Speech #1050136551

We dont need to talk about them in the Chamber. And these are very important issues. leaving aside ag research. crop insurance. and whatever brought us to this point. Now. the overwhelming majority of refugees come from just a handful of countries. and I want to go through these specifically. Communist countries: Vietnam. Cuba. Laos. countries making difficult. often violent. transitions: The former Soviet Union and Bosnia. brutal authoritarian regimes: Iraq and Iran. and countries where Christians are persecuted for their beliefs: Parts of the former Soviet Union and Sudan. or Somalia where the central government is dissolved and the land is ruled by myriad petty warlords. In recognition of the difficult circumstances of their departure from their home countries and their lack of sponsors in the United States. the Immigration and Nationality Act does not require refugees and asylees to refrain from becoming public charges here. Indeed. a specific program of cash and medical assistance is authorized to support newly arrived refugees. Limited appropriations have forced this program to serve only as an adjunct to the basic Federal benefit programs such as Medicaid and food stamps. As I mentioned before. the agricultural research conference report. one in which we are involved. did not make all of this up from scratch. We simply have adopted precisely the sections of last years Balanced Budget Act on which we all voted. and at that time at least there was a recognition that people who are in these difficult straits really ought to be treated in a humane manner. Among the provisions of the Balanced Budget Act that the ag research bill would apply to food stampsand we have already adopted it once beforeis a 2year extension. from 5 years to 7 years. of the eligibility for benefits of refugees and asylees for the food stamp situation. The 1996 welfare law set the exemption for refugees and asylees at 5 years to correspond roughly with the earliest date that most refugees and asylees can apply. So. Mr. President. we philosophically already have crossed that bridge in the Welfare Act quite apart from the Balanced Budget Actrefugees. the same people. asylees. 5 years. The argument is whether that 5 years should become 7 years. it is not whether we should be paying these refugees and asylees support in a humane way. Most refugees and asylees cannot apply to naturalize until they have been in our country for 4 years and 9 months. That limit soon proved unrealistic because of long. long backlogs in Immigration Service processing and adjudication of applications to naturalize and in swearing in successful applicantsno fault of the refugees and the asylees. Mr. President. an administrative hassle at INS. In a number of INS offices. the backlog exceeds 2 years. If a refugees and asylees eligibility ended after only 5 years in our country. they could be left without recourse while their applications to naturalize are in the INS pipeline. The extension of their eligibility for SSI and Medicaid to allow them to receive benefits during their first 7 years in the country was not controversial last year. It was included in all major Republican and Democratic proposals for legal immigrants. I repeat thatall Democratic and Republican proposals. The change was not made applicable to food stamps technically. because the money for restoring benefits to immigrants was allocated to the Finance Committee and the Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over food stamps. and on that basis a change that clearly would have automatically flowed did not occur. Finally. Mr. President. it should be noted that this provision does not assure refugees and asylees of receiving 7 years of benefits. it only exempts them from the new restrictions on legal immigrants eligibility during their first 7 years. Refugees and asylees will still have to meet all the criteria for everyone else in America to qualify for the benefits. Even refugees and asylees who are selfsufficient for much of their first 7 years in the country will lose the benefit of that exemption after 7 years. They cannot carry it over in terms of months of eligibility beyond the 7year time. By conforming food stamp rules to those already adopted for Medicaid last summer. the ag research bill will avoid imposing multiple inconsistent eligibility rules on State and local agencies that finally have the responsibility to administer all of this. The number of refugees entering the country is controlled primarily by ceilingsceilings. Mr. Presidentadopted by the President each year in consultation with the Judiciary Committees prior to the beginning of each fiscal year. These ceilings have been declining and are expected to decline to reflect generally Improved world conditions since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. For example. in fiscal year 1992. some 114.000 refugees were admitted under the quotas. But by 1996. this number had declined to just under 75.000. In fiscal year 2000 and thereafter.