Mr. Chairman. let me join with the gentleman from New Jersey in urging Members to vote for this particular amendment. What we are trying to do with this amendment is provide $12 million that was already allocated for refugee and migration assistance and make sure it goes for that particular purpose. to fund program expenses. not to fund salaries and not to fund administrative costs out of monies that should be spent for programming. The biggest problem we have sometimes in Congress is making sure that the money we allocate is spent the way it was meant to be spent as it came out of committee. What we would have here. with the way that the bill currently is drafted. is money going not for programs. when it is earmarked for programs. but to pay for salaries and expenses. It may even be spent on salaries and expenses for people who do not even work on refugee and migration assistance issues. It is $12 million. The State Department haa over $2.1 billion to pay for staff and administrative expenses already. This $12 million would be taken from the program accounts for refugee assistance and would do great damage to a program that is already underfunded to try to help the refugees throughout this world. There is no country that has been more generous when it comes to trying to help refugees in this entire world than the United States. We should not do it more harm by taking away $12 million to pay for things that do nothing to help the people that we are saying in the bill that we are going to try to do. The refugee assistance account needs the $12 million that would be cut so we can provide the assistance. We should not let a back door attempt to got money to pay for salaries and expenses be used to try to fund further State Department salaries. We should make sure that the monies go where they are supposed to go. program funding for programs. not for administrative salaries and expenses.
Keywords matched
refugees refugee