Alan Simpson: “We are not talking about the poor and the wretched and the ragged here, and people being taken advantage of. We are…”

“We are not talking about the poor and the wretched and the ragged here, and people being taken advantage of. We are talking about people who are here under the auspices of a sponsor, a sponsor who signed up and said: I promise that this person will not become a public charge. That is who we are talking about. If a person is as ragged as I have heard in the last 15 minutes, cannot do this, cannot do that, stumbling around--those people are taken care of under the present law. We are talking about a person who is here under the good faith and auspices of a sponsoring person. We are not talking about anything that is not means tested. Anything that is not means tested somebody is going to get. We are talking about, when you line up for whatever it is--Stafford or Pell, whatever it is, that is means tested and you line up and say, ``Here I am. I need this program.'' And they are going to ask you, ``You are an immigrant and you have a sponsor. What assets does your sponsor have?'' And then they are going to say, ``Those assets are deemed to be your assets for the purpose of receiving this means-tested grant.'' And all we are saying is the sponsor is going to be responsible before the taxpayer is responsible.”