04/12/2018 03:15 PM House STATE AFFAIRS

              HJR 30-URGE U.S. SUPPORT OF REFUGEES                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
3:30:09 PM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
VICE  CHAIR LEDOUX  announced  that the  next  order of  business                                                               
would  be CS  FOR  SENATE  BILL NO.  196(FIN)(efd  fld), "An  Act                                                               
relating to  an appropriation limit;  and relating to  the budget                                                               
responsibilities of the governor."                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
VICE CHAIR LEDOUX opened public testimony on HJR 30.                                                                            
                                                                                                                                
3:30:46 PM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
GABBY  WEISS, Student,  Colony  Middle  School, paraphrased  from                                                               
written testimony,  which read  as follows  [original punctuation                                                               
provided]:                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
         Good morning, my name is Gabby Weiss and I am                                                                          
     from Palmer, Alaska. I have come here today to explain                                                                     
     the importance of House Joint Resolution No. 30 and to                                                                     
     urge all the committee members to help make this                                                                           
     resolution a reality.                                                                                                      
          First off, a brief recap of the magnitude of the                                                                      
     refugee crisis and refugees in general. According to                                                                       
     the Oxford Dictionary, a refugee is defined as "a                                                                          
     person who has been forced to leave their country in                                                                       
     order to escape war, persecution, or natural                                                                               
     disaster." That is all a refugee is. Just from the                                                                         
     definition, it is known that the term refugee means a                                                                      
     person, someone who is as human as you and me, who is                                                                      
     fleeing their country because it isn't safe. I think                                                                       
     that sometimes we people get caught up on the labels.                                                                      
     Because we are referring to the people who are fleeing                                                                     
     from violence as this new population, the "refugees,"                                                                      
     there is this barrier that is put up that makes us                                                                         
     humans feel like we are somehow very different from                                                                        
     each other.                                                                                                                
          It very intangible for us to grasp what refugees                                                                      
     are going through because right now, we are inside,                                                                        
     dry and warm, fed and watered, safe and sound, but                                                                         
     there are men, women, and children, who are fleeing                                                                        
     from war, persecution, or natural disaster...right                                                                         
     now. And it isn't like it is just hundreds of people,                                                                      
     or thousand of people, and it's not even just a                                                                            
     million people. No, according to the United Nations                                                                        
     High Commissioner for Refugees, it is 22.5 million                                                                         
     people, women, men and children, fleeing for their                                                                         
     safety. That means that if you take the population of                                                                      
     Alaska and multiply it by 30, that number is still                                                                         
     less than all the refugees in the world. And guess how                                                                     
     many of that number of refugees are children. Is it a                                                                      
     10th, a 5th or a 3rd? No! More than one half of those                                                                      
     22.5 million people are children, under the age of 18.                                                                     
     They didn't choose to be born into an unsafe area.                                                                       
                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
3:31:38 PM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
MS. WEISS continued to paraphrase and read portions of her                                                                      
written testimony, which read as follows [original                                                                              
punctuation provided]:                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
         That is a huge number of people facing adversity                                                                       
     and trauma, but even though you can't help everyone,                                                                       
     you can still make a difference! If the United States                                                                      
     uses its leadership to start encouraging other                                                                             
     countries to take in refugees, as well as tries to                                                                         
     prevent and help out in the events that create                                                                             
     refugees, imagine how many lives you could improve.                                                                        
         Also, the United States can benefit from taking in                                                                     
     refugees itself. In fact, the National Bureau of                                                                           
     Economic Research explains, an adult refugee will                                                                          
     generally pay 21,000 dollars more in taxes than they                                                                       
     will receive in benefits in their first 20 years in                                                                        
     the United States.                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
 3:32:07 PM                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
 MS. WEISS continued to paraphrase her written testimony,                                                                       
 which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
          A thought stopping Americans from welcoming                                                                           
     refugees is the idea that refugees may be terrorists.                                                                      
     However, a terrorist would not chose to come to the US                                                                     
     through the refugee resettling process. The accepting                                                                      
     process of refugees includes in depth vetting and                                                                          
     according to the US Department of State, it can take                                                                       
     up to 24 months. In addition, as of 2015, expert                                                                           
     Kathleen Newland from the Migration Policy Institute                                                                       
     said, "The United States has resettled 784,000                                                                             
     refugees since September 11, 2001. In those 14 years,                                                                      
     exactly three resettled refugees have been arrested                                                                        
     for planning terrorist activitiesand it is worth                                                                           
     noting two were not planning an attack in the United                                                                       
     States and the plans of the third were barely                                                                              
     credible."                                                                                                                 
         The last reason why we should help is because                                                                          
     these people, these refugees, need our help. The                                                                           
     refugee crisis has created horrible situations for all                                                                     
     refugees. Families become split apart and lives get                                                                        
     put on hold. According to United Nations High                                                                              
     Commissioner for Refugees, there are 3.5 million                                                                           
     refugee children who should be in school, but aren't.                                                                      
     Also, rates sometimes as high as 86% project post                                                                          
     traumatic stress disorder in refugees according to the                                                                     
     US Department of Veterans Affairs. Lastly, according                                                                       
     to the Mercy Corps Organization, one half of Syria's                                                                       
     population before the war, that is 11 million plus                                                                         
     people, have been killed or forced to abandon their                                                                        
     homes due to the Syrian conflict.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
 3:32:46 PM                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
 MS. WEISS continued to paraphrase her written testimony,                                                                       
 which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
         Because we are the lucky ones who get to have                                                                          
     meetings, and eat lunch, and read the newspaper, and                                                                       
     spend time with our friends and families, we need to                                                                       
     take it upon ourselves to care and support the other                                                                       
     humans who aren't as lucky as us. This is so important                                                                     
     to me because if I was fleeing for my safety, I would                                                                      
     want someone to help me. To conclude, I am asking all                                                                      
     the committee members to please vote for House Joint                                                                       
     Resolution No. 30. Thank you so much for your time.                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
3:33:18 PM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE   BIRCH  (audio   difficulties)  asked   that  her                                                               
testimony be emailed.                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
MS. WEISS  reiterated that  she attends  Colony Middle  School in                                                               
Palmer, Alaska.                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                
VICE CHAIR LEDOUX provided the  e-mail address for the committee:                                                               
hsta@akleg.gov.  She said it  was great to have students involved                                                               
in the legislative process.                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
3:34:28 PM                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON  thanked Ms.  Weiss for  calling in.   She                                                               
thanked her for all of the work she has done on HJR 30.                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
VICE  CHAIR LEDOUX,  after  first determining  no  one wished  to                                                               
testify, closed public testimony on HJR 30.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
VICE CHAIR LEDOUX announced HJR 30 would be held over.