Ted Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I yield the time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thought the Republican leader, the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, wanted to speak and introduce an amendment. Then we are hopeful that we would deal with the Vitter amendment, and after that we would go with the Feingold amendment, and perhaps even the Sanders amendment as well. That might be a way we proceed. I see the Senator from Kentucky, who is going to talk for a period of time. Then we would go back to the Republican side, Senator Vitter, come back over here to Senator Feingold, then perhaps they were looking on the other side--we had talked to our Republican colleagues--and we are hopeful to get a vote, potentially go to Senator Sanders after that.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we are in the process where we will begin to make comment on the amendment of the Senator from Louisiana. We will address that very shortly. I am finding that the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin is enormously compelling. I would have thought it would be generally accepted. We are in the process of trying to get a review of that amendment. But for the notice of our colleagues, we expect that we will probably have two votes, if we are unable to get clearance, and we will probably have that somewhere in the relationship of probably about--hopefully about 4 o'clock. I haven't had the chance to clear this time with Senator Vitter, but that is generally sort of the plan we are looking at, at the present time. I am not asking unanimous consent on that, but that is just in terms of information for our colleagues. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we are working with our colleagues and trying to go back and forth, trying to be bipartisan. We have gone to Senator Vitter, to Feingold, to Hutchison, and then to Sanders. We expect votes and reasonably short debate. We are trying to get votes on all of those before the debate starts on the supplemental. I thank the Senator from Vermont for his patience.

Mr. KENNEDY. We had intended, Madam President, to vote on the amendment. We are working out the sequence at the present time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield for a minute, for a point of information?

Mr. KENNEDY. I will make a unanimous consent request in a few moments to vote at 5 o'clock on the Vitter amendment, and then the amendment of Senator Sanders. Then, at that time, we have been told, those who want to address the supplemental will begin that debate--a discussion on the Senate floor. I thank the Senator from Texas. She has an amendment on Social Security. She has been kind enough, as always, to cooperate with us, and indicated a willingness to work out an appropriate time. It is a substantive amendment. We will look forward to considering it. I want to give her every assurance we will consider this and will deal with it. If not today, we will do the best we can to deal with it on the Tuesday we get back. There are members on the Finance Committee, since it is dealing with Social Security, who wanted to at least have an impact. This in no way will delay the consideration of this amendment. We want to give her those assurances. I know the Senator from Alabama, Senator Sessions, is on his way over. He wants to be able to enter an amendment as well. We certainly will look forward to that. We had hoped we might have been able to get an earlier consideration. He has been over in the Armed Services Committee. Members have been extremely cooperative, incredibly helpful. We have made good progress here today. We want to make some brief comments at an appropriate time, when the Senator finishes, on the Vitter amendment. Then, hopefully, we will have an opportunity to vote on these amendments. Then those who are dealing with the supplemental will have a chance to address the Senate. I thank the Senator. We look forward to his comments.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I see my friend from Vermont on his feet. I know from conversation that he wants to modify his amendment. I hope the Chair will recognize him for that purpose.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I see my friend and colleague from Illinois here, as well as my colleague from Alabama. I did wish to address the Vitter amendment briefly. We are very hopeful we may be able to accept the Senator's amendment. We will know that momentarily. I yield the floor.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, at the request of the leaders, we were in the process of trying to get some votes this afternoon. We were moving along as well because the Appropriations Committee had asked us if we would be finished by 5 o'clock. I see my friend from Alabama who has been extremely patient. He has been in the Armed Services Committee, where I should have been earlier in the afternoon. He was diligent there and arrived over here. He has important amendments on the earned-income tax credit and others. The Senator from Vermont has been here all afternoon. He has a good amendment. We had initially, at 2:15, said we would do the Vitter amendment. We were going to come back and do the Feingold amendment, but then we were told we couldn't vote on that. We were told we couldn't vote on Vitter because there were some members of his own party who chose not to do so. But we wanted to vote on the amendment of the Senator from Vermont. Hopefully, he was going to be accepted, but that is not the case. I hope we would have the opportunity to vote on that; then after that, to recognize the Senator from Alabama for whatever time he might need for the purpose of debate, rather than for voting. The request of the leadership is to do the supplemental. We give assurance to the Senator from Alabama that we will consider his amendment at the earliest possible time after we return.

