Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a few minutes of the Houses time to talk about a very serious problem. that of approximately 130.000 refugees in this country who as of the first of April were. by regulation of the Office of Refugee Relocation. cut off from all of their cash and medical grants. These 130.000 people I am referring to are not eligible for other programs within the States that they live to provide them with any basic necessities of life. That is because these people I am referring to live in States that do not have twoparent AFDC programs or States that do not have a general assistance program. What does that mean? The 130.000 I am referring to are families. most of them are Hmong tribesmen and Ming tribesmen that fought with the United States in Laos and Cambodia. that came here as political refugees as a result of that action and now. because of administrative changes. find themselves in the saddest and most serious of all states. What the change is is that the Refugee Act of 1980 says that the U.S. Government will provide up to 36 months of cash and medical aid to refugees that came into this country. The Office of Refugee Relocation changed that 36 months to 18 months. So if you had been here longer than 18 months. the changing of that period of time means that that cash and medical assistance which you had been living on. the entire thing you had been living on was cut off the first of April. I assume one of the reasons behind that action was that 18 months. for a lot of people. would be enough time to assimilate into our society and in our economy and have a chance to find a job.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugees