Alan Simpson

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I inquire of the Chair if H.R. 2937 has arrived from the House of Representatives.

Mr. SIMPSON. Therefore, I ask for its first reading.

Mr. SIMPSON. I now ask for its second reading.

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I inquire of the Chair if S. 1698 is at the desk.

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until the hour of 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 25; further, that immediately following the prayer, the Journal of the proceedings be deemed approved to date, no resolutions come over under the rule, the call of the calendar be dispensed with, and the morning hour be deemed to have expired, and that there then be a period for morning business until the hour of 10 a.m., with Senators to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each, except for the following: Senators Chafee or Breaux for up to 60 minutes total; Senator Dodd for up to 15 minutes; Senator Murkowski for up to 5 minutes; Senator Stevens for up to 5 minutes; Senator Bryan for up to 10 minutes. I further ask that at the hour of 10 a.m. the Senate resume consideration of S. 1664, the immigration bill, and at that time Senator Simpson be recognized to offer the next two amendments to the immigration bill.

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. For the information of all Senators, Mr. President, the Senate will resume the immigration bill and the pending amendments tomorrow morning. Senators can expect rollcall votes throughout the day on the immigration bill. We hope to complete action on that measure on Thursday. It is also anticipated that the omnibus appropriations conference report will be available for consideration during tomorrow's session. Therefore, action on that legislation is also expected. The Senate may also be asked to turn to any other legislative items that can be cleared for action. Mr. President, let me thank my colleague from Illinois for his cooperation and willingness to come to the floor this evening and interrupt his evening to see if we can proceed with other business. I am most appreciative. We will try to complete our work tomorrow. I hope we can do that--certainly Friday morning. Hopefully, we can avoid that. But I want to thank the staff, the people that make it possible for us to function in this remarkable arena on both sides of the aisle-- here at the desks on the both sides of the aisle. These people I have come to know so well we cannot function without. This has been a remarkable day, and the Parliamentarian must be dealing with some kind of a gumball by now. It has more cords and knots in it than we could ever untangle. So we will just keep it there, if we can. But I want to thank the Senator from Illinois, and thank these remarkable people who patiently watch us grapple with the issues of the day.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, if there is no further business--unless my colleague from Illinois would care to make remarks--to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, it will be up to our leader to determine the course of business. The Senator from Kentucky and I both filled the role as assistant leader of our parties, and I think we both realize that we were somewhat muted on final decisions.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I think that all of us know when we reach these sticking points in this body--and that is often--people then huddle and decide what to do. The leaders trust and admire each other and they will work together and move the legislation of the Senate. And that is the way it will always work. On the other issue of minimum wage, I understand there are serious discussions going on about minimum wage, training wage, and getting the minimum wage to the people who do require it most and not to someone from a fine family that decided to go work in McDonald's for the summer and pretend that that is the issue of minimum wage when someone is a privileged young person who is simply in the work force. There are real things here. For every horror story on one side, we have the horror story on the other side. That is the only way I have been able to exist in this body for 18 years. So, for every one that is presented to us, then there is something on the other side about people who lose their jobs, employers who are on the edge and say, ``Minimum wage? I cannot do it.'' You can make fun of those people and say they should, I guess, be subsidized by the Government or something to pay the minimum wage. But the issue is, they say ``I will go broke. So, therefore, I will not do that. Or, if that is the law, I cannot do it and I'm out.'' That is an argument just as valid as the one about children and spouses and the working man, and all of those things are what the American people know and see that is what we do. And that is what we do. So, I am going to leave the issue for resolvement to that. And know that, at this point, this procedure of filling the tree and moving forward is not a patented process by the Republican majority; it is a patented process by the Democratic majority when they are in power. It is a tool to move legislation. We have two choices here. Pull up something else or move forward. How can anyone argue--regardless of the passion of what you want to present to the body--how can you argue about not moving forward with a very important bill, and that is what we are attempting to do. It really is not as strange as it would appear. Several Senators addressed the Chair.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, if I might.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I enjoy, obviously, the Senator from Massachusetts because he does his work with a--down there, always--a crinkle in his eye and a twinkle. I know that one. I have seen it many times. This is, really--this is theater. It is Shakespeare--minor, minor, I can assure you. It is street Shakespeare. I do it, too. I will be Lear, raging into the wind, and Senator Kennedy will be Puck. Let me tell you, the minimum wage, when the Democrats had the control of this body and the House of Representatives and the Presidency, never appeared in this Chamber under any scenario from the wings--not once. Not once did President Clinton ever suggest we deal with the minimum wage. And since it became something that appeared in the focus groups, or the Knight tracking polls, it has been mentioned 47 times by the President. So it is theater. But, really, if you stay in this game long enough-- and I have been legislating for 30 years and obviously love it, but I am ready to do something else--if you play with the wheel with the fanny kicker on it, it will come around and get you. Hear this from my friend, Senator Ted Kennedy, as we dealt with the health care reform bill. The Congressional Record, April 18, 1996, page S3513, quote of my friend, Senator Kennedy: Members of the Senate who are serious about insurance reform should vote against all controversial amendments-- including medical savings accounts. Senator Kassebaum and I have agreed that we will vigorously oppose all such amendments--even those that we might support under other circumstances. Now, with the approval of the body, I ask unanimous consent that we insert the phrase ``illegal immigration reform'' and then just adopt that, because that is exactly what I am saying. Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.

