Arkansas lawmakers on a split vote approved an amended Department of Human Services appropriations bill Thursday and promised continued discussion about the state’s involvement in a federal refugee resettlement program.
The Joint Budget Committee advanced an amended version of House Bill 1077 that changed some appropriations for DHS’ Division of County Operations, but the refugee program’s appropriation remained at $272,846.
Van Buren Republican Rep. Ryan Rose said his qualms about DHS issuing a $65,000 subgrant to the state’s social services designee for the refugee program, Canopy Northwest Arkansas, shouldn’t “torpedo” the Division of County Operations’ budget.
{snip}
Rose said after this contract ends, the Legislature should not send more money to the nonprofit organization.
“For a number of us, the challenge is we have significant concerns with the funding going to an organization that has the reputation that it does in this arena and that the only security we have on these individuals who come into our state is that they’re federally vetted,” Rose said. “That’s the only kind of outlier there is, hey, we should feel comfortable because they’re federally vetted, which doesn’t give me any comfort.”
{snip}
Rose told the Advocate concerns have been voiced by legislators and local residents about the impact of refugee resettlement and the transparency of organizations involved, such as Canopy NWA, which has resettled hundreds of refugees.
“This has raised questions about potential strains on resources, infrastructure and social services in our state,” Rose said. “Additionally, there are concerns about the ideological alignment of organizations like Canopy NWA with the values and priorities of our communities.”
{snip}
The post Arkansas Lawmakers Question Implementation of Federal Refugee Resettlement Program appeared first on American Renaissance.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Henry Wolff
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.amren.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.