Washington Update
September 2004

With Fiscal Year 2005 Fast Approaching, Spending Bills Not Completed
By Lynette Engelhardt Stott, LIRS Director for Government Relations

The beginning of fiscal year 2005 (FY05) is looming—October 1, 2004, but progress on the annual spending bills has been slow. Congress has only sent one of the thirteen regular appropriation bills to the president. The House has cleared 10 bills, but the Senate has passed only the Defense bill. Both houses are expected to resume their work on the 12 remaining appropriation bills when Congress returns from its August recess September 7. It now appears that many of the Senate bills will be packaged together and brought to the floor as an omnibus bill.

With the elections on everyone’s mind, and members itching to campaign, it is very likely that Congress will pass a stop-gap spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, to continue federal spending into the new fiscal year. Congress would then return to D.C. after the elections and complete the spending bills in a lame duck session.

The House has approved a Foreign Operations bill that provides $26 million more for the Migration and Refugee Assistance account than President Bush’s request, but falls $171 million short of the level supported by LIRS, other members of Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) and members of the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus. We are deeply concerned about the House funding level. The per-capita cost of resettling refugees in the United States has increased, and overseas assistance and protection needs are still great. If funding is not increased above this level, admissions and overseas assistance will likely have to be cut next year. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet taken up its version of the bill.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved a Labor/Health and Human Services funding bill. It provides $491 million for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. This is $18 million more than the president asked for, but $159 million less than RCUSA’s recommendation. Again, we are concerned with this funding level.

On a positive note, refugee resettlement in the United States is finally on an upswing. As of the end of July the United States had admitted 35,890 refugees for resettlement. Of this total LIRS resettled 5,926. The State Department continues to say it is on track to resettle 50,000 refugees by the end of the fiscal year, September 30. While still far short of the presidential determination level of 70,000, this year’s resettlement numbers are already a marked improvement over the two previous fiscal years’—27,110 in 2002 and 28,422 in 2003.

In addition to our advocacy on FY05 funding for refugees, LIRS and other members of Refugee Council USA are now focusing attention on funding for FY06. LIRS and other RCUSA members sent a letter to President Bush (view letter) on July 28 urging him to provide sufficient funding in his FY06 budget proposal to Congress to resettle 90,000 refugees and to increase overseas refugee assistance and protection.

Read past Washington Updates.