Speech #1000149423

I felt compelled to sponsor legislation to do something about it. My reasons for opposing Senator INOUYEs provision were summed up in a recent editorial in Washington Jewish Week: It is inappropriate for U.S. taxpayers to support such projects out of the public treasury. As the State Department pointed out. the North African Jews in question have lived in France for decades. they are not refugees. And it is certainly not the business of the United States to aid the citizeny of a prosperous. developed nation like France. Accordingly to the State Department. U.S. refugee assistance does not go. and has not gone. to construct or support a private religious school. It is all the more disturbing that the $8 million would not only go for religious schools. but religious schools in the 10th wealthiest nation of the world. France. Our Constitution does not allow Federal funding to construct religious schools in the United States. French law does not allow their Government to build religious schools in France. Furthermore. the United Nations does not clasrify the north African Jewish refugees in France as refugees. Nor does France. Nor does the United States.