Senate Panel Acts To Slow Legal Immigration

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 29) -- Setting the stage for a vote next month, the Senate Judiciary committee has eliminated the most controversial sections of a bill restricting legal immigration.

On an 11-4 vote Thursday, the panel abandoned stiff cuts in entry quotas proposed by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and substituted smaller cuts suggested by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

In its latest form, the measure would reduce non-refugee immigration from 675,000 to 552,000. The maximum number of people from other countries allowed to join relatives here would be cut from 480,000 to 425,000. The number of work visas would be cut from 140,000 to 100,000.

Simpson, who called Kennedy's amendments "a virtual maintenance of the status quo," could ask the full Senate to accept his original measure when floor debate begins April 15.

Immigration -- legal and illegal -- has been a sometimes volatile issue in this year's Republican primaries. Commentator Pat Buchanan, in particular, called for tighter control of the border with Mexico and a five-year moratorium on legal immigration.

Last year, 720,461 legal immigrants were admitted to the U.S., down 10 percent from 1994 and 20 percent from 1993, according to Immigration and Naturalization Service data.

More Congressional Action

In other action on a busy day in Congress:

Congress has approved and President Bill Clinton is expected to sign legislation to reduce the penalty that Social Security recipients pay if they continue to work after 65. Now, people between age 65 and 69 lose $1 in benefits for each $3 they earn above a $11,520 limit. Under the bill, the limit will rise to $12,500 this year and to $30,000 by 2002. The legislative affects an estimated 1 million older workers. "Those seniors will be able to earn more money this year without paying a tax on work," said Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
A historic farm bill that ends the link between prices and government subsidies also cleared both houses of Congress and Clinton has said he intends to sign it. "Farmers will finally plant for the market and not for the government," said Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole. The wide-ranging bill addresses crop issues, rural development and environmental questions. It ends subsidies based on prices, substituting "market transition payments" that would decline over seven years.

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