Speech #1040271472

But despite his steady climb up the leadership ladder. no one should make the mistake of assuming that the senior Senator from Wyoming has shied away from controversy. To the contrary. it is doubtful that there is any other Member of this body who is more willing to enter into the fray. who is more willing to take on the special interest groups. or who is more willing to apply his quick and often devastating verbal wit to any and all situations. including turning that lasersharp humor on himself. One need look no further than the difficult and contentious issue of immigration to see that ALAN SIMPSON is not content to simply sit by and watch others take the lead and take the heat. For more than 15 years. dating back to when he first became chairman of the Judiciary Committees Immigration Subcommittee. ALAN has undertaken the arduous and generally thankless task of crafting bills that would discourage illegal immigration and bring muchneeded common sense to our national policies with respect to legal immigration. He has led the way in calling for tough sanctions on those employers who hire illegal immigrants. by articulating the need to establish a strong and workable employment verification system and by speaking out on the necessity of lowering the total number of legal immigrants this Nation annually absorbs. I have been fully supportive of ALAN SIMPSON in these endeavors. I know I speak for many of my colleagues when I say that with respect to immigration. I will certainly miss the advice and counsel of my good friend from Wyoming. ALAN SIMPSON. All of us. on both sides of the aisle. will lament the loss of his informed and courageous leadership in this legislative area. His work on immigration. though. was not the only complex and troubling issue that ALAN SIMPSON has been willing to tackle. After gaining a seat on the Finance Committee. Senator SIMPSON was resolute in his desire to stem the growth of entitlement spending.