President. at long last. we are about to pass the Agricultural Research. Extension and Education Reform Act conference report. I support all its provisions. but I want to speak briefly about one of the most importantthe restoration of food stamps for legal immigrants whose benefits were unfairly eliminated by the harsh 1996 welfare law. Although the amount in this conference report is less than half of the $2 billion proposed in the Presidents budget. it is at least a downpayment toward restoring food stamps to the nations neediest legal immigrants. The food stamp program was cut by $25 billion over 5 years in the 1996 law. That reduction was clearly unfair. According to the Department of Agriculture. at least 935.000 lowincome legal immigrants lost their federal food stamps as a result of the 1996 welfare law. Nearly twothirds are families with children. Two years later. we are finally remedying a significant part of this injustice. This bill restores food stamps only to the most needy legal immigrantsrefugees. the disabled. and some poor children. It helps only 250.000 out of the 935.000 immigrants cut off from the food stamp rolls. No one should think our work is done with the passage of this bill. The effect of the food stamp terminations is not limited to immigrants. Their children born here are American citizens. but they too are facing sharp reductions in their food stamps. These children remain eligible for food stamps themselves. but the removal of their parents from the program means that. as a practical matter. the food stamp benefits for their families have been cut by 50 to 70 percent in many cases. 600.000 poor children who are American citizens live in families where food stamp benefits have been unfairly lost. These children will not be helped by this bill. Many elderly immigrants will also receive no assistance from this bill. We cannot forget about their plight. We can and must do more in the future.
Keywords matched
immigrants immigrantsrefugees