Good legislation may take time

Dalton Daily Citizen

August 17, 2006 09:48 am

— Give U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal credit for honesty. Deal, whose district includes Whitfield and Murray counties, was up front all along about Tuesday’s congressional hearings on illegal immigration. The main purpose, he said, was to help sell the House of Representatives’ version of immigration reform. Indeed, the Dalton hearing was just one of more than a dozen conducted by various House committees across the country to sell voters on their version of reform.
The House bill focuses strictly on law enforcement and border security. A rival Senate bill also contains new enforcement measures, but it also has provisions that would let many of the estimated 11 million undocumented aliens in the United States gain legal status.
The 100 or so people who attended the hearing at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center apparently didn’t need much persuasion by Deal and fellow Georgia Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood. They cheered loudly when Norwood said the Senate bill could not pass the House.
But there lies the problem. Both sides in this debate feel passionately about the issue. Neither side seems willing to give in. And too many seem to want to use the debate to bash their opponents rather than have an actual conversation.
At Tuesday’s hearing, for instance, Deal seemed to be the lone voice of reason, while Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis seemed more interested in bashing Republicans and Norwood lashed out at, well, just about everyone.
After all these hearings are over, lawmakers will return to Washington just as divided as ever.
That’s a shame because, as several speakers pointed out at the hearing, there’s a broad consensus that the current immigration system doesn’t work. The biggest points of debate are what to do about it. Representatives admit they probably won’t find a compromise before the November election. They may not agree on a bill at all this year.
That will certainly disappoint those who feel so strongly about the issue. But it may not be such bad news, assuming that lawmakers really want to craft a bill that works, not just score political points.
There also seems to be a broad consensus that some of the problems the United States now faces are the unintended consequences of previous immigration reform bills. And at Tuesday’s hearing, which focused on health care issues, even some advocates of restricting the access undocumented aliens have to government-subsidized medical services warned that cutting them off from immunization programs and prenatal care could end up costing taxpayers even more money in the long run.
If Congress takes the time to weigh such concerns and to deliberate in a rational manner a little more removed from the passions that currently reign, it can only produce a better piece of legislation, even if it takes a little more time.