Speech #1040203653

I appreciate the cordiality of our colleague from Wyoming. I would move on to the second amendment. which is really one of what I anticipate will be a cluster of amendments. Again. it goes to an issue raised in the previous amendment. which is that while we are dealing with the bill S. 1664 that has as its title: "To Increase Control Over Immigration in the United States by Increasing Border Patrol and Investigative Personnel." et cetera. a bill designed to restrain illegal immigration. in fact there are provisions which apply substantially or totally to persons who are in the country legally. Many of those provisions also go to a second major concern for the structure of this legislation. and that is the degree to which it represents a significant unfunded mandate. a transfer of financial obligations from the Federal Government to State and local communities. Mr. President. for many years. as you well know. I have been seriously concerned with the fact that while the Federal Government has the total responsibility for determining what our immigration policy will be and has the total responsibility for enforcing that immigration policy. where the policy is either misguided or where the policy is breached. it is the local communities and the States in which the aliens reside that most of the impact is felt. That impact is particularly felt in the area of the delivery of critical public services. from health care to education to financial assistance in time of need. It has been my feeling that fundamentally the Federal Government ought to be responsible for all dimensions of the immigration issue. It sets the rules. It enforces the rules. It should be responsible when the rules are not adequately enforced and there are impacts. especially financial impacts on individual communities. Thus. I am concerned with this legislation. which instead of moving in the direction I think represents fair and balanced policy. goes in the opposite direction and is now going to have the Federal Government withdrawing from its level of financial responsibility for legal as well as illegal aliens. and will be. by its default. imposing that responsibility on the communities and States in which the aliens live. Compounding that is the uncertainty of just which of these programs that are intended to provide some assistance to the alien will be affected by this shift of responsibility. As currently written.