Speech #1040203783

If his amendment is successful. it will not be necessary. But I want to illustrate why I think the Graham amendment should be supported by outlining a particular area of need that would be included in the Graham amendment but to give. perhaps. greater focus to the public policy questions which would be included in my amendment. My amendment would remove the sponsordeeming requirement for legal immigrants under the bill for those programs for which illegal immigrants are automatically eligible. These programs include emergency Medicaid. school lunches. disaster relief. child nutrition. immunizations. and communicable disease treatment. Under my amendment. illegals and legals would be eligible for these programs on the same basis. without a deeming requirement. In addition. my amendment exempts a few additional programs from the deeming requirements. These programs were all exempted from deeming in the managers amendment in the House immigration bill. Let me underline that. What this amendment basically does is put our legislation in conformity with what has actually passed the House of Representatives on these important programs. and for the reasons I will outline briefly. The language of the amendment is identical to the language passed by the House. For these programs. it is especially unconscionable or impractical to deem the sponsors income. These additional programs include community and migrant health services. student aid for higher education. a meanstested program under the ElementarySecondary Education Act. and Head Start. This amendment does not exempt any new items. Except for prenatal care. every single program in my amendment is exempted in the House immigration bill. The House saw the importance of these programs. There is no reason why the Senate should not do the same. Legal immigrants should not be deemed for programs for which illegals qualify automatically. Let me just underline that. Legal immigrants should not be deemed for that which illegal immigrants qualify automatically. The reason the illegal. primarily children. qualify is because we have made the judgment that it is in the public health interest of the United States. of its children. that there be immunization programs so there will not be an increase in the communicable diseases and other examples like that. We have made that judgment. and it is a wise one. and I commend the House for doing so because It is extremely important.