Mr. President. follow carefully if you will. Refugees and asylees continued under welfare reform to be eligible for SSI. for food stamps. and for Medicaid. No new entitlement here. Welfare reform simply continued their eligibility from the prewelfare reform days. Now. the balanced budget amendment restored Social Security to some of the legal aliens. namely. to children. elderly. the disabled who were in this country on August 22. 1996. when we passed welfare reform. And it made asylees and refugees who already had benefits. who retained those. eligible now for 7 years of Social Security income and Medicaid. Mr. President. you might ask. while we were at it we all passed this bill. the balanced budget amendment with enthusiasm. Why did we not change the food stamp provision from 5 years. which the refugees and asylees had. to 7 years to conform with what we were doing on income and the rest? Well. we did not because the Finance Committee had jurisdiction over that particular money. The Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over food stamps. We were not in the picture. We are today. The intent of the motion of the Senator from Texas is in essence over the idea that the 5 years the refugees and asylees already had should not go to 7 years. and we should go back to conference to apparently knock back the 7 to 5. It is something which most Members find incomprehensible. The distinguished Senator has a larger point. I believe. in his motion. He believes that however you phrase the food stamp situation. it is a beacon of hope for persons to come to our country. as he says. for years. for decades. Well. perhaps. but the asylees and the refugees are not swarming across our borders. They are people one by one who must present themselves and say and affirm: I am a potential victim of persecution. wellfounded. and they have to prove that. If they do not prove it. they do not get in.
Keywords matched
refugees Refugees