House hearing focuses on relocating displaced Iraqi refugees

The House Foreign Affairs Committee, Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, and the International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight Subcommittee held a joint hearing entitled, “No Direction Home: An NGO Perspective on Iraqi Refugees and IDP’s (internally displaced persons).” The hearing examined whether or not the United States should accept Iraqi refugees into our nation, or if we would instead be better off making IDP’s stay in Iraq to help with the nation’s rebuilding efforts.

The members of Congress responded in ways that often conflicted with one another at the hearing. Some congressmen, such as Chairman Gary Ackerman (D-NY), called the President’s response to relocating displaced Iraqi’s “pathetic,” saying that the United States should accept Iraqis searching for homes. Other members of Congress, like Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), felt that the Iraqi government should begin to take accountability for rebuilding their country, which should start with the people “above the bloodshed,” like the refugees.

Ackerman said that the problem of how to help displaced refugees is just at the “tip of the iceberg.” While the Bush Administration had targeted to resettle 12,000 Iraqi’s to the United States this year, only 2,627 had been admitted as of March 31, far short of the government’s, perhaps lofty, expectations.