Topeka ? Kansas communities could ban refugees for a year under a bill approved by a state House committee.

Supporters say the bill addresses concerns about state control of refugees settling in the state, while opponents contend the bill is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The bill approved Thursday by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee would allow local governments to seek a one-year moratorium of refugee resettlements if the community doesn’t have the capacity to handle the influx. It also would create a state office for refugees and authorize Gov. Sam Brownback to name a state refugee coordinator, The Wichita Eagle reported.

At least one committee member said the bill is un-Christian. Rep. Don Hineman, R-Dighton, said communities could moratoriums to try to keep out certain refugees.

Hineman said his faith exhorts him “to welcome the stranger with kindness, compassion and Christian love.”

Rep. Brett Hildabrand, R-Shawnee, voted for the bill, while saying his faith also requires him to be compassionate toward refugees. If the bill banned refugees or members of an entire religion, he said, “I would be 100 percent against it. That’s not what this bill does.”

The measure also allows the governor to direct the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to investigate crimes by or against refugees. The state refugee office and coordinator would keep data from the federal government and meet quarterly with local governments.

The bill would coordinate local and state governments with the federal government’s work to resettle refugees, while providing a method for state government to oversee the process, said Rep. Joe Scapa, R-Wichita.

“This is not a ban on refugees,” Scapa said. “This is a common-sense way to help us see that the federal regulations are being abided by. This is a bill that allows us to have some control.”

The Refugee Act of 1980 gives only the federal government authority to manage refugee resettlement and federal courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court — have backed that law.

Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said in a written statement the bill is discriminatory because it could deny public services to people based of who they are and where they come from.

Kubic said the House should reject “this legally problematic, unconstitutional, discriminatory and hateful bill.”

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, R-Overland Park, told committee members they should defeat the bill because the state can’t afford the estimated $1.4 million cost to implement it.

A map from the U.S. State Department says between 10,001 and 29,000 refugees arrived in Kansas between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2015.