Department Of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010 - Conference Report - Continued

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, while I voted in support of the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security appropriations bill, I do want to take this opportunity to express my frustrations with the fact that many good provisions were taken out of the final bill by the House-Senate conference committee. The provisions I want to talk about were intended to improve our ability to enforce immigration law in the interior and to secure the border to protect the homeland.

First, I want to talk about the amendment I pushed for during Senate consideration of the appropriations bill. It would have given businesses the tools to ensure that they have a legal workforce. My amendment would have allowed employers to voluntarily check their existing workforce and make sure their workers are legally in this country to work. It said that if an employer chooses to verify the status of all their workers--not just new hires--then they should be allowed to do so. And, it had protections in place. If an employer were to elect to check all workers, they would have to notify the Secretary of Homeland Security that they plan to verify their existing workforce. The employer would then have 10 days to check all workers. This short time period would prevent employers from targeting certain workers by claiming that they are ``still working on'' verifying the remainder of their workforce. And, my amendment would have required the employer to check all individuals if they plan to check their existing workforce. If they check one, they check them all.

Employers want to abide by the law and hire people that are legally in this country. Right now, E-Verify only allows them to check prospective employees. But, we should be allowing employers to access this free, online database system to check all their workers.

Second, while I am grateful that the committee recognizes the need to keep E-Verify operational and that the bill includes a three year reauthorization of the program, I am disappointed that the conference committee stripped an amendment to permanently reauthorize E-Verify. The amendment authored by Senator Sessions was passed with bipartisan support. The administration and the majority leadership claim they fully back the E-Verify program, but their actions don't show it. Our businesses need to know that this program will be around for the long-term, and that they can rely on the Federal Government to make sure that the workers they hire are legally in this country.

The third amendment stripped by the conference committee would have increased our ability to secure the border by putting funds into fencing to reduce illegal pedestrian border crossings. The DeMint provision would have required 700 miles of reinforced pedestrian fencing to be built along the southern border by December 31, 2010.

Finally, an amendment to allow the Department of Homeland Security to go forward with the ``no match'' rule was stripped. This amendment by Senator Vitter would have blocked the Obama administration from gutting the ``no-match'' rule put in place in 2008 to notify employers when their employees are using a Social Security number that does not match their name. These ``no match'' letters help employers who want to follow the law and make sure they are employing legally authorized individuals.

I voted for this bill on the Senate floor because homeland security is not something we should play politics with. Defending our country is our No. 1 constitutional priority. Taxpayers expect us to get these bills passed and we have that responsibility. I voted for this bill today because it includes funding for essential border security and interior security efforts. However, there are a number of problems with this bill despite my vote for it. I am concerned that the House and Senate conference committee did a disservice to the American people by taking out language preventing illegal aliens from gaining work in this country. The conference committee, had they kept the provisions I talked about, would have helped many Americans who are looking for work and struggling to make ends meet. The provisions would have also held employers accountable for their hiring practices. It's my hope that this body will work harder to beef up our immigration enforcement efforts, and ensure that Americans are given a priority over illegal aliens during this time of high unemployment.

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