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Senate Committee: No to Refugee Moratorium

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas testifying in favor of the Moratorium Bill last week.
Sam Evans-Brown
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas testifying in favor of the Moratorium Bill last week.

 

A senate committee has voted to send a bill that would allow communities to ask for a one year moratorium on refugee resettlement for further study.

The committee voted 3-1 to refer the bill to interim study, with Senator David Boutin from Hooksett dissenting. That vote is a polite way of asking the full senate to let the measure die quietly.

Committee Chair Senator Jack Barnes says he doesn’t think the state legislature has the authority to pass this bill.

"It’s very simple, I think it’s a federal issue," Barnes says, "This is not a state issue, in my opinion it doesn’t belong in Concord."

Barnes says he is concerned about the lack of communication between groups that resettle refugees and Manchester officials. That failure to communicate is one reason Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas asked for a moratorium last July.

The measure passed the house earlier this year by nearly a two-to-one margin.

 

 

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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