Alan Simpson: “there is no one more sincere in his beliefs than my friend from Rhode Island. He is a man of great integrity and…”

“there is no one more sincere in his beliefs than my friend from Rhode Island. He is a man of great integrity and courage, and I admire his strength as he does his work. He is good at it. This is another one of those amendments--this is my view of it, which I get to express--this is exactly what this is, another form of this amendment, of what we have done before in six previous votes and will do again. We are considering an amendment which would have the effect of shifting cost from the persons who sponsor immigrants, usually their relatives. We are shifting that to the American taxpayers. This argument of how could we possibly do this for illegal aliens and not do it for legal aliens who are paying and doing their share is a great argument. The reason we allow illegal aliens to receive certain benefits, if the alien is needy, is because most Americans are like Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island or Senator Al Simpson of Wyoming. The issue is, they should have that basic support system if they are needy. I have voted for that consistently. There were some in the House of Representatives who did not want to consistently stay with that support level. I have never been of that category. Most Americans, almost all Americans, would agree that that is a wonderful thing to do for illegal aliens who are here and who are needy. The immigrants, the legal immigrants, can also receive all of those benefits, too, if they are needy. I hope you hear this.…”