Brian Bilbray: “let me first say, as one of the original cosponsors of the bipartisan campaign finance legislation, I would ask those of…”

“let me first say, as one of the original cosponsors of the bipartisan campaign finance legislation, I would ask those of us on both sides of the aisle who truly want to see this body finally address that issue to go to our colleagues and ask them to quit the dilatory procedures in asking for adjournment after adjournment so we can get through the budgetary process, not have to have a CR, not have to be threatened with the close-down of the Government. And then we can address the issue that we all want to take a look at, especially those of us who cosponsored the bipartisan campaign finance reform. That set aside, I am here to specifically address an issue of fairness and an issue of common sense. It is the bill that is called H.R. 7. It is the Citizenship Reform Act of 1997. It amends the Naturalization Act to stop giving automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens and tourists. It is basically there because those of us who have worked in local government and had to address this issue in local communities realize that it is a much bigger issue than what most people say. I served as a county supervisor in a county in California. We came to the conclusion that Washington has to quit giving incentives to people to break our immigration laws. Madam Speaker, in California, in fact in Los Angeles County alone, there are over 250,000 citizen children of illegal aliens who qualify for such benefits as Medicare, AFDC, WIC, SSI.…”