III 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 268 

Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. MARKEY, Mrs. BOXER, Ms. STABENOW, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. UDALL, and 

Mr. MURPHY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the Syrian 

refugee crisis. 

Whereas the Syrian conflict has driven more than 7,500,000 

Syrians to relocate within Syria, more than 4,000,000 

Syrians to flee as refugees to neighboring countries, and 

hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek asylum in Europe; 

Whereas Syria’s neighbors are on the front line of the crisis, 

and Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon in particular are currently hosting millions of refugees, resulting in tremendous social and economic impacts; 

Whereas Europe is facing its worst refugee crisis since World 

War II; 


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•SRES 268 IS 

Whereas members of the international community have a 

moral responsibility to provide assistance to Syrian refugees, as well as a national security interest in addressing 

both the insecurity that is driving Syrians from their 

homes and the spillover effects from that conflict; 

Whereas all members of the international community, including regional powers, should contribute substantially to 

the humanitarian effort so as to avoid shortfalls like 

those experienced by the World Food Programme, which 

has been forced to reduce its assistance to refugees; 

Whereas the European Union has agreed to resettle 120,000 

of the refugees who have reached frontline European nations—an important first step in implementing a comprehensive European refugee policy; 

Whereas the Governments of Germany and Sweden, among 

others, have shown great generosity towards Syrian refugees; 

Whereas the United States Government remains the largest 

contributor to the humanitarian effort in Syria; 

Whereas the United States Government will accept at least 

10,000 Syrian refugees next year, marking a significant 

increase from the approximately 1,500 admitted since the 

conflict began; and 

Whereas the United States Government should continue to 

rigorously employ its existing robust and thorough 

screening process for refugees to effectively mitigate any 

potential security threats: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes the scale and complexity of the 

3 Syrian refugee crisis and the need for the interVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Sep 24, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR268.IS SR268

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•SRES 268 IS 

1 national community to work together to provide re2 sources and capacity to aid refugees; 

3 (2) recognizes the generosity and humanitarian 

4 commitment of Syria’s neighbors who have worked 

5 to absorb the vast majority of refugees, as well as 

6 the European nations who have made commitments 

7 to share in the refugee resettlement effort; 

8 (3) welcomes the President’s decision to admit 

9 at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016, and to in10 crease the overall number of refugees received by the 

11 United States to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 

12 2017, as an important continuation of United States 

13 humanitarian efforts; and 

14 (4) recognizes that the refugee crisis is a symp15 tom of the broader conflict in Syria, the persecution 

16 of persons based on identity groups, including Chris17 tians, Yezidis, Turkmen, and Kurds, and instability 

18 in the Middle East and North Africa, and that ef19 forts to resolve those challenges are a necessary 

20 component of any plan to address the refugee crisis. 

Æ 


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