On December 22. 1996. when the conference report on that bill came back to the Senate. every Democrat save one voted "no." Now. with these facts in front of them. Senators on our sideand not only on our sidevoted almost unanimously against the bill. I should point out that in some ways the bill before us. although basically identical to last years legislation. as the chairman of the Finance Committee has said. is even worse in that it provides for very harsh measures against legal immigrants who are noncitizens. The Congressional Budget Office makes this point in its report on the measure. It says: Chapter 4 would limit the eligibility of legal aliens for public assistance programs It would explicitly make most immigrants ineligible for SSI and food stamp benefits. Savings would also materialize in other programs that are not mentioned by name. This must be noted as a regression of genuine importance. In the beginning of this century. Western nations began the practice. and after a while. by treaty. international labor conventions. and such like. of extending social services available in a particular country to legal visitors or immigrants from another country. It was seen as a part of the comity of nations. part of the standard civilization which we had attained. Now. sir. I had the opportunity to speak with our distinguished Secretary of Health and Human Services this morning. the Honorable Donna E. Shalala. She tells me that this bill will cut off some 200.000 legal immigrants currently receiving supplemental security income because of severe disabilitiescut them off. It will cut off women receiving services in battered women clinics. said Dr. Shalala.
Keywords matched
noncitizens immigrants