Speech #1010113362

And that mission is to broadly inform employers of their new obligations under the law and workers of their right to pursue these new discrimination claims. For the past 2 years. the Justice Department has requested funding for public education in this area. but we have never seen fit to provide it. So the Office of Special Counsel and the Immigration and Naturalization have commendably pieced together a patchwork program of public education out of the few resources they could muster. This neglect by Congress to provide the needed funding is beginning to show. The General Accounting Office presented Congress last November with the results of its study of employer compliance with the new law. GAO found widespread ignorance or misunderstanding. For example. one of every six employers in GAOs survey indicated that since passage of the 1986 act they had begun either requiring only foreignlooking persons for work authorization documents or hiring U.S. citizens onlyactions which violate the 1986 act. And other reports. such as from the New York State InterAgency Task Force on Immigration Affairs. confirm the GAO finding. Mr. President. on May 11. the Senator from Wyoming and I wrote to the Attorney General encouraging him to provide additional resources to the Office of Special Counsel for public education. We stated. "Public education is that offices best tool for preventing discrimination." Mr. President. a second problem which has emerged regarding the implementation of the 1986 act is that there is concern that amnesty applicants may not know that amnesty is a twostep process. They first receive temporary residence. but after 18 months must apply for permanent residence. or lose their legal immigration status entirely. The amendment before us makes an important contribution to resolving both of these dilemmasthe need for public education regarding both the antidiscrimination provisions of the 1986 act and the need to apply for permanent residence under the Amnesty Program. This amendment authorizes States to use the moneys of the State Legalization Impact Assistance Grant Program for this muchneeded public education.