Speech #990222585

President. when James N. Purcell. Jr. became Director for the Bureau of Refugee Programs in the Department of State in 1982. the United States refugee policy was in a state of flux. particularly in Southeast Asia. The mass exodus of Vietnamese boat people had slowed to a much more conservative pace. Cambodian refugees were continuing to migrate to the Thai border. and Laotian refugees were being imperiled further to the North. In addition. the world was seeing its refugee population growing by the millions as more human beings were being caught in the middle of tanks and warlords. The question facing the U.S. Government was a very simply and clear one: What was to be U.S. policy as we moved from a position of emergency management to one of planning and policy? If there is one person who can rightly claim credit for ongoing success story of the U.S. Refugee Program. it is Jim Purcell. I have had the pleasure of dealing with many representatives of the executive branch and among them I number Jim Purcell as one of the most capable. honest. and thoughtful I have come to know. We have had our differences to be sure. There have been hearings in the Appropriations Committee where I have taken him to task over the "carryover game" which the Department enjoys playing on refugee admissions numbers. And there have been phone calls from me to him which have been hotter than a Washington August. But at no time have I ever considered Jim Purcell to be anything but a straightshooter. an honest man. and an individual whom I could trust and take for his word. So today the Department of State finds itself without its chief architect of its refugee policy. Jim Purcell has emerged from his 4 tumultuous years as refugees policy director or worldwide programs with a functioning program and a wake of resettled refugees who to this day do not know Jim Purcells role in their benefaction. Jim Purcell zealously guarded the Refugee Act and its implementation because he knew what was in the best interests of those individuals fleeing persecution and torture and hopelessness. His commitment was patriotic in one sense. and spiritual in another. He saw his leadership role as a responsibility and as a gift from God. and he was a careful steward of this gift. I ask unanimous consent that an article written by his wife. Jean. be reprinted in the RECORD following my statement. an article which portrays Jim and Jeans personal commitment to the lessening of human suffering in the thousands of refugee camps in the world. I look forward to Jonathan Moores arrival at the Department of State and urge him to follow closely the neat footsteps of Jim Purcell. In Jim Purcell he will find a model representative and a visionary of refugee policy. The Senate will miss his counsel and companionship as it presses ahead in the continuation of a humane. generous refugee policy. I am glad for the opportunity to join Senators SIMPSON and KENNEDY in paying tribute to this fine American.