acceptable to the interests most intimately concerned with it. That is. the growers and the laborers and the farmworkers themselves. Dont let this limited issue destroy our chances of getting real immigration reform. Let us set aside for the moment the question of what exactly to do about the 200.000 or 250.000 or perhaps 300.000 or 350.000 persons needed to harvest these crops each year so that we may solve the basic and much larger problem of ensuring that the 1 to 2 million other illegals will no longer be able to come over the border every year into the United States. The solution to the farmworkers problemand there must be some solution foundwill never be completely neat or rational or acceptable to many Members of Congress or to the public. It is by its very nature a messy and a complex problem with no terribly good solution. Amazingly. however. after having been a stumbling block and an obstacle to getting the rest of the bill passed in earlier years. this year. as I have said. all of the folks involved. those representing the farm interests. those representing labor interests. have negotiated a solution that they at least all agree to. We are suggesting that we fence off for the moment that tricky and difficult area. protect their agreement. and get on with solving the real immigration problem. And that is what this particular rule is designed to do.