S-2614.1  _______________________________________________

 

                         SENATE BILL 6094

          _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

 

By Senator Roach

 

Read first time 04/06/1999.  Referred to Committee on Human Services & Corrections.

Assisting Kosovar Albanian refugees.


    AN ACT Relating to temporary assistance to Kosovar Albanian refugees; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

    NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1.  (1) The legislature recognizes that thousands of Kosovar Albanian refugees have been displaced by Serbian nationalists.  As a result of this genocide, the United States in cooperation with NATO has begun a bombing campaign aimed at stopping the humanitarian crisis.  Due to Serbian expulsion, the current crisis in Kosovo has resulted in three hundred thousand displaced Kosovar Albanians.  Refugees have been pouring into neighboring countries at such excessive rates that some borders are closing and refugees have no place to go.  The United States State Department has begun screening Kosovar Albanians in refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia to bring approximately twenty thousand refugees to the United States.  In order that the state of Washington be prepared to handle the possible refugees to this state, it is the intent of the legislature that the state of Washington be financially prepared to accommodate these people.

    (2) The department of social and health services shall provide necessary temporary assistance to Kosovar Albanian refugees who are temporary residents of Washington state as a direct consequence of the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo.

    (3) The sum of two hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of this act.

 

    NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2.  If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 1999, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.

 


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