I yield myself such time as I may consume. We are about to embark upon 10 minutes of actionpacked debate on a very important issue. The amendment I offer today seeks to provide for fair distribution of targeted refugee assistance. The Targeted Refugee Assistance Program (TRAP] provides aid to counties with high concentrations of refugees that suffer from high welfare dependency rates. This Federal assistance is needed to help those refugees achieve economic independence. Congress appropriates nearly $50 million annually for this program. However. currently over 40 percent of this aid goes to just one county with only about 7 percent of all those eligible refugees. This concentration of resources means that every other participating county nationwide must pick up the added cost of training refugees to get them into the work force or providing them social services. Mr. Chairman. the existing earmark dates back over a decade and was intended to ease the resettlement of refugees who arrived in 1980. Advocates of the current distribution may argue that certain areas of the country are dealing with communities that remain especially difficult to make self sufficient. But the parameters of the TRAP program set this as a requirement for every county that participates. The regulations governing the award of assistance state that the services funded are required to focus primarily on those refugees who. and I quote. "because of their protracted use of public assistance or difficulty in securing employment continue to need services beyond the I.nitial years of resettlement." Mr. Chairman. no qualifying county. regardless of the community served. can claim to be more deserving of this aid than any other county in the Nation. My amendment would maintain the existing 10 percent discretionary setaside for counties that are heavily impacted by refugees but do not otherwise qualify for formula TRAP assistance. Apart for this. aid would have to be distributed on an equal perrefugee basis. Let me say that again. Under this amendment. aid would have to be distributed on a perrefugee basis. This amendment requires the Federal Government to pay for its refugee policy. It recognizes that all counties with significant refugee populations deserved equal assistance In helping them become selfsufficient. Failure to enact a fair formula for distribution of TRAP aid is tantamount to another unfunded mandate on State and local governments. I am going to urge my colleagues to support this.
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refugees Refugee refugee