Conservatives on Capitol Hill are passing around a document titled, “Omnibus Contains $2.5 Billion to Accommodate Illegal Immigrants and Refugees,” which claims to new spending bill has dedicated a lot of money to helping people in the U.S. illegally.
“The House CR/Omnibus bill contains $2.5 billion in available funding for federal agencies to accommodate illegal immigrant minors, relatives and self-professed refugees streaming across the border and into the US, answering the President’s supplemental spending request from this last summer. The language mirrors that of Senator Mikulski’s bill that was defeated this summer and does not include the language the House adopted this summer to try to compel the repatriation of illegal border crossers as a condition of funding. The Obama Administration continues to allow virtually all illegal immigrants minors and adults to remain in the US, relocating them into cities and towns across the country,” reads the document, passed along by a Republican Capitol Hill staffer.
Here are some of the specific funding items:
Department of Education: $14 million in new funding to all “State educational agencies within States with at least one county where 50 or more unaccompanied children have been released to sponsors since January 1, 2014, through the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement.”
HHS: $1.5 billion to HHS for refugee and entrant assistance, available through September 30, 2017.
Department of State: $931.9 million for the State Department for Migration and Refugee Assistance, available until expended (of which not less than $35 million shall be made available to respond to small-scale emergency humanitarian requirements, and $10 million shall be made available for refugees resettling in Israel). Additionally, in the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund, $50 million is appropriated and will remain available until expended. Of note, the text also mentions Syria and Burma with regards to Refugee Assistance.
No specific dollar amounts are allocated for border security, deportations, or immigration enforcement.
The President’s Executive Immigration Action And Restrictions On The Use Of Fees
The House bill does not include language that prohibits the use of USCIS fee-generated funds to implement the Administration’s executive action policies. As cited previously and below in the GAO Red Book, Congress has plenary power over the allocation of federal funds, including those that are collected by agencies as fees:
“Often it is argued that a law making moneys available from some source other than the general fund of the Treasury is not an appropriation. This view is wrong. Statutes establishing revolving funds and various special deposit funds and making amounts in those funds available for obligation and expenditure are permanent appropriations.”
Examples of a Restriction of Fees within the CR/Omnibus (7 identified so far):
SEC. 719. (a) None of the funds provided by this Act, or provided by previous Appropriations Acts to the agencies funded by this Act that remain available for obligation or expenditure in the current fiscal year, or provided from any accounts in the Treasury derived by the collection of fees available to the agencies funded by this Act, shall be available for obligation or expenditure through a reprogramming, transfer of funds, or reimbursements as authorized by the Economy Act, or in the case of the Department of Agriculture, through use of the authority provided by section 702(b) of the Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944 (7 U.S.C. 2257) or section 8 of Public Law 89–106 (7 U.S.C. 2263), that
(1) creates new programs;
(2) eliminates a program, project, or activity;
(3) increases funds or personnel by any means for any project or activity for which funds have been denied or restricted;
(4) relocates an office or employees;
(5) reorganizes offices, programs, or activities; or
(6) contracts out or privatizes any functions or activities presently performed by Federal employees; unless the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of Health and Human Services (as the case may be) notifies in writing and receives approval from the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress at least 30 days in advance of the reprogramming of such funds or the use of such authority.
