Speech #1010044240

Mr. President. there is obvious appeal for the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. As he correctly pointed out. we have dealt with increasing the total numbers by some 22 percent with the greatest emphasis and stress on the family reunification of closer members of the family. The fifth preference at the present time has at least an 18year wait even after the time you get the approval of your application. The issue is if we are going to address fifth preference. we ought to define it in a way that might actually bring an end to the backlog. Without doing that. for every individual who enters in this category. there are going to be extended families entering also. each member of which uses a visa. So there is very little indication that even if we accept the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota we are going to deal with the problem of backlogs. There will be other members of the extended family that might be able to gain entrance under this amendment. but we are still not dealing with the backlog. We should emphasize and stress closer relatives and members of the family. and address their visa needs before moving to expand numbers. To emphasize closer family is probably the best visa reform. But that was not an issue in which we could develop the common position in the Judiciary Committee. For that reason. there is reluctance at least on my part to see changes in the fifth preference for fear of upsetting the balance struck in committee. I too want to join with the Senator from Wyoming in his remarks earlier that all of us who have been involved in the issues of refugees over the years have always benefited from the interventions that are made by the Senator from Minnesota. This has been an area of particular interest and concern for him. I want again to thank him for his constant attention to these issues.