Speech #1010216569

I think that is why even the Wall Street Journal. which has not said nice things about most of my bills here. has said that this is the best Democratic bill they have seen in many years. So I would hope that Republicans would take a close look at it. Finally. this legislation provides for diversity of immigration and the protection of people temporarily here in this country. Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to speak today on behalf of H.R. 4300. the Family Unity and Employment Opportunity Immigration Act of H.R. 4300 is a comprehensive immigration bill addressing issues of family reunification. employment based immigration. immigration for the purpose of promoting cultural diversity. nonimmigrant employment of aliens. and miscellaneous immigrationrelated matters. This bill represents the first major change in the law governing legal immigration in 25 years. In 1980. Congress passed the Refugee Act dealing with refugee and asylum issues. In 1986. the Immigration Reform and Control Act [IRCA] was passed. relating to the legalization of the undocumented and employer responsibility for the hiring of documents workers. But not since 1965 has Congress enacted legislation dealing with the wide scope of legal immigration issues. the family preference system and employment based Immigration. Under current law the United States admits about 530.000 immigrants annuallynot including refugees. Under H.R 4300 this figure would go to 775.000. with a temporary increase of 50.000 annually for backlog reduction. These increases. cut way back from the bill as originally introduced. are nominal compared to the overall size of the existing U.S. labor force of 125 million. The three linchpins of this legislation fully justify the additional numbers. The bill would allow: first. immediate family members to be united. second. U.S. businesses to be more competitive in work markets. and third. immi. gration from countries that have. in the last quarter century. been largely shut out by U.S. immigration law. Many of you Im sure saw the glowing editorial about H.R. 4300 in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It describes the bill as one that will ... .. spur the economy. create new jobs and make the U.S. more competitive." The Journal quoted a survey of 38 leading economists from John Kenneth Galbraith to Milton Friedman and found that they all concurred that immigration has a favorable impact on U.S. economic growth. 80 percent of them found it to have a very favorable impact. At the hearings conducted on the bill by my subcommittee. Members heard from a host of witnesses who testified that immigrants have a positive effect on the economy. The experts agree that within the next 50 years this Nation will face a declining rate of population growth. As the baby boom generation ceases to have children. we shall find ourselves with an aging work force. The average age of an American worker in the year 2000 will be almost 40. More and more of our population will be dependent on Social Security. and fewer and fewer young. skilled. productive workers. will be paying taxes and contributing to the gross national product. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS] Commissioner Gene McNary was quoted recently in Newsweek magazine as saying: "There is a pretty good argument that we need these people to complement our aging work force." Newsweek stated that Mr. McNary believes a healthy economy can absorb up to 1 million immigrations each year. A study prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor. Workforce 2000. is one study among several. that indicates that the education and skills of the emerging U.S. labor force will be unable to match U.S. labor market needs. Because it is unlikely that a sufficient number of U.S. workers will be trained quickly enough to meet legitimate employment needs. and because such needs are already unmet. our committee was convinced that immigration has a part to play in an overall strategy creating a workforce that will keep America competitive in the global economy in the 21st century.