Speech #970190996

Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 5879. a bill which extends the funding authorization in the 1980 act for refugee resettlement activities in the United States. Your subcommittee. during the past 15 months. has visited the acute problem areas of high refugee impact in the United States and the sending countries abroad. Extensive hearings brought us the message of the need to reform refugee resettlement policy. Refugees arriving in the United States with a strong motivation to adjust rapidly to our society far too often fall victim to the enticements of the public welfare system. All witnesses before your subcommittee agree that selfsufficiency should be our goal but that present policies are inhibiting a program that could be less expensive and far more effective. We learned of the high percentage of refugees on cash and medical assistance. Municipal. county. and State officials told us of the growing cost of resettlementan uneven burden borne primarily by 10 States and 40 counties. Our refugee placement policy needs to be redirected to reduce the phenomenon of secondary migration. Our efforts should be to move refugees quickly into the work force. To accomplish this. language training and job counseling are essential. Cuts in such social services would not be costeffective as they are the means to avoid the cycle of welfare dependency. We recognize the need for greater cooperation in administering refugee policycooperation among voluntary agencies. the Federal Government and local and State officials. These are the areas this legislation addresses. Mr. Chairman. a clear distinction needs to be drawn between legal and illegal flows to the United States. Refugee admissions are determined annually on the basis of consultation with the Congress and represents only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of persons coming to the United States illegally each year. The appropriate agenda for the Congress is not to devise ways of abandoning Americas role in providing hope. opportunity. and freedom for persecuted people but rather to continue this tradition while asserting control over our borders and coasts. Your subcommittee has reported out the SimpsonMazzoli Immigration Reform and Control Act. A comparison measure has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting the floor action in the other body. Congress. during this session. will have the opportunity to adopt strong measures to discourage the flow of illegal emigrants to the United States. American acceptance of refugees promotes important humanitarian and foreign policy goals. The efficacy of our present refugee admissions policy. however. is not the subject addressed by this bill. Other provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act define the term "refugee" and establish the process for annual admissions. This bill does not relate to these provisions. The issue presented by H.R. 5879 is whether we will respond to the needs of refugees in the United States. Members of Congress. regardless of individual reservations about aspects of our admissions program. can unite in the recognition of the necessity to assist refugees who are here. Failure to fund this program would increase the burden on State and local governments and detract from our capacity to provide refugees with the tools to function independently and productively in American communities. Refugee resettlement efforts in recent years have been plagued by unacceptably high levels of welfare dependency. I am pleased to observe. based on testimony at recent Immigration Subcommittee hearings. that the administration. voluntary resettlement agencies. and State and local governments all support the objective of helping refugees to become selfsupporting and contributing members of their communities. A number of provisions of this legislation promote this important objective. A clear statement of congressional intent emphasizes job placement as soon as possible after a refugees arrival in the United States. The bill authorizes a feasibility study and report to Congress on concepts strongly advocated by voluntary resettlement agencies. Basically. this involves utilization of mechanisms other than welfare for provision of: First. interim support to refugees who are not employment ready. and second. medical assistance to refugees who do not require cash assistance. We need to explore and implement innovative solutions to meet the legitimate transitional needs of our refugee population and at the same time guard against the lure of the welfare system. Voluntary agencies and welfare offices. under H.R. 5879. must share certain information critical to refugee selfsufficiency. Voluntary agencies are to notify welfare offices when they learn that a refugee is offered employment. This information will assist welfare offices to terminate assistance for individuals who no longer qualify. The bill specifically provides for the termination of cash assistance if a refugee refuses an appropriate employment offer. The resettlement agency must be notified promptly whenever a refugee applies for cash or medical assistance. This notification will afford the resettlement agency an opportunity to work with the refugee during this critical period before the refugee becomes dependent on welfare. The cycle of welfare dependency is hard to break once it is initiated. Knowledge that a refugee has applied for assistance is essential information for a voluntary agency seeking to promote selfsufficiency. Another section of H.R. 5879 emphasizes the importance on initial placement decisions. Resettlement policies. under the mandate in this bill. generally must avoid placements in highly impacted areas. Certain close relatives of persons already residing in an area are the exception. Efforts to separate families are counterproductive because they lead to feelings of estrangement and promote unplanned secondary migration. Such secondary migration. in turn. tends to subvert efforts by voluntary agencies to plan with refugees for selfsufficiency. The disproprotionate impact of refugees on a relatively few highly impacted communities can exacerbate tensions and detract from the capacity of local governments to meet the needs of longterm residents. We can attempt to discourage excessive refugee concentrations in the future through our placement policiesbut we must address the problems resulting from past initial placements and secondary migration. Any increase in populationwhether consisting of refugees or other individualsis bound to result in increased public outlays. The other half of the equation. however. is the positive impact on new groups moving into a community. To consider only the outlays of funds and not the inflow of new revenues would present an unbalanced view of refugee impacts. Impact aid is a commendable concept that recognizes the central role of the Federal Government in the admission of refugees. The implementation of an impact aid program. however. requires further study and this is called for. We must approach the problem in a feasible way and avoid duplicating impact aid provisions of current law. After the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement conducts a study of impact aidin accordance with the mandate of this legislationwe will be in a position to fashion an assistance package that addresses a variety of concerns. The critical point is that we need not choose between unacceptable levels of public expenditures and an abandonment of our refugee program. We have the human resources in this country to resettle refugees at less public expense than in the past. and at the same time perform the resettlement task more effectively. The authorization in the subcommittee amendment. in contrast to H.R. 5879 as introduced and in contrast to the original authorization in the Refugee Act of 1980. is for only a single year. H.R. 5879 and the Refugee Act of 1980 provided 3year authorization periods sufficient to allow longrange planning. A reauthorization for 1 year in my judgment is insufficient to allow full implementation of new initiatives in the resettlement field. A 1year authorization would require the subcommittee and the administrationin the immediate futureto begin the process of considering next years authorizationa timeconsuming endeavor that will distract the U.S. Coordinator and the Director of ORR from the important task we have given themto reduce welfare dependency and promote quicker selfsufficiency. The approach of a 3year authorizationwhich the committee followed in the past and the administration advocated this year. or at least a 2year authorizationis far preferable. I congratulate Congressman ROMANO MAZZOLI. chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee. for his diligent efforts in conducting detailed hearings on refugee mattersthis at the same time that we have been in the midst of thorough consideration of major immigration reform and control legislation. The mandates of H.R. 5879 and the studies called for should enable us not only to do a better job of resettling refugees at less cost but also to alleviate the excessive burdens some communities have experienced. I urge my colleagues to support adoption of this bill because our country has much to gain from facilitating the successful integration of our refugee population into American life.