Speech #1030109658

I rise first as the chairman of the Committee on Finance. and second as a Senator from New York State. to declare my strong objection to the measure before us. It is. in the first instance. a measure that has nothing to do with the crime bill that we are. presumably. addressing. It is a measure with a prohibition on payment of Federal benefits to illegal aliens. On the surface. there is a certain attraction to the idea that someone who is here illegally ought not to be the recipient of medical care and such like matters. Yet the reality is that the individuals involved. and there are millions of them. are here. The fact that they are here illegally is statement of the dereliction of the Federal Government in its duty to police the borders and to control immigration. If the Federal Government does not do this. and clearly it does notthere is no other Western nation that has anything like the extent of the problem that we doit is scarcely appropriate for the Federal Government to turn over to the States and to the cities the burden that is imposed by the presence of illegal aliens when they become ill. when they have to go to a hospital. when they have to be looked after in one or another way. That is elementally a national responsibility. For that reason and that specific reason. in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. which the Senate adopted. if memory serves. on August 8. and the President signed on August 11. but which in any event is the law today. we specifically provided for Medicaid matching payments to bona fide emergency services for undocumented aliens. an undocumented alien being an illegal alien. Such a person can be 1 year of age. can be 95 years of age. can be anywhere in between. And emergency services. which are provided for in Medicaid. are by statute available.