Speech #1050136566

President. later today. we are voting on a motion by Senator GRAMM to recommit the conference report on the Agricultural Research bill. I strongly oppose Senator GRAMMS motion. The 1996 welfare law allows refugees to receive federal benefits. including SSI. Medicaid and food stamps. for their first five years in the United States. It made this exception because refugees and asylumseekers generally come to the United States with little more than the shirts on their backs after escaping persecution abroad. They have no sponsors. The may have disabilities which make it difficult to work. They need time to get on their feet. and begin to recover from the persecution they fled in their former country. After five years in the United States. refugees can apply for citizenship. Unfortunately. there are serious backlogs of naturalization applications at INS. In many parts of the country. it takes two years to complete the naturalization process and obtain citizenshipand these backlogs are not expected to go down in the near future. Often. the earliest a refugee will gain citizenship is after 7 years in the United States. As we did last year with SSI and Medicaid. the Agricultural Research bill extends the time that a refugee can receive food stamps from 5 to 7 years. Senator GRAMM wants to deny this extension to refugees who entered the United States after the welfare law was enacted. If we do not extend this time limit from 5 to 7 years. thousands of refugees who have applied for citizenship could lose food stamps as they wait in the naturalization backlog for their applications to be processed. This group includes refugees like Dien Nwin. who fled Vietnam in 1992 with his wife and children. Dien fought on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War and was imprisoned in a Communist reeducation camp for 91/2 years. He was worked hard and supported his family for over 5 years.