Chairman. earlier in the day. both during the period that we were debating the rule and for the period when we were on general debate on the bill itself. I had some opportunity to discuss in passing the gist of the amendment which I have offered. To recap. this amendment is designed to make sure that special assistance that is going to be made available to the South Vietnamese refugees not be made available solely on the basis of national origin. That is the test todaynational origin. and as such. American citizens with equivalent economic hardship are denied the assistance and benefits of these programs. I am suggesting the test really ought to be what we might call a means test or a needs test so that everyone in America. refugees and nonrefugees alike qualify equally. Otherwise. we run into a situation where in this country today we have got at least. in my judgment. 10 million people out of work. and several hundred thousand or millions of those in situations where they are absolutely destitute and have no place to turn. Under the authorization in this bill they in effect are being told that there is no help for them or there is no special program for them of the very kindthatfwe are now in the process of creating for the South Vietnamese.
Keywords matched
refugees