If Continuing Budget Resolution (as is) extends to late March, ORR will run out of money

HHS anticipates that it would run out of funding under the CR for these activities in February 2017

(Leaked document)

That is what the Administration is telling House and Senate Appropriations Committees according to language leaked from an Administration request to Congress.
It is no surprise as we have been reporting this morning here, that the Unaccompanied Alien Children are literally depleting the budget by the day.

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Calling Donald Trump! Keep your eye on the Republican leadership, they could tie your hands now by appropriating the extra MILLIONS Obama wants for refugees/illegal alien kids in the CR for 2017.

We reported this too many times to repeat: since Congress never finished the budget for FY2017 (that began on October 1, 2016) and extended last year’s budget to December 9th, they need to either complete a whole year budget next week, or they can pass another Continuing Resolution (at the 2016 level) to March which gives the incoming Trump Administration some say over what the government will spend in the second six months of the fiscal year.
They can’t run this program without a lot of money….
And, if they don’t get more of it, if they have a  budget shortfall, there is no way the Obama Administration can keep pouring refugees in to the US at the rate it has for the last 2 months.  Therefore, they also won’t be able to open all of  those new offices they are trying to get open in 47 new locations.  (Unless Congress appropriates the money in the Continuing Resolution expected on the floor by December 8th!)

We know for sure that the Obama Dept. of Health and Human Services is begging for bucks from Congress right now in the Continuing Resolution.

Here is some language that has apparently ‘gotten loose’ in Washington.  The big question is whether the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees will be inclined to do Obama’s bidding! Why should they?
 

Language is needed to provide a rate for operations of $3,874 million for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Refugee and Entrant Assistance account and to authorize additional transfers of funding from other HHS accounts to the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account, in the event caseloads are higher than anticipated. To support the Administration’s refugee admissions target as well as high projected flows of other humanitarian entrants, an annualized rate of $1,051 million is needed to cover cash and medical expenses and social services for these populations. In addition, HHS is experiencing the highest number of unaccompanied children in care and the largest footprint of funded capacity in the program’s history, and flows of unaccompanied children have continued to grow over the last months; an annualized rate of $2,823 million is needed for HHS to meet its legal obligations to shelter and care for unaccompanied children referred to HHS. Given current shelter needs and flows of unaccompanied children, without this anomaly, HHS anticipates that it would run out of funding under the CR for these activities in February 2017. At a minimum, HHS anticipates needing an additional $500 million above the current CR rate during the period of the CR through March 31, 2017, $430 million for the unaccompanied children program and $70 million for refugee and humanitarian entrant programs, as well as additional transfer authority to protect against higher than expected costs.

Consider this:
First, this administration is making sure (at this very minute) that “caseloads are higher than anticipated.”
Second, the Obama Administration has encouraged the great flow of “unaccompanied children” and now they whine they don’t have the money to care for them.
And, third, Congress holds the purse strings.  Will they starve the beast now, or feed it through March. What will Rep. Tom Price (as Trump’s pick for HHS) signal to his House colleagues in the coming days.
Does Trump understand that he might not be able to turn the spigot off completely on January 21, if Congress has appropriated the money? I bet Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell know! Will they roll him on this?

You need to let your members of Congress and your Senators know they must disapprove this request!

So far, we don’t know of any move to completely defund the program on the CR, but will keep you posted if we hear.
Endnote:  All of our posts on this topic are tagged ‘Where is Congress.’

Will Rep. Tom Price rein-in refugee program, so far no sign he is inclined that way

Readers here at RRW know that the Dept. of Health and Human Services isn’t just about Obamacare.  For us, it is the agency that does most of the spending on refugees and those so-called unaccompanied alien children we just told you about in the previous post.

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Rep. Tom Price, Trump’s pick for HHS Secretary

Here is The Seattle Times educating its readers about HHS’s role involving immigration via its sub-agency the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The examples given here of Trump nominee Georgia Rep. Tom Price’s (a medical doc btw) earlier positions on the subject of refugees doesn’t look very reassuring to me.  So, if any of you know things about Price that would give us confidence he might draw in the reins on the RAP, let me know!
And, correct me if I am wrong!
In my earlier post this morning, I noted he did not back Rep. Babin on his bill.
The Seattle Times:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The congressman named by Donald Trump to oversee the country’s health care system would also have an impact on another top issue: immigration.

