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Posted by Ann Corcoran on August 31, 2015
For new readers……
Revolving door and one big happy family! This is Bob Carey, the new director of the ORR. He was previously a VP at the International Rescue Committee. And, what a coincidence, over at the State Department, the Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Anne Richard, was also a VP at the International Rescue Committee. Gee! Do you think federal contractor, the IRC headed by Brit David Miliband, might have a bit of an inside track to the federal agencies that feed them?
The US Refugee Resettlement Program is administered by two different agencies of the federal government. The US State Department admits refugees and contracts with the nine major federal resettlement contractors (they call them VOLAGS short for Voluntary Agencies which they definitely are not!) to distribute them.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Dept. of Health and Human Services is responsible for making sure that myriad grants get out to the contractors and their subcontractors and to manage much of the other day-to-day operation being dictated from Washington.
The ORR has produced a handy map. When you click on your state, contact information pops up for the bureaucrats who are responsible in your state.
You will see some states are Wilson-Fish states which means they are run pretty much with no state government involvement. Go here to learn more about Wilson-Fish.
To find which federal resettlement subcontractors have offices near you, go here.
Regarding my reference to David Miliband in the photo caption—Miliband is the first resettlement contractor head honcho to push for Obama to admit 65,000 Syrians before his term ends.
September is an important month in the resettlement process, first because the feds and their contractors are scrambling to bring in as many refugees as possible in hopes of meeting the 70,000 refugee target that Obama set last year.
And, because Obama, by the end of September, will submit his Annual Determination Letter (this one for 2015) to Congress (where it has been rubber-stamped each year) in which he will lay out the goal for FY2016 which begins on October 1. Watch for a huge jump in the number of Syrians to be admitted and distributed to your towns in the coming fiscal year.
We will be watching to see if any Member of Congress or US Senator says anything about Obama’s picks for 2016.
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