The bill’s sponsor said he intended to target people in the country illegally, not refugees. (Dana Wormald | New Hampshire Bulletin)
House lawmakers voted Wednesday against recommending their peers take another pass at a bill that would have jeopardized federal funding for refugees. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jess Edwards, an Auburn Republican, said Wednesday that was the right call.
His bill, which he said did not reflect his intent, was sent to interim study by the House earlier this year. Wednesday, that study committee voted, 14-1, to recommend the bill be abandoned next session. The lone no vote came from Rep. Seth King, a Whitefield Republican.
“They can kill it,” Edwards said in a message ahead of Wednesday’s study committee vote. “(The full House was) polite not to have (voted it down). I wrote it wrong.”
Edwards said he intended to target people in the country illegally, not refugees, who have been cleared by federal authorities to live in the United States. The legislation, House Bill 1347, would have required the state to withhold federal funding for refugees until certain needs of United States citizens, such as housing and food, had been fulfilled.
“I wanted to be able to tell my constituents that I cared about protecting taxpayer money to ensure that our citizens get first priority for the services they are paying for,” Edwards told a House committee when he introduced the bill in February. “And that those that entered the nation illegally are not first in line.”
Lawmakers won’t return to the Legislature until January, but it’s already clear that immigration will be on the agenda again next year. Rep. Joe Sweeney, a Salem Republican, has indicated he will propose the state create a task force to tackle illegal immigration, according to a request he’s filed with the legislative office that drafts bills.
The proposed bill won’t be available until later this year.