We basically put it in this bill and we followed on the authorizing committees which had passed the National Capital Revitalization and SelfGovernment Improvement Act. So what we did was to carry forward the will of this Congress and the will of the people of D.C. as repleted by their control board. their city council. and their mayor putting together a consensus balanced budget. That all was fine until we came to the floor and. of course. suddenly this bill became a very attractive sort of Christmas tree. way before Christmas. and Senator FAIRCLOTH and I found ourselves looking at each other as the debate swirled around us on immigration. on school vouchers and other things that we really did not anticipate being a part of this bill. The two of us had very much wanted to move it forward. and I was very candid at the time that there were a couple of provisions in this bill that I was not happy about because I did not think it showed enough respect for the women of D.C. in terms of their right to choose and to those who are seeking recognition of domestic partners. which I think is a local issue. But I stated at that time that majority rules. and I was not going to hold up the bill because I did not agree with these things. and so we were ready to move forward. I am very pleased tonight that we have a resolution on the immigration portion. It was a very legitimate issue that was raised by Senators KENNEDY. MACK. and GRAHAM. and I think Senator ABRAHAM was very eloquent on the point that there were in fact refugees who came from Nicaragua. Cuba. El Salvador. and Guatemala who were going to be thrown out of the country without any sort of hearing whatsoever.
Keywords matched
refugees immigration