Speech #990031774

Mr. Chairman. the United Nations and the United States have one thing that we do that is very important and not discussed often in this body. There are thousands of refugees all around the world. In Pakistan. in Southeast Asia. in Africa. in Central America. Those refugees are driven out of countries for various reasons of war. famine. hunger. whatever. They are then In other countries and are most often in refugee camps. Those camps are supervised by the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees. The High Commissioner really supervises a lot of voluntary agencies who are granted money under his supervision to perform various necessary social services and to prepare the camps and make sure that they are healthy. and so on and so forth. while the various countries of the world decide. if they are to decide. what to do about those refugeesif they are to return home. or perhaps to be placed. as they are in some cases. in our country or settled in another country. It Is a very important humanitarian function. This bill embodies the authorization for moneys that the United States donates. contributes. gives from time to time to the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees as our part of that assistance to take care of refugees in the world. In my role as a member of the House Immigration. Refugee. and International Law Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary. I have spent a lot of time Involved with the various camps around the world. and I am concerned that there is no easy audit trail of what happens to our moneys or how they are spent in the process. So the amendments I have offered today are very simple.