Burns Deeply Concerned About Financial Cost of Immigration Bill

Burns Deeply Concerned About Financial Cost of Immigration Bill

Supports Effort to Halt Immigration Bill for Financial Burden Illegal Immigrants will Place on Montanans

U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R - Mont.) today expressed deep concern about projected increases in spending with the immigration bill. Yesterday, he voted to support a budget point of order issued against the immigration bill. Its main supporters were Senators Wayne Allard (R - Colo.) and Jeff Sessions (R - Ala.), who called the immigration bill, "a huge, monumental budget buster." This effort spurred a heated debate on the bill because of its potential impact on the national deficit and blue collar workers. The effort to halt the bill on budgetary concerns failed 67-31.

"We don't even fully understand how incredibly expensive this Senate bill will be, hitting our states particularly hard in education and health care, and further straining Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security," said Senator Burns.

Current Senate budget rules allow any member to challenge legislation that increases federal spending by $5 billion in any 10-year period beginning in 2016. Because a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate stated that the Senate immigration bill will increase federal spending by $54 billion in the first ten years alone, it is expected that spending will far exceed the $5 billion threshold in future ten year periods.

According to Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the immigration bill would increase long-term federal spending by at least $50 billion a year. He also estimated that, based on the probable characteristics of immigrants and recipients of amnesty, long-term welfare costs are likely to be around $3,000 per person rather than $892 as CBO shows.

Furthermore, Rector estimated amnesty would increase Medicaid spending by $33 billion a year if a third of the nation's ten million illegal aliens can bring in a single elderly parent. Senator Burns voted to eliminate such amnesty provisions for illegal aliens.

Senators Burns and Sessions shared concerns regarding the financial costs the amnesty provisions of the immigration bill contains. They agreed that illegal immigrants should not receive government benefits, since programs such as Social Security were created to assist low-income American workers.

"Not only would this bill provide illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship without returning home first, it also severely burdens our legal, tax-paying citizens," said Senator Burns. "Montanans will foot the bill to accommodate illegal immigrants."

If it passes, the immigration bill will go to conference with the House to reconcile the different versions of the bill. Earlier Wednesday, Senator Burns voted to kill the immigration bill in a cloture vote.

Senator Burns served in the United States Marine Corps from 1955-1957 and is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

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