Mr. SIMPSON. That is the pilot program, originally Simpson No. 2.

Mr. SIMPSON. We will proceed now, but I would make a remark because I certainly can understand the position of Senator Kennedy and the issue that is driving him in this debate, but not necessarily on this bill, and also Senator Dorgan. As I heard Senator Kennedy describing what is out there, eventually, it reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe in ``The Pit and the Pendulum,'' as the arc of the blade swung closer and closer to the object. I just wanted to state that. It was a great iteration that came over me--the blade swinging back and forth, and eventually it will hit, and we will have to do what we always do here, which is sometimes difficult. It is called vote. And that is a time to come. So with that, I urge the adoption of amendment No. 3726.

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

Mr. SIMPSON

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I do have the floor. Amendment No. 3724 To Amendment No. 3671

Mr. SIMPSON. I ask the Chair lay before the Senate amendment No. 3671.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I appreciate the good will of my friend from Massachusetts. I think after an explanation of what the procedure was, even though I know that that is a difficult one, that nevertheless, it is appropriate under the rules. I had expressed to the Senator from Massachusetts and to the Senator from North Dakota that it would be my intent to proceed and move forward with regard to this issue. These other issues, I hope, can be addressed at some other forum. The pending business of the U.S. Senate for the last week has been the illegal immigration bill, not the balanced budget amendment, not Social Security, not the minimum wage, not anything. It has been set aside, and we have handled some very significant legislation in the interim. I want to commend Senator Kennedy and Senator Kassebaum for the work that they did, which was quite evident, the worth of it and the success of it, by a vote of 100 to 0, on an issue that has been creating tremendous difficulty with all of us. We have started down the road of reform with regard to health care, incremental as it is, but certainly something that the Senator from Massachusetts has been involved in in his entire career in the U.S. Senate. Sometimes he is a vexing adversary, sometimes he is a warm and helpful ally; but there is one thing the Senator from Massachusetts is, he is a master legislator. We do not have to agree, but if there is anyone who knows more about legislating in this place, I mean day-to- day legislating, the rules, the procedures of legislating, not simply procedure--that helps--then it certainly is the Senator from Massachusetts who is one of the most able in this arena. With that--and I do not want to get too heavy; that would be totally uncharacteristic and unnecessary, Mr. President--I am pleased that we are once again considering the very important issue of immigration reform. This is about immigration reform. As the majority leader mentioned last week, wherever one visits in this country, the issue is: When is Congress going to do something about immigration? That always comes up. The people of this country want reform. They want those who are not supposed to be in this country to be removed from this country. They do not want those who are subject to deportation to be allowed to roam the United States at will while awaiting their removal, also, working and taking away the jobs of American citizens. They want a reduction in overall immigration numbers. That is what they tell us on a consistent basis. We now have an opportunity to accomplish all of that. We have a very good bill before us, and we have many amendments proposed, some of which will improve the legislation. There will be amendments. Those have been submitted. Those should be known to Members and staff by this time. We will proceed with those. I trust my colleagues will bring these amendments to the floor so we may conclude this contentious but important and consistent and ever-present debate and pass comprehensive immigration reform during this week. The Barbara Jordan Commission left a statement which I think is worthy of all of us to be reminded of on this date. It was to this effect: The credibility of immigration policy can be measured by a simple yardstick. These are the words of Barbara Jordan, former Congresswoman, remarkable, remarkable American, a woman I greatly admired and respected and was honored to participate at the memorial service on her behalf at the Kennedy Center. That was a very, very emotional and touching thing for me. She said the simple yardstick is this: People who should get in, do get in; people who should not get in are kept out; and people who are judged deportable are required to leave. You cannot state it any more clearly than that. The pending business is a Simpson second-degree amendment on a motion to recommit. This is the Simpson amendment No. 2, the pilot program. I believe that is now the pending business. I believe the debate on that amendment has been had. It was at the desk. Let me just refresh your memory on that. That was the amendment to provide a pilot student- tracking program. The aim was to enable the INS to keep track of foreign students studying in this country. The amendment would provide a source of funding to the INS to establish a very basic, computer- based system for keeping track of foreign students. It is a measure supported by the FBI Director, who expressed deep concerns about our ability to track such students in a 1994 memo regarding possible entry venues for tourists. This is not an intrusive provision. Colleges and universities already are required to provide this sort of information to the INS. The problem in the past has been that the INS has not devoted sufficient resources to this activity to create a body of reliable information. So the amendment's aim is to provide funding so the INS can implement a system to keep track of foreign students studying here. It seems reasonable that such funding should come from the students themselves and not from the taxpayer. A student who is willing to pay $10,000 or $20,000 in this country or $80,000 to $100,000 over the course of study, is unlikely to be greatly concerned at being asked to pay an additional fee of $50 or $100 for the issuance of a student visa. That is the substance of the amendment. I inquire if there is further debate on the amendment, or move the question on the amendment.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays. There is a sufficient second on the floor.

Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I now send an amendment to the desk to the motion.