David Obey: “I think everyone on this floor is concerned about decent treatment of refugees. However, I do want to suggest that there…”

“I think everyone on this floor is concerned about decent treatment of refugees. However, I do want to suggest that there is a certain aspect to this amendment that bothers me, because what it in essence is saying is, ``Look, let us take in every possible refugee.'' But when it comes to actually paying for the administration of those programs, they expect somebody else to perform a magic loaves and fishes miracle in order to produce the resources to run those programs in an efficient way. In the real world, things do not work like that. It just seems to me that whether we are asking the State Department to perform miracles with no resources, or whether in fact we are asking local communities who we have largely abandoned to take refugees without having the Federal Government meet its fair share of the cost for retraining and educating and resettling those refugees so that the full burden does not fall on local taxpayers, we have the same sort of unreality here. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I understand that the gentleman is going to accept the amendment. I understand why. However, that does not mean that this amendment does not have significant problems, both in equity and in practicality.”