Speech #1050065748

This bill also restores Medicaid coverage to thousands of children who were removed from the SSI rolls as a result of eligibility changes made in the 1996 welfare reform law. This will be enormously helpful to many lowincome families whose children may no longer be considered statutorily disabled but who nevertheless have significant special health care needs. Let me take a moment to describe the provisions of this bill dealing with legal immigrants. As my colleagues know. the 1996 welfare reform law placed severe restrictions on the Federal benefits that legal Immigrants may receive. Among these restrictions was a complete and Immediate cutoff of supplemental security income [SSI] and food stamp benefits. not only for future immigrants but for those already in this country legally. For the elderly and disabled legal immigrants who last August were In the United Statesincluding nearly 4.000 in my own State of Rhode Islandthe new SSI ban represented nothing short of a crisis. For many. the loss of this critical Federal aid would mean losing the ability to live independently. In turn. this wouldpresent a serious community and fiscal challenge to State and local governments. as immigrants who had lost benefits and faced destitution turned to nursing homes or other costly facilities for support. I was sorely troubled by these restrictions on immigrants. and pledged to do what I could to mitigate the most harsh of these during this Congress. I am delighted to say that in this regard. we have been successful. The conference report before us now is identical to the Senatepassed bill on which I and others of my colleagues worked very hard. It restores benefits to those legal immigrants who were receiving SS1 as of last August. It also allows immigrants who were in the United States last August and who may become disabled in the future to receive SSI. For my State. this means that 3.753 currently elderly and disabled Rhode Island residentsand many others who may become disabled in the futurewill be able to receive basic SSI assistance to allow them to live with dignity. Now. the immigrant provisions of this bill are not perfect. And I am disappointed that it does not contain the ChafeeGraham amendment on legal immigrant children and Medicaid. or the provision dealing with SSI for those too disabled to naturalize. But the bill before us goes a long way toward restoring fair treatment for the thousands of legal. taxpaying immigrants who were in the country and playing by the rules when welfare reform was enacted. I want to commend Senators DAMATO. FEINSTEIN. DEWINE. and GRAHAM for all of their hard work in helping to solve this problem. Since the introduction of our Fairness for Legal Immigrants Act in April. we have been working as a united team toward fair treatment for legal immigrants. With passage of this bill. our efforts will have met with success. In closing.