We must craft a law that is tough yet just.. I know that the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. Senator SPECrER. may raise a question with respect to how the DoddMenendez amendment is currently drafted. arguing that by upping the subceiling on parent immigrant visas from 40.000 to 90.000 annually. my amendment introduces discretion to the Department of Homeland Security in deciding what to do on issuing family immigrant visas among the subceilings as we get close to the annual cap of 567.000 contained in the bill. I would have preferred to raise the overall 567.000 annual cap currently in the bill by the additional 50.000the increase my amendment provides for the parent immigrant visa subceiling. But had I done so. I would likely have faced a 60vote threshold due to a budget point of order as my colleague Senator MENENDEZ did last night on his family unification amendment. There is nothing scientific about the 567.000 annual immigrant visa cap currently contained in the bill. Am I to believe that this grand compromise bill will be destroyed if an additional 50.000 parents of American citizens are granted green cards annually so they can be closer to their American children and American grandchildren? The so called discretionary authority granted to the Department of Homeland Security that Senator SPECTER may argue is created by this amendment can easily be fixed in conference by raising the current cap by 50.000. I refuse to let the technicalities of the subceilings and overall ceilings contained in this complex legislation cloud the real issue Senators will be deciding as they cast their votes on this amendment. namely. do my colleagues believe that parents and grandparents are important members of the American nuclear family or do they believe that they are merely distant relativesirrelevant to the daily lives of our families?
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