State Letter #99-01
MEMORANDUM TO: State Refugee Coordinators
National Voluntary Agencies
FROM: Lavinia Limon, Director
Office of Refugee Resettlement
SUBJECT: Publication of the Office of Refugee Resettlement's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Enclosed is a copy of the Office of Resettlement's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) which was published today in the Federal Register (64 FR 1159) for public comment.
We would be interested in hearing your comments on this proposed rule. Please note that the public comment period ends on March 9, 1999.
This NPRM proposes to establish the refugee cash assistance (RCA) program as a public/private partnership between States and local resettlement agencies responsible for the initial resettlement of refugees. Under the proposed program, States would enter into a public/private partnership by contracting with local resettlement agencies to administer both the provision of cash assistance and the services needed to help RCA recipients become employed and self-sufficient within the RCA eligibility period. We recognize, however, that this approach may not be the best approach in all States. Therefore, under the proposed regulation, States would have the flexibility to request an exception to the public/private RCA program if an agreement cannot be reached with the local resettlement agencies or if the State has reason to believe that a public/private RCA program would not serve the best interests of refugees in that State. In addition, States that do not believe that either a public/private RCA program or an RCA-excepted program would be the best programs to serve refugees in their State would have the flexibility to pursue a third option -- an alternative program funded under the standing Wilson/Fish announcement.
We also propose three changes to the refugee medical assistance (RMA) program to enable certain groups of refugees currently without medical coverage, such as newly arrived refugees who become employed within the first few weeks of arrival, to be eligible for RMA.
We have also enclosed a copy of our current regulation with the proposed amendments included in the text to make it easier for you to see how the NPRM would change the current regulation. Proposed deletions are lined out, while the proposed new language appears in BOLD.
A copy of the NPRM may be obtained through the Federal Register website at "www.access.gpo.gov/nara". You may also obtain a copy of the NPRM and current regulation/NPRM merged text from the ORR website at www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/orr".
Enclosures