It’s an area where Georgia Republican Tom Price has been at odds with the Obama administration.

If Price is confirmed by the Senate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he would head an office responsible for both resettling refugees in the United States and caring for immigrant children caught trying to cross the border on their own.

The five-term lawmaker has joined his Republican colleagues in objecting to President Barack Obama’s immigration enforcement policies, including those at the border. He co-sponsored a bill that sought to let states block Syrian refugees from settling in their communities. (I’m assuming they mean McCaul’s toothless bill, mentioned here at Breitbart)

Continue here.
And, again, if anyone has anything that would give us confidence that Price would be willing to dramatically decrease the budget at HHS for the Refugee Admissions Program and turn off its giant grantmaking machine, send it my way!
On the grants:  There are millions of dollars of grants that ORR hands out to contractors that have no basis in the law—crazy stuff like those grants for planting refugee gardens for example!

Unaccompanied Alien Children eating up Health and Human Service's agency budgets

You’ve probably all seen this news about the Dept. of Health and Services scrambling to re-direct money from other areas of the agency budget to take care of the largest number of ‘children’ (ever!) entering the US illegally.

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Seems like the Trump Admin. might be able to figure out exactly where the wall needs to be!

I’m posting this so that as we move ahead in the coming days with news on the budget for FY17 and the Continuing Resolution, you have some background understanding of the dilemma the refugee program is in during the waning days of the Obama Administration.  The ‘kids’ (who are NOT refugees) are gobbling up limited funds putting their needs in direct competition with the refugees entering the US from all over the world. (In addition to depriving US citizens of other needed programs.)
For new readers, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is an agency at HHS which has been given the duty of taking care of the illegal alien kids.
Here is Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies:

An average of 255 illegal alien youths were taken into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) every day this month, according to the latest figures the agency provided to Congress. This is the largest number of illegal alien children ever in the care of the federal government. To pay for it, the agency says it will need an additional one or two billion dollars for the next year – above and beyond the $1.2 billion spent in 2016 and proposed for 2017 – depending on how many more arrive. For now, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where ORR resides, is diverting $167 million from other programs to cover the cost of services for these new illegal arrivals through December 9, when the current continuing resolution expires.

An email to congressional staff from Barbara Clark of the HHS legislative liaison office, dated November 28, 2016, stated:

Daily referrals of unaccompanied children averaged 247 over the last seven days, and 255 so far in November. For comparison, referrals averaged 185 per day in November of FY 2016 and 64 per day in November of FY 2015. As of November 27, 2016, the number of children in ORR care is approximately 11,200.

A separate email informed congressional offices of HHS Secretary Burwell’s intent to transfer money from other programs to ORR to pay for shelters, health care, schooling, recreation, and other services for the new illegal arrivals, who typically were brought to the border by smugglers paid by their parents, who often are living in the United States illegally.

Continue reading here and see which programs are being robbed to pay for the ‘kids.’
About the map: I was searching for a graph to show how many ‘kids’ (mostly Central American teenage boys, see here) had come in to the US in the most recent years, but every graph I found only went to 2014. So what is up with that!  I figured the map would be a nice addition to the post instead.
By the way, this post is tagged ‘Unaccompanied minors’ because many years ago they were called that and that is how I first tagged the topic.

Fun to watch the Left eat its own: ACLU sues Catholic Charities

Why? Because Catholic Charities, which you all know collects millions of taxpayer dollars to resettle refugees and ‘take care of’ the Unaccompanied Alien Children flooding our borders, won’t offer abortion services to the kids.
If I understand this news correctly, the ACLU has claimed they have “standing” because they represent taxpayers! And, this judge has agreed!

Magistrate Judge, Laurel Beeler, Northern District of California Photo by Jason Doiy 5/20/2013 061-2013
Magistrate Judge, Laurel Beeler, Northern District of California: Taxpayers represented by the ACLU have standing.

The Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities have been between this rock and a hard place before, but so far their connection to the federal teat has not been severed.
Catholics could face choice: federal bucks or religious principles, hmmmmm!
From Life News:

A California judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit this week that challenges federal funding of Catholic Charities because they refuse to provide young refugees and immigrants with abortions or birth control.

Courthouse News reports the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this summer to stop them from giving federal funding to Catholic organizations that do not promote abortions or birth control.

The federal government filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds that the ACLU did not have standing to sue, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler denied the government’s motion on Tuesday and allowed the lawsuit to continue, according to the report.

“Congress mandated that the agency provide care to unaccompanied minors, and it authorized disbursements to provide that care,” Beeler wrote. “Because [HHS, through the Office of Refugee Resettlement] makes grants under that statutory mandate, the ACLU – through its taxpayer members – has standing.”

[….]

The ACLU argues that the government should not give money to the Catholic aid programs because the programs do not refer or provide abortions or birth control to young, unaccompanied minor refugees and immigrants like Rosa, the New York Times reports. In the lawsuit, it argues that the agencies are legally required to provide access to contraception and abortion because they receive government funding.

I wonder does the ACLU fully understand how far left the Catholic Church is in America on the issue of immigration and open borders?
Or, does the ACLU figure they can have it all—banking on the Catholic agencies caving in on their religious principles and choosing the federal money as a first priority?
One more thing! Whose money is Catholic Charities using to defend itself?

How many more Ohio States before House Republicans move Rep. Babin's bill?

Yesterday, Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) went on Laura Ingraham’s radio program, and Julia Hahn at Breitbart tells us what happened.

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Rep. Brian Babin (No fear!)

Regular readers here know that a freshman representative was the only Member of Congress in 2015 with the foresight and the nerve to introduce legislation to pause the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program when he introduced his bill HR 3314—Resettlement Accountability National Security Act of 2015.  (Click here to learn more and see the bill’s 86 co-sponsors)
Is your member of Congress one of the 86 (!) co-sponsors who signed on in 2015. If so, make sure you thank him or her and insist they do more!
Before I get to the interview with Ingraham, know this:
A bill proceeds in Congress with a first step—a committee of jurisdiction holds a  hearing.  Why did HR 3314 NEVER get a hearing?  Because House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Immigration subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy never gave it one.
Why did they not give it a hearing? Because Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t want a hearing on it! Then he blocked it by pushing a mealy-mouthed bill later.
And, now, as we have had one more terrorist incident involving a refugee, the bill will die with this Congress.
***Update*** More: Ryan silent on latest terror attack, here.
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Trump test! How soon will Anne Richard go?

Trump’s big test is coming soon, he has the legal authority to pause the program without Congress, so what will Ryan do then (what is he already doing behind the scenes?).  So much depends on who Trump puts in place at Health and Human Services (his pick Rep. Tom Price is not a cosponsor of HR 3314, why?).  Who will be Secretary of State?
And, then readers, the biggest test of all will be how quickly he and his cabinet heads replace Anne Richard at the Dept. of State (Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration) and Bob Carey at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS), and with whom they are replaced!  We will be watching!
Here is Hahn at Breitbart:

Congressman Brian Babin (R-TX) is calling for a total suspension of the controversial refugee resettlement program following the attack of young Americans at Ohio State University carried out by a Somali refugee.

“Our refugee program has basically become a Trojan Horse,” Babin said in a Thursday radio interview with nationally-syndicated host Laura Ingraham.

“We have to take a step back and reevaluate our asylum policies that are absolutely getting Americans killed for politically correct reasons,” Babin explained, adding that the Ohio State University refugee attack “comes on the heels of another Somali refugee stabbing in Minnesota” that took place in September.

“The threat is growing. It’s time for us to wake up,” Babin added. “We’ve got to look no further than Western Europe to see the results of what happens when you have… unchecked and completely overwhelming refugee numbers.”

Continue reading and be reminded of how the House leadership has thwarted Babin’s efforts.
Trip down memory lane!  Laura Ingraham called for a MORATORIUM ON MUSLIM IMMIGRATION years ago, see here.