GOP fiscal hawks balk at $5.7B for refugees in 2026 HHS funding bill

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

When Congress returns next week, lawmakers will have less than a month to pass the remaining nine appropriations bills funding federal agencies in fiscal year 2026.

Already, however, there are signs of further delay, with two Republican senators pledging to vote against the bill for Labor and Health and Human Services due to its inclusion of $5.69 billion for refugee assistance services.

The amount is less than the $6.3 billion that HHS’s Administration of Children and Families, which runs various refugee and asylee support programs, received in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

But it is still three times higher than funding levels prior to Joe Biden’s presidency, leading U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., to vocally oppose the Labor-HHS funding bill.

Congressionally-appropriated funding for REA programs – which provide medical, employment, childcare and cash assistance to eligible refugees – amounted to $1.91 billion in fiscal year 2021.

Lawmakers massively boosted appropriations funding for ACF’s Refugee and Entrant Assistance programs once Biden assumed office, with $4.8 billion going to REA programs via the fiscal year 2022 appropriations package alone.

That number again jumped – to $6.42 billion – the next fiscal year and remained virtually the same for fiscal year 2024. Since Congress never passed a fiscal year 2025 budget, instead relying on a series of Continuing Resolutions, ACF has continued to receive over $6 billion for REA programs annually.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., intends to hold a vote on a five-bill appropriations minibus, which includes the Labor-HHS bill, as soon as lawmakers return.

The bipartisan minibus also includes fiscal year 2026 funding for federal agencies that handle Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; Defense; Commerce, Justice, and Science; and Interior.

If Congress does not pass those bills in some form by Feb. 1, the end date of the current CR, they risk a partial government shutdown.