I would just suggest that if we are going to work this out together with the administration. we need some more cooperation than evidenced by that late indication that they have some concern about the bill. I am very concerned about the second amendment they want. because we specifically believe that it is extremely important that we have lineitem authorizations for 2 areas. One that is extremely important. and I think the most important. is the $14 million to reimburse State and local health agencies for the costs of providing medical screening and initial treatment to refugees. If we cannot assure the local jurisdictions that they are going to get people whose health conditions are under control. and if they have some continuing health conditions that the Federal Government is not going to hear the burden on. then we are going to have some problems in those local jurisdictions. My State has 10 percent of the population of the United States. We have over 40 percent of all the refugees. It is not fair to ask communities in my area to bear the burden for initial health screening on individuals that the Federal Government has decided to allow here. We know the problem that exists in the refugee camps. the failure to do adequate screening there. This may. in a way. force us to do a better job of adequately screening those individuals in the camps before they come here. I do not want to stop them from coming.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees