Therefore. in terms of evaluating whether that legal alien qualifies--for instance. for Medicaidyou would add the income of the sponsor to the income of the legal alien. And if the combination of those incomes exceeded the eligibility threshold. then the legal alien would no longer qualify for that particular needsbased service. That concept of deeming that we worked so carefully on in the immigration bill is largely replaced in this legislation by absolute prohibitions against legal aliens being Lble to access these Federal programs. Much of the legislation that we considered earlier and passed on May 2 was based on a recommendation of the U.S. Immigration Commission. which was established by act of Congress in 1990. and which issued a series of reports in the mid1990s. This report. issued in 1994. entitled "U.S. Immigration Policy: Restoring Credibility." while it spoke well of the concept of deeming as a means of assigning responsibility for legal aliens. went on to say: However. circumstances may arise after an immigrants entry that create a pressing need for public health: unexpected illnesses. injuries sustained because of serious accident. loss of employment. death in the family. Under such circumstances. legal immigrants should be eligible for public benefits if they meet other eligibility criteria. We are not prepared to remove the safety net from under individuals who we hope will become full members of our polity That is precisely what this legislation does. It removes the social net. This also will make a very significant difference in the dollar amount of unfunded costs shifted to the States. Under the bill we passed as immigration reform. the cost over 7 years was S5.6 billion. This bill will impose an unfunded mandate of $23 billion over the next 7 years on States. Mr.
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