Civic Register
| 8.31.21
U.S. Increases Funding for Resettling Americans Evacuated From Afghanistan
How do you feel about increased funding for resettling Americans evacuated from Afghanistan?
What’s the story?
- The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation increasing funding for the resettlement of American citizens repatriated from Afghanistan ― a rare instance of legislative business occurring during a pro forma session while senators are back in their states.
- The bill, known as the Emergency Repatriation Assistance for Returning Americans Act, would increase funding at the State Dept. for resettling Americans who were living overseas from $1 million to $10 million for the current fiscal year 2021 and the upcoming fiscal year 2022. Roughly 6,000 American civilians were evacuated from Afghanistan and about 100 to 200 were left in the country at the conclusion of the U.S. evacuation.
- The legislation cleared the House by unanimous consent at the end of the chamber’s two-day work period a week ago. The Senate had previously scheduled a pro forma session for Tuesday given that senators aren’t scheduled to be in D.C. for floor business until Monday, September 13th. However, that doesn’t preclude business transpiring if there’s unanimous consent for it to occur.
- The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate gained unanimous consent by running it through the "hotline" ― which is essentially a process of letting senators know about the request to pass the bill unanimously and ensuring there aren’t objections to it moving forward.
- With unanimous consent for the bill’s passage in hand, the Senate had to scramble to find an additional senator to preside over the pro forma session. When no other senators were found, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) ― who had been slated to preside over the gavelling-in and gavelling-out of the pro forma ― made the request on the floor with Vice President Kamala Harris presiding. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law later in the day on Tuesday.
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Kabul Evac: U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Donald Allen / Public Domain | Capitol: iStock.com / Robert Arango Lopez)
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Yep please do it
It’s us good people who know that inviting new people to our old tired town, it’s a living breathing town!! Unfortunately we have a few old stubborn dinosaurs that are hanging up progress. The town, out of love for her, let her live and breathe again!! 27822
We cannot afford this we dont have enough money for our own funding we are not the damn UN
Check out the new docuseries, “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror” on Netflix. It is an expansive and detailed historical study about HOW & WHY we got to 9/11, with an almost complete history of WHEN & WHY Afghanistan became a focal point for the American government and the American people. This 5 episode series explains so much and in such detail, afterwards you’ll know EXACTLY WHY we left Afghanistan, and WHY we should have left much sooner than August of 2021! It’s ALL there. And it’s ALL the TRUTH! The main idea I got out of it is this: Never go to war without a clear exit strategy that leaves the invaded country better than you found it. NOT doing so will be catastrophic!
Why is the federal government spending money to repatriate Americans back in the United States from Afghanistan? Since being there they have received unbelievable wages for being in a war zone. When I came home from Vietnam as other soldiers did we got government travel to the United States and travel pay from Seattle to our next duty station in the United States. I am pretty sure that the soldiers in the last twenty years going to and coming back to the states got essentially the same pay coming home. The American that worked in Afghanistan should get about the same and they should get priority points on federal government job applications. I think I got 10 points.
Make them welcome here. We need the help.
We have so many homeless people in our country now. How much are you giving them to resettle? How are you helping Americans with the rising costs of everything? Stop putting people who are not citizens before the American people.
Cheaper than continuing this war.
This was supposed to happen for those who were in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program to allow Afghans and Iraqis who served alongside U.S. forces as interpreters or contractors to receive permanent U.S. resident status. This also extends to their spouse and unmarried children under 21. We don't know who the 'others' are. Not vetted and probably won't be with the democrats in control. They want all the bad people too!! A vote is just a vote to the democrats, any way they can get them!
The question asked was whether or not we approve of a done deal. But we don't know exactly what the deal is or whom we are talking about. Money for resettling Americans evacuated from Afghanistan. That is not the same as money for relocating the Afghans with SIVs that were evacuated. What does resettling mean? The airlift? Temporary quarters? Meals? What were these Americans doing in Afghanistan? Working in the embassy? Running import/export businesses? Running an Italian pizzeria restaurant in Kabul? What? Why would anyone give up their homes in the USA to work in Afghanistan without a well-thought-out plan to return. I don't understand.
Give Afghanistan the money that they’re supposed to get.
yes
Cheaper than the war and they will help the country as well.
It is a great idea
Emergency Repatriation Assistance for Returning Americans Act. I’m confused. Are these American citizens who chose to live in Afghanistan; whose job required the move? The government has been known to provide better assistance for those coming from outside than inside our country. We have hurricane damage with complete loss. Will these citizens receive the same level of assistance; they lost everything too. Can our country afford to help ALL its citizens or will there be a few privileged who get more? Are we giving them land? Building homes for them while we’ve had homeless for decades? Paying rent and living expenses? Will we have oversight committees to ensure funds are spent Expedientially?
We owe it to those who risked everything to help us in an undertaking that never should have been. The US has the money. Use it for good for once rather than lining the pockets of those here who have more than they will ever need or use. Make us into the country we claim to be.
We need to do whatever is necessary to support the resettlement of these Afgans that supported us in Afganistan.
They helped us, we will help them!
How can anyone not vote YES?
The Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to healthcare, and effectively overturned Roe v Wade, by doing nothing. Using the shadow docket, Justice Alito allowed a draconian, dystopian misogynistic law to rob Texans of a basic constitutional right: bodily autonomy. The Texas law bans abortion when a heartbeat is detected, after about six weeks, long before most people know they’re pregnant, and establishes a truly dangerous bounty system that allows private citizens to sue anybody involved in procuring an abortion and rewards them with $10,000 and attorneys fees. There are no exceptions for rape or incest and the law will have little impact on the wealthy, who can simply fly to freer places. As always, this law will not stop abortions, it will only stop safe abortions. This bounty system will choke the courts and drown abortion providers in lawsuits, which is the real point. If you thought evangelical churches were good at getting out the vote, wait until you see what havoc they wreak with this (preview). The bounties are nothing short of dystopian, more reminiscent of the morality police in Iran or the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. When paired with our politically divided country and Texas’s new unlicensed open carry law that also took effect today, it’s a recipe for violence, which has already plagued abortion providers. Now their supporters feel like they have a license to hunt (which is not what the law says) and also happen to believe God is on their side. What could possibly go wrong? It’s tempting to say that they learned nothing from the violence on January 6th, but that assumes that the lesson would be peaceful. They learned a different lesson. The Constitution was subverted with judicial inaction. That’s how broken our courts are. AS