Speech #970191241

Chairman. yesterday during general debate I took about 15 minutes to discuss the reasons for which I rise in strong support of this bill. I will try not to repeat at length those statements. I would just suggest that this bill arises out of a recognition of the fact that the Federal Government has prime responsibility for refugee policy in this country. It is a combined humanitarian and foreign policy decision made by the Federal Government and I think made in most cases for the proper reasons. If we are to continue to have acceptance of the refugees in our communities around the country. however. it is absolutely essential that the Federal Government not shirk its responsibility for the costs incurred with respect to the initial settlement of these refugees. The refugees. although they come from all over the entire world. have primarily come from Southeast Asia over the last couple of years. Since they have come to us from a culture that is quite different from that they find here in the United States it has required a good amount of assistance in their initial resettlement. We have attempted over the past couple of years to create a comprehensive program to assure the local jurisdictions that they will not be unfairly taken advantage of by the Federal Government. The reason I say that is because we cannot assure that refugee resettlement will be evenly applied across the country. The best evidence of that fact is that my home State of California. which has 10 percent of the population of the United States. has currently about 200.000 or more Southeast Asian refugees who have come to our State in the last 5 or 6 years. That makes up approximately 40 percent of the entire refugee flow. In other words. it would be unfair to ask the citizens of my State to bear the costs incurred for initial resettlement when they have four times the number of Southeast Asian refugees percentagewise than they represent as a percentage of the overall U.S. population. Recognizing that fact. this administration has worked with the Congress to assure that there is 100 percent funding of those costs incurred as a direct result of this resettlement. We on the subcommittee have been very concerned about the fact that there has been a large percentage of Southeast Asian refugees who have remained on welfare rolls. In other words. they have become welfare dependents. This is now in the range of 70 percent.