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes.

Mr. KENNEDY. I think we have had a good debate and discussion on the Sanders amendment. It was the request of the leadership that we have the supplemental, which has been extremely important. There is going to be action on that later this evening. They had initially asked us if we could conclude at 4 o'clock. We have been trying to conclude so that Members who want to address the supplemental would be able to address the supplemental. That is basically the reason for that. We have been here, as the Senator from Pennsylvania knows, ready to do business since 9:30 this morning. We were glad to. I had hoped--and I apologize to the Senator from Vermont because we were all set to have a rollcall on that. Then it appeared it might have been accepted. I was asked, requested by Senators to hold for a few moments to see whether it could not have been cleared. I could ask unanimous consent that the amendments of the Senator from Alabama be considered on Tuesday at a time agreeable to him.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to proceed for 5 minutes.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, all of the men and women who would become legal residents of the United States under the terms of this legislation are required to pay income tax like every other worker in America. What the Sessions amendment would do is really quite extraordinary and grossly unfair. It would arbitrarily deny those immigrants who have become legal residents one of the tax benefits available to every taxpayer under the Internal Revenue Code. That provision is the earned-income tax credit, a provision designed to reduce the I tax burden on low income families with children. It is fundamentally wrong to subject immigrant workers to a different, harsher Tax Code than the one that applies to everyone else in the country. An immigrant worker should pay exactly the same income tax that every other worker earning the same pay and supporting the same size family pays--no less and no more. We should not be designing a special punitive Tax Code for immigrants that makes them more than everyone else. Yet that is exactly what the Sessions amendment seeks to do. The Session amendment would result in highly inconsistent treatment of legal immigrant residents, and would drastically increase the amount of tax that many of these families had to pay. They would be subject to income and payroll taxes in the same manner as other workers but would be denied the use of a key element of the Tax Code that is intended to offset the relatively heavy tax burdens that low-income working families, especially those with children, otherwise would face. Most of the EITC is simply a tax credit for the payment of other taxes, especially regressive payroll taxes. The EITC was specifically designed to offset the payroll tax burden on low-income working parents. The Treasury Department has estimated that a large majority of the EITC merely compensates for a portion of the federal income, payroll, and excise taxes paid by the low-income tax filers who qualify to receive it. A significant share of families that receive the EITC owe federal income tax before the EITC is applied, in addition to paying payroll taxes. Low-income working immigrant families in this category who would be denied the EITC under the Sessions Amendment would consequently face a dramatic increase in their income tax bill, requiring them to pay much higher taxes than other taxpayers with similar earnings. Other families with even less income would not receive a refund to offset the disproportionately large payroll taxes they paid, unlike other workers with comparable wages and dependents. To qualify for the EITC, under current law, a taxpayer must satisfy the following criteria: 1., Be a US citizen or legal resident; 2., have a valid Social Security number for both the worker and any qualifying children; 3., have earned income from employment or self-employment; 4., have total income that falls below a certain level, and; 5., file an income tax return. Current law already clearly prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving the EITC. No immigrant can receive the earned income tax credit unless he or she is a legal resident who is a low wage worker paying payroll taxes and filing an income tax return. These are men and women who are conscientiously fulfilling their responsibilities to their adopted country and they deserve to be treated like all other workers in America. This amendment would hurt children. The United States has more children living in poverty than any other industrialized country. We need to help children, not hurt them. And they should not have to pay for the sins of their parents.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, before yielding so we can have a vote on the amendment of the Senator from Vermont, I would like to respond to my friend from Alabama regarding the earned-income tax credit. The earned-income tax credit is to help children--help children. Of all the industrialized nations of the world, we have more children living in poverty than any other Nation in the world. The earned-income tax credit is to help the children. They are not the lawbreakers; the parents are the lawbreakers. Yet this amendment will take it out on the children. We don't do it for those who have committed murder and gone to prison. We don't do it for those who have committed aggravated assault. We don't do it for those who commit burglary, but we are going to do it for those who have been adjusted in terms of their status of being illegal. That is what the Sessions amendment does. We don't do it for murderers, we don't do it for burglars, we don't do it for those who have committed the most egregious crimes, but we are going to do it in terms of those whose positions we are changing and altering in terms of their adjustment of status. The people who are affected by it are the children. It doesn't seem to be the way we ought to go. But we will have a longer period of time to debate this at another time. Amendment No. 1223 I believe now we are prepared to vote, and I suggest that we get to it as quickly as we can so that we don't have other interference.

