Senate OKs Food Stamps for 250,000 Legal Immigrants

A quarter of a million legal immigrants would regain food stamp benefits under legislation passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The $1.9-billion bill, sent to the House on a 92-8 vote, also would provide new financial guarantees for crop insurance and earmark new money for agricultural research in what supporters said is a balance intended to appeal to both urban anti-hunger forces and farm advocates.

“This is a carefully crafted compromise,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

President Clinton said he is pleased with the outcome. “This vital legislation makes needed reforms and provides funding in several areas that are priorities for my administration,” he said.

On a 77-23 vote, the Senate defeated an attempt by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) to send the bill back to committee, which would have effectively killed it. Gramm, who had blocked a floor vote for weeks, argued that restoring more than $818 million in benefits to about 250,000 legal immigrants amounted to a full retreat from the 1996 welfare overhaul that cut them off.

“The biggest problem with this bill is, it puts a great big neon sign at the border of the United States of America, ‘Come and get welfare,’ ” Gramm said. “I want people to come to America to go to work.”

But Clinton indicated he would veto the measure without the food stamp provisions, and supporters stressed that farmers needed the crop insurance to renew policies, which would allow them to obtain bank credit.

The food stamp restoration applies to less than a third of the estimated 935,000 legal immigrants who lost benefits under the welfare law.

Targeted are the elderly, those under 18, the disabled and people who came to the United States to flee political or religious persecution. To qualify, those immigrants had to be living in the United States as of Aug. 22, 1996.