Immigration Update

At the end of this month and continuing in early June, the Senate is debating and voting on immigration reform legislation. During that time I will be using my website, www.Alexander.senate.gov, to keep you up-to-date on the latest developments. I hope you will check it often. 

I voted against the immigration reform bill last year because it didn’t do enough to secure the border.

I’m examining this new bill carefully to make sure it secures the border before it does anything else. It’s inexcusable that there are 12 million illegal immigrants here today, with 1 million more coming each year. We have to fix this problem now. The status quo is unacceptable.

To earn my vote, the final version of this bill should include: 

1. Securing the border before it does anything else.
2. Establishing a reliable worker identification system – so employers can know who’s legal and who isn’t and are held accountable if they hire illegal workers.
3. Reforming our system so it attracts the brightest minds from around the world to study here, work here and become Americans.
4. Making sure immigrants learn English and American history and civics.

After the Memorial Day recess, I expect to join Senator Jim Inhofe in offering an amendment to make English the National Language. It’s hard to be one nation if we can’t speak to one another. 

I hope you will also go to my website where you will find one of my speeches on immigration: 
Becoming American – The Rest of the Immigration Story 

Finding a Bipartisan Solution in Iraq 

In June, I will join with Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado to introduce legislation that would make the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) the basis for future U.S. strategy in Iraq. We have already garnered the support of six Senators – three from each party – and I expect more will join us.

We owe it to our country and our troops to find a bipartisan consensus to support where we go from here. We need a political solution in Washington, DC, as much as we need one in Baghdad. And we need to get out of the combat business and into the support, training and equipping business as soon as we honorably can.  

The ISG was created in March of 2006 at the request of a bipartisan group of members of Congress and was co-chaired by former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III and former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lee H. Hamilton. The ISG released their recommendations in December of 2006 and focused on a bipartisan approach to bringing a responsible conclusion to the Iraq war.  

I have spoken to Secretary Baker and Congressman Hamilton, and they have confirmed this legislation accurately reflects the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group report. Specifically the bill sets a ‘new way forward’ by establishing as United States policy:
·         A new diplomatic offensive in the region that includes the creation of the Iraq International Support Group;
·         Giving the highest priority to training, equipping and advising the Iraqi military and security forces;
·         Assessing the full budgetary and personnel impact of the war in Iraq on the United States Military;
·         Accelerating and increasing oil production and accountability including equitable distribution of oil revenues in Iraq;
·         Implementing and oversight of economic reconstruction programs in Iraq with the creation of a new Senior Advisor for Economic Reconstruction;
·         Ensuring that the President includes the cost of the war in his annual budget request; and
·         Setting conditions that could lead to redeployment of United States combat brigades not needed for force protection as early as the first quarter of 2008 if diplomatic, infrastructure and security benchmarks are met. 

The President has recently spoken well of the report, and embraced parts of the ISG report – but it is not his plan.

The Democratic majority has borrowed parts of the report – but it is not the Democratic majority plan.

That is why it has a chance to work. It has the seeds of bipartisan consensus. 

I hope the president and Congress will embrace this strategy and work together to bring a successful conclusion to the war and bring our troops home. 

Ending the “Road to Nowhere” 

Ever since I was governor of Tennessee I’ve been fighting to end the $600 million “Road to Nowhere” through the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This road would have cost 75 times the annual roads budget for the Smokies and has no place in one of the largest pristine wilderness area left in the eastern United States.  

This month, the National Park Service announced plans to issue a final Environmental Impact Statement on the unfinished road project – begun in the 1940s in the Swain County, NC area of the Park – that will call for a cash settlement to the county instead of the road. The National Park Service selected this alternative solution after evaluating the nearly 76,000 public comments on the road’s impact and expects to formally publish the alternative in September. It will be followed by a 30-day public comment period.  

This announcement is should put an end once and for all to this road. It is the right solution for the taxpayers of America, the right solution for the people of Swain County and the right solution for those who love the Great Smoky Mountains.  

Speaking English in the Workplace

In May I announced that I will introduce legislation to protect employers who require that English be spoken on the job from being sued for discrimination.

In America, requiring English in the workplace is not discrimination; it's common sense. Since 1906, no immigrant has been able to become an American citizen without learning English. A century ago, many American companies and private associations led an effort to Americanize new immigrants. They taught their employees English and the National Anthem.

But last month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the Salvation Army for allegedly discriminating against two of the Army's employees in a Boston-area thrift store by requiring them to speak English on the job, despite the fact that the rule was clearly posted and the employees were given a year to learn.

This lawsuit is absurd. It means that every business in America – from the shoe shop to Wal-Mart – will need to hire lawyers to prove that it has a legitimate business purpose if it wants to require employees to speak our national language while at work. 

This lawsuit is not only an astonishing waste of the EEOC's time and taxpayer money – the agency has a backlog of 56,000 cases – but it is also contrary to everything we know about the importance of achieving unity in our country.

I hope the rest of the Senate will get behind my legislation to put an end to these lawsuits.  I can think of nothing that would be more in our national interest than helping anyone in our country learn our common language.  

Improving the Safety of Pediatric Medicine

My mother used to tell me “Don’t try to make a happy baby happy, just leave it alone.” The Senate should have taken that advice and left happy legislation that has been law since 1997 happy, and preserved the incentives to improve the effectiveness of prescription drugs for children in the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act.

For a decade, the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act has helped provide worried parents and concerned physicians with needed information to make better decisions in prescribing treatment for young children. 

One key way it does this is by giving companies and extra six months on their drug patents in exchange for conducting further testing of how medicines affect children. 

The FDA authorization bill before the Senate cut that incentive to three months for certain drugs. I joined Senator Allard of Colorado in offering an amendment to retain the existing six month incentive that has worked so well for the last ten years. 

I’m disappointed our amendment did not pass, and I will continue to work toward other ways to keep our children safe. 

Public Safety and Clean Water

This May I voted for – and the Senate approved – the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, legislation that will authorize repairs and replacements for aging Tennessee dams and locks, as well as flood control efforts and more than a dozen state water quality projects. 

Some of the facilities affected by this bill involve major public safety issues for the communities around our rivers and lakes such as Center Hill Dam, the Chickamauga Lock, Memphis’s Nonconnah Weir, and Sandy Creek in Jackson.  

This bill will also help provide the maintenance to ensure that reliable and clean hydro power remains a priority in Tennessee. And it’s good news for everyone who likes drinking clean water and having waste water treated in an environmentally appropriate way. The legislation provides the Army Corps of Engineers with the confidence to make long-term contract agreements, and allocate their budget efficiently.

The Senate has taken an important step by passing this legislation so it can be reconciled with the House’s version. While there is still much work to be done on riverfront and flood control issues, this bill puts Tennessee in a great position.


I thought you may be interested in these news articles:

Thankless Bipartisanship
http://www.alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=180&Month=5&Year=2007 

Alexander right to back the Iraq Study Group
http://www.alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=182&Month=5&Year=2007 

Proposal by Alexander would help save Smokies
http://www.alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=183&Month=5&Year=2007 

  Korda; Bush nearing goal for people south of the border, down Mexico way 
http://www.alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=179&Month=5&Year=2007

 
To celebrate National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, Senator Corker and I launched the Tennessee Walking Challenge (we’re starting our pedometers in this photo), a “healthy” competition between our staffs to promote physical fitness at home in Tennessee. We wore pedometers for two weeks to measure which office took the most total steps. I beat Senator Corker by a few steps, but his staff beat mine by a few too.  In total, our offices walked 11,965,546 steps, or 4,721 miles – nine times the distance from Bristol to Memphis.