Category: Taxpayer goodies

Rep. Brian Babin to Congress: Don't fund Obama refugee slush fund!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As I have been saying, Congress is going to be deciding on the so-called Continuing Budget Resolution this week because they are all eager to get out of Dodge (DC).

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Big test!!! Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Speaker Paul Ryan will soon show their colors on Refugee Admissions Program if they cave and give the Obama ORR BILLIONS more of your dollars to spend before the end of March. We will be watching!

The Obama Administration is asking for a huge special funding addition because they claim the Office of Refugee Resettlement is going to run out of cash in February (the CR would, if as predicted, extend 2016 funding levels through March).  ORR has (surprise!) a huge number of Unaccompanied Alien Children to take care of as the border is being assaulted by all those wanting in before Trump takes office.
I told you all about it here last week.
Now, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas pleads in an opinion piece at the Daily Caller for the REPUBLICAN led Congress to not fall for it because once appropriated it will literally be a slush fund available to ORR which they could distribute to the refugee contractors through all sorts of means even if Trump cuts off the flow of refugees on January 21st (which he can do!).
I’ll let you read Babin’s op-ed yourself because I have one more important warning for you and I have to get out of here shortly.

Warning!

Even if the House of Representatives does not capitulate to the Administration’s plea for BILLIONS more of your tax dollars, the Senate Appropriations Committee might very well be happy to accommodate Obama and add in the money.  [For Marylanders remember Babs Mikulski is on this committee!!! Swan song? Money for more Muslims for Maryland?—ed]
If the Senate adds the money, when the House and Senate conference committee meets to iron-out differences between their respective versions of the funding bill, the House leadership (Paul Ryan!) could waffle and not fight for the House version on this important point.
We know their tricks and it goes like this: ‘Gosh we tried, but the Senate put the money in and there was nothing we could do about it! We sure don’t want to shut down the government over this.’ (Of course it would be Obama shutting down the government for not signing the CR!)
You need to put pressure on your House members to not add in the money and then to stick to their guns in conference committee—tall order I know!

And, tell the Trump transition team what could go down here! This is a test for Speaker Ryan and whether he will work with Trump on Trump’s promises about the refugee program.

All of our posts, on the all important funding issue, are tagged ‘Where is Congress.’

For refugee program, we need something more than Inspector General Hotlines!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (PRNewsFoto/Office of Inspector General Department of Health and Human Services)
From time to time I hear from people who have some waste, fraud, or abuse they want to report involving the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (RAP).
You do know that both the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, have Inspector General Offices.
Those offices have hotlines where you can report something you think is illegal/wasteful or flat out a fraud.  I am told by people in government that those OIGs are decent watchdogs and shouldn’t be feared.

But, we need something more!

Someone (maybe the new Trump Administration) could create a hotline that would address many other concerns, for reporting things like the following:

~For reports of waste, fraud or abuse of taxpayer dollars relating to the RAP witnessed in local communities when it is not clear if it is federal or state/local funds being potentially misused.

~For whistleblowers who work, or have worked, for a resettlement agency (public or private) and have witnessed something that they feel must be reported, but fear for their jobs.

~For unhappy refugees who might want to go home.

Just a thought!
In the meantime, if you have unearthed something potentially fraudulent as you investigate your local refugee program, try the following Inspector General Office hotlines:
US Dept. of State is here (the DOS does the initial work of hiring the contractors and distributing the refugees).
And, HHS fraud hotline, is here (the Office of Refugee Resettlement distributes millions in grants to non-profits which pay for much of their office/staff etc.).
Endnote:  I had to make a new tag, I had all sorts of frauds (food stamps, immigration etc), but needed a general ‘fraud’ tag.

What are the major Muslim ethnic groups entering the US right now through the RAP?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

rpcLogoSmall [Converted]Can Trump stop the flow this coming year, maybe, maybe not!

I was doing research at Wrapsnet (Refugee Processing Center) recently for another purpose and did a search on the major Muslim ethnic groups entering the US from Oct. 1, 2016 to Nov. 15, 2016 (approximately the first 6 weeks of FY2017).
The numbers below are only for Muslims in the top ten sending countries (all Muslim sects) that entered in that time frame (about 6 weeks) and only those who entered the US through the Refugee Admissions Program (RAP):

Somalia: 1,894

Syria: 1,867

Iraq: 1,388

Afghanistan: 298

Burma: 289

Sudan: 147

DR Congo: 141

Ethiopia: 118

Eritrea: 58

Iran: 56

 

This is the highest number of Somalis we have brought in since we began taking Somalis 30 years ago.

At this rate (315 weekly) we could have over 16,000 placed in a large number of states by September 30th. Go here to see my summary of how many Somalis we resettled through the RAP since the early 1980’s.  The highest previous year (2004) was 12,814 during the Bush Administration.

Donald Trump arrives at the Miss USA 2013 pageant, Sunday, June 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jeff Bottari)
President-elect Trump needs to know that the Obama Admin. is pouring refugees in to the US at an unheard of rate in the first weeks of the fiscal year. Congress must cut their funding now to help Trump in January. Appropriating the extra billion or so the Administration says they need through March could tie Trump’s hands!

It is also 1,000 more in the first six weeks this year than it was last year at this time! Holy cow!  See here.
I maintain that the Somalis and many other Muslim ethnic groups cannot be screened any better than Syrians, especially the Somalis and the Burmese!
By the way, most of the Iranians we bring in are Christians or other religious minorities, but clearly we are bringing in Muslim Iranians. Why?

These numbers indicate that the feds and their contractors are pouring refugees in at an unsustainable rate!

We have admitted 14,568 total refugees of all persuasions in those approximately first 6 weeks.  That is a rate of about 2,428 a week. And at this rate we would admit 126,256 by September 30th when Obama’s wish for the year was (only, LOL!) 110,000.  (During Obama’s 8 years he admitted an average of about 70,000 a year, here.)

Just as we predicted, they are front-loading refugee admissions in advance of Trump’s Inauguration in January.
It is imperative that Congress NOT give the Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS) the over $1 BILLION extra in funding it wants right now. (See ‘Running out of money’)  The Obama Administration encouraged the ‘kids’ (with its policies) to come to the US and, if the budget must be re-prioritized for them, so be it. That means only one thing: cutting the resettled refugee numbers.

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

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“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

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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!