Speech #1090137580

The budget resolution is a very complex resolution relating to $5 billion in expenditures in any 10yearperiod between 2016 and 2056. I am advised by the Parliamentarian that in the calculation on this budget point of orderand the Parliamentarian Is listening so I am subject to correctionsthat it is the expenditures which are calculated but it is not the revenues to offset those expenditures in making this arcane. esoteric. complex. convoluted procedure under the Budget Act. Over half of the fees collected from the guest worker program goes to border security. The reality is. an orderly flow of guest workers into the United States is-"vital" is not sufficiently strongis indispensable for the American economy. We had hearings in the Judiciary Committee on the impact of this bill on wages and economic benefit to the country. The views were unanimous that this legislation will stimulate the economy. We have an economy where a great many industries rely upon immigrants. including the agriculture field. which has been attested to repeatedly during the course of this debate regarding the need for agriculture workers. Also. the hotel industry and the construction industry rely upon immigrants. If we were to take away the 11 million undocumented immigrants. there would be a tremendous shortage of necessary labor. As a Senator from a State with 12 million people. a whole procession of constituents have talked to me about what would happen if the immigrant workers were suddenly eliminated in the United States. in my State. Pennsylvania. In this legislation we have an orderly way to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are in this country. Putting them on the path to citizenship is a key ingredient. Specifying that they have to work for substantial periods of time. They have to be employed. contributing to the economy. contributing to the tax base. That is in addition to passing a criminal check and paying their back taxes and the very. very substantial fees which are collected. So there is no doubt. no doubt at all. in the aggregate. the immigrants play a vital part in making our economy expand and thrive. If you take it in the macro sense. where would this country be in the year 2006 without immigrants? For one thingand perhaps a minor matterARLEN SPECTER would not be here because both of my parents were immigrants. and perhaps most of the Senators would not be here. maybe even Senator SESSIONS. His ancestry goes back to 1850. I know because I made a trip to the Amazon with him. and we traced the path taken by an uncle. He is quoted in todays newspaper as still being angry that Abraham Lincoln killed one of his ancestors. But immigrants produced Senator SESSIONS. Immigrants produced everybody in this room. and virtually everybody in the country. Now. where would we be if the immigrants had not come to make this a thriving capitalistic country? Where would we be? The same thing applies to the future. If you are going to cut off the immigrants. the 11 million who are here now and a calibrated guest worker program. it would be devastating to the economy. taking into consideration all of the ramifications. So just because there is a scintillathat may be an overstatement: "a scintilla"-that the budget point of order can hang on. on section 407 of the Budget ActI do not know of any substance smaller than a scintilla or I would cite it: perhaps a molecule is smaller than a scintilla. Scintilla is a legal term. which does not amount to very much when you talk about $5 billion over a 10year period from 2016 to We have some very serious business at hand. and that is passage over an immigration bill to protect Americas borders and to see to it that Americas economy is strong. It would be tragic if this bill were to fail on an arcane technicality. And I am concerned that this vote may be close.