Speech #1000080185

While I intend to speak at greater length when the bill itself is considered. I do think it is important to state my opposition to the rule because the underlying legislation. H.R. 618. is at best unnecessary and redundant. and at worst irresponsibly costly and undermines the bill that we just passed last year. as well as the Refugee Act of 1980. Specifically. the GAO report that we are requesting here would cost between $500.000 and $750.000 to determine what in May the GAO has already determined to be undeterminable. Specifically. they determined that they cannot determine exactly what the conditions of these displaced Salvadorans and Nicaraguans is. To spend another onehalf of a million to threequarters of a million dollars to determine that which is undeterminable. which I suspect means that we will come back with another undetermined. after spending this money. is irresponsible and I think ridiculous. The second aspect of this bill. though. is the fact. and I think this is a significant aspect. is that it undermines the legislation that we did pass last year that was intended to be a comprehensive approach to dealing with refugees. EVD would exempt Salvadorans and Nicaraguans from the new immigration reform bill that just passed last year. It also. as I mentioned. undermines the Refugee Act of 1980. The Refugee Act of 1980 already allows all aliens who have a wellfounded fear of persecution. based on race. religion. nationality. membership in a particular social group. or political opinion. an avenue to become political refugees. In essence. what we are arguing here is that civil strife makes a country eligible for this EVD. that is all you can really argue. because if that were not the case. one could go under the Refugee Act of 1980. I think it is significant. in closing.that every single Republican in the Judiciary Committee opposed this legislation. as did the ranking member of the subcommittee under whose jurisdiction this legislation was considered. For those. reasons.