Mr. President. the bill I offer today will restore food stamps for all legal immigrants who lost eligibility under the 1996 welfare reform law. Representative GUITERREZ and I began developing this legislation last fall. and in the second week of March he introduced an identical bill in the House. Today I introduce our legislation in the Senate. This bill is more comprehensive than the proposal included by the President in his budget request for FY 1999. I commend the President for making the effort to address this problem. but his proposal does not go far enough. It overlooks 100.000 immigrants who were formerly eligible. It seems to me wholly unreasonable to leave these people out. given their relatively small number. I say we must go further. It was a mistake to deny food stamp eligibility in the first place. and now is the time to make amends. The legislation Congressman GUTIERREz and I have developed will restore eligibility for all legal immigrants. While the President proposes spending $2.43 billion dollars over the next 5 years. the cost of our bill would be only marginally highercloser to $3 billion. The 1996 welfare bill denied legal immigrants the means to meet basic nutritional needs in order to save some money. But I believe that. in the end. this provision will not save us any money at all. In the long run. we as a society will have to pay this bill. and pay it in full.
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immigrants