Bradley / 2 Senator Catapang

S.W._____

A BILL
To provide aid and assistance to countries who have provided shelter to refugees from Syria.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Shelter and Relief Act of 2016.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Lebanon has sheltered 1.5 million Syrian refugees, which accounts to one-third of its population.
2) There are 400,000 Syrian school-age children in Lebanon and only a fourth of these children attended

school in 2014.
3) In areas hosting Syrian communities, there is a 40% in water demand, a 30% increase in youth
unemployment and a 300% rise in rents.
4) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that there are more than 4.1 million
Syrian refugees and of those, more than 1 million are sheltered in Lebanon and more than 2 million live in
Turkey.
5) 85% of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon live in areas in which about 70% of the Lebanese living there were
living on $4 a day.
6) Jordans debt has almost doubled from $18.9 billion in 2011,when the Syrian refugee crisis began, to
$35.2 billion in 2016
7) The national debt of Lebanon is nearing 140 percent of its GDP, in which it has the highest in the region.
8) 97% of refugees in Iraq reside in Kurdistan and in order to accommodate them the Kurdistan Regional
Government has provided almost $70 million in funds.
9) Syrian refugee students had a dropout rate of 70% in 2011-2012 in Lebanon.
10) Jordan has spent $81.4 million enrolling 78,531 Syrian children in public schools during 2013.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Shelter and Relief Act of 2016 shall provide aid and assistance to countries who have provided shelter to
refugees from Syria. A Syrian refugee shall be defined as a person who has fled Syria on account of the civil war
forcing them out of their home. Countries who have sheltered at least 100,000 refugees in its own borders and have a
GDP of less than 1 trillion USD shall be eligible for aid. Countries who have been ruled eligible aid by the U.S.
Department of State shall also be eligible for aid. For every 100,000 refugees sheltered, the U.S. shall provide 5
million USD to the country. Aid shall be distributed in each district housing refugees in each respective country. Aid
shall be used for the improvement of the lives of Syrian refugees, including but not limited to the expansion of
sleeping accommodations, the creation of health centers, the establishment of schools and the facilitation of aiding
refugees into the country in question.
B) This law shall be administered by the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources as well as the U.S. Department
of State. The funding is hereby set at $500,000,000 which shall be allocated by increasing income tax by 1.5%.
C) The Shelter and Relief Act of 2016 shall be enacted on January 1, 2017