Speech #980137691

Speaker. I welcome this opportunity to join with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in urging favorable consideration. and therefore. House action on H.R. 3729. the Refugee Assistance Extension Act of 1983. This legislation truly does attempt to address a persistent problem that has characterized U.S. refugee resettlement efforts in recent years. and that is the problem of unacceptable high levels of welfare dependency. My own State of California. the destination of over onethird of all Indochinese refugees. unfortunately experiences an 80 to 84 percent dependency rate among those refugees in the United States 3 years or less. This astonishing record of turning survivors imbued with the work ethic into persons seemingly totally dependent on Federal assistance programs must be changed. both in the interest of the refugees themselves and the American taxpayer. Eugene Douglas. U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs. described the problem facing us thusly: In the absence of a broadly accepted revitalized sense of sponsorship. the refugees are moving more and more into the orbit of entitlement programs under state management. To us. this represents a regression in the traditional idea of refugee sponsorship which is unaccepted to this administration. and to most of the American people as well. We are committed to returning the principal responsibility for resettlement of refugees to the private sector. albeit with adequate Federal assistance in the early stages. H.R. 3729. by placing greater reliance on the private sector. hopefully will break the nexus between refugee assistance and welfare. During our full committee markup. the Judiciary Committee adopted an amendment I offered specifying that grants and contracts entered into or renewed after a 6month grace period shall require the resettlement agencies to be responsible for meeting "the basic needs for food. clothing. and shelter. and for transportation for job interviews and training" for the first 90 days refugees are in the United States. The amendment anticipates an adjustment in the level of reception and placement grantsgrants that help underwrite resettlement activities. Mr. Speaker. our experience in recent years clearly demonstrates that public assistance does not work as an effective machanism for providing temporary transitional assistance to refugees. but rather it initiates a dependency cycle. I believe it is time to take an important first step toward returning the responsibility for refugee resettlement to the private sector. We came to this point. Mr. Speaker. not by intention. As a matter of fact. the reason that we have this nexus between the refugees and the welfare system is a conscious decision on our part in the past not to duplicate the already existing systems for providing such assistance as needed by the refugees. We made the decision that we would not duplicate those efforts with the duplication of expenses. Unfortunately. what occurred is that when the refugees reached this country with all good hopes and intentions of truly becoming fully participating members of this society. the very first thing they are shown in a major way is the welfare office. They are taken there because that is the mechanism by which they receive the assistance to which they are entitled. Of course. once they are there. the social workers sincerely believe it is their obligation to inform them of the panoply of welfare assistance that they might receive.