Speech #960244242

I have been very much concerned about the lack of a policy as the distinguished gentleman from Illinois has so poignantly noted this evening. We have had an opendoor policy. a closeddoor policy. and now we have a revolvingdoor policy. It is in fact the very lack of a policy that has created the problem confronting these 100.000 Cuban refugees. There are several critical aspects to this problem. First of all. we need a longrange program that is going to take care of not only a Cuban wave of refugees and not only an Indochinese wave of refugees. but one that will be able to take care of all of these similar problems for our future. I would hope that our committees working together can more adequately define the various forms of refugee status. and try to come up with a program that will take care of these problems in the long range rather than have to deal with them on a crisis basis. We have certainly floundered around with this current problem too long. I am very much concerned about recent statements that we had prior warnings from our intelligence community that an exodus was likely. apparently we gave little attention to those warnings and made no preparation for such an exodus. Furthermore. there are new reports this week that. while all of the security checks have been completed in most of the camps. there remains an undue waiting period for resettling of many of the refugees. Finally. it seems to me that we have to work out a better method to utilize the volunteer agencies who are standing by ready and willing to help but are being shunted aside by the bureacracy. I was in touch with one of the volunteer agencies today and was told that they could. given the opportunity. do the job much quicker and much more economically than our present policies of warehousing the refugees in Army camps throughout this country. I would hope that the Congress and its committees of jurisdiction would address this problem of the cost of the bureaucracy as compared to voluntary agencies in the handling the resettlement effort. I think that is a very important aspect that needs our attention.