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent for 1 more minute.

Mr. KENNEDY. I want to commend the Senator from Vermont for this amendment. I intend to support it. Years ago I thought we ought to have it at $3,000. It went down to $1,000, and it has come back up to $1,500. The Senator has brought this up to a much more reasonable amount. I think he has made a very strong case for it. These funds will be used to make sure we get Americans being able to do those jobs. That is what the purpose is: to see we have Americans able to do those jobs, those H-1B jobs. It makes a great deal of sense. I commend the Senator. There is one provision in here on the public hospitals, and I know he will work with us to try to address that in the conference, and I thank him for it. I hope the Senate will support his amendment. I think we are prepared to vote on this amendment. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we are anticipating a vote in the next 2 or 3 minutes. We will inform the Members about that decision. We are checking with the leadership at the present time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Senator from Connecticut wishes to propound a unanimous consent request, and then I will propound a unanimous consent request that we will have 2 minutes evenly divided between the Senator from Louisiana and myself, and then I expect we will have a rollcall vote up or down on the Vitter amendment.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we have 1 minute each side. This will be the final vote on the immigration bill this week. We have had great cooperation. We are enormously grateful to all the Members.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, legalization is good for national security. We need to know the names of everyone living here. That is why the Department of Homeland Security supports earned legalization. All of title VI was written with the close cooperation of Secretary Chertoff and his staff. Legalization is good for our economic prosperity. We need every worker in this country to join the formal economy and pay their taxes. That's why the Department of Commerce supports earned legalization. All of title VI was written with the close cooperation of Secretary Gutierrez and his staff. Legalization is consistent with American family values. Would opponents of legalization deport children and divide families? More than 1.6 million undocumented children live in the United States. More than 3.1 million U.S.-citizen children have at least one undocumented parent. Legalization supports our broader reform effort. We must break America's cycle of illegality. Enforcement at the worksite and elsewhere will fail if 12 million Americans and 5 percent of U.S. workers remain in the shadows. The American people support earned legalization. Poll after poll find that large majorities of Americans want undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States to have a chance to keep their jobs and earn legal status. This support spans political parties and crosses demographics. Americans understand that this is a complex problem that requires a comprehensive solution. Mr. President, this is not 1986; 1986 was amnesty. This is not amnesty. Let's be very clear about it. Not only do you have to have a background check, but you pay fees of $5,500, you have to learn English, you have to demonstrate you paid your taxes, you have to work for the next 8 years and demonstrate that you have worked in the past if you are ever going to get a green card. You have to return home in order to get your application for a green card, and you have to go to the back of the line. None of that was 1986. Legalization is important for our national security. We have to know who is in the United States of America. Legalization is important in terms of our economic prosperity so our economy can function well, and legalization is important for the families. Do we think we are going to deport 3.5 million American children who have parents who are undocumented? Are we going to send those people overseas? This amendment will undermine the legislation. I hope it will be rejected by the Senate. I ask for the yeas and nays, Mr. President.