Speech #1100048041

This is legislation the Senate adopted before. Senator COCHRAN. Senator CoRNYN. and I are introducing it to make sure we adopt it again when immigration comes up. I also wish to mention that I intend on looking at a comprehensive effort toward the same goal. which I like to call the American citizenship agenda. learning English and what it means to becoming an American. I have identified several areas. and I may introduce amendments in many of these areas to the immigration bill. These were not introduced the last time. but they would include clarifying the mission of the Office of Citizenship within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. establishing State citizenship advisory boards in a number of States. coordinating efforts toward helping immigrants learning English. American history. and civics. It would create an employer tax credit for businesses that help their employees learn English. As I mentioned earlier. at the beginning of the 20th century. there were a great many businesses hiring new Americans who spent their money. their time. and their effort to make sure those new employees understood what it meant to become Americans. One way to meet this need of a large percentage of foreignborn people in our country is to provide tax incentives to businesses that help their employees learn English. Another proposal is to require a demonstration of English language proficiency when an individual renews his or her green card. establishing a Presidential award for companies that go above and beyond in bringing their employees together as Americans:. finally. asking for a Government Accountability Office study to identify the need of lawful permanent residents not speaking English and the associated costs. in other words. how many people living in our country do not speak English and what would be the cost and the most effective programs of helping them learn English. That is my purpose today. to introduce the Strengthening American Citizenship Act. legislation that passed when we considered the immigration bill in 2006. and which Senators COCiRAN and CORNYN and I hope will be a part of this legislation. then to discuss what I call the Strengthening American Citizenship Agenda. which will be looking for a variety of other ways to help make sure we not only celebrate our diversity but we find ways to celebrate our unity. We can look across the ocean at Europe and see the struggle in Turkey right now for that nations identity. We can see the difficulty France and Germany are having as Muslim workers have a hard time integrating into their country.