[Senate Hearing 116-]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


 
  STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS FOR 
                            FISCAL YEAR 2020

                              ----------                              

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.

                       NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES

    [Clerk's note.--The subcommittee was unable to hold 
hearings on nondepartmental witnesses. The statements and 
letters of those submitting written testimony are as follows:]
          Prepared Statement of the Church World Service (CWS)
CWS Statement to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee 
 on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Pertaining to Its 
 Hearing on the Fiscal 2020 Budget for the State Department, Tuesday, 
                             April 9, 2019
    As a 73-year old humanitarian organization representing 37 
Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox communions and 23 refugee 
resettlement offices across 17 States in the United States, Church 
World Service urges the subcommittee to hold the administration 
accountable to administering the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program 
(USRAP) in good faith and returning refugee resettlement numbers to 
historic norms, at least meeting this year's record-low refugee 
admissions goal of 30,000, and committing to resettling at least 75,000 
in fiscal year 2020.
    Refugee resettlement is an important tool in advancing U.S. foreign 
policy interests, leveraging durable solutions, and encouraging other 
countries to support displaced persons. Since 1975, the USRAP, the 
world's most thorough resettlement vetting program, has safely and 
successfully resettled over three million refugees. As one of 37 
resettlement countries, the United States utilizes the resettlement 
program to play a critical role in promoting stability around the world 
and elevating our moral leadership on the global stage. Over the past 2 
years, the administration has made drastic changes designed to grind 
the refugee program to a halt, resulting in human tragedy and long-term 
damage to our Nation's capacity to respond to humanitarian crises.
    CWS urges Congress to hold the administration accountable to 
meeting this year's refugee admissions goal of 30,000, and to setting a 
goal of resettling at least 75,000 refugees in fiscal year 2020. Last 
year, the administration resettled only 22,491 refugees, not even 
meeting half of its own, then-record-low goal of 45,000. The fiscal 
year 2019 refugee admissions goal of 30,000 is a new historic low, and 
yet, the administration is only on track to resettle around 22,000 
refugees. These figures are a drastic departure from our Nation's 
annual historic average resettlement goal of 95,000. The United States 
implements a public-private partnership model of refugee resettlement, 
with congregations, schools, employers, and local communities 
intrinsically involved in welcoming refugees and helping them integrate 
and thrive. The U.S. refugee resettlement program emphasizes early 
self-sufficiency, and most refugees are employed within their first 6 
months of arriving to the United States. Numerous studies have found 
that refugees contribute positively to the U.S. economy.
    CWS calls on Congress to ensure that overseas assistance and 
protection programs for refugees and displaced persons are funded 
robustly. Forcibly displaced people often lack access to the basic 
necessities of life, including food and nutrition, clean water, safe 
shelter, healthcare, education, livelihood, and protection from 
persecution, conflict, war, and violence. Beyond these grave 
humanitarian concerns, the presence of large populations of forcibly 
displaced persons is an urgent concern for the countries and regions in 
which they live. By helping to meet the basic needs of displaced 
persons and assisting the countries hosting them, U.S. funding 
strengthens regional stability, thus preventing further destabilization 
in fragile regions and relieving pressure on host countries.
    CWS urges the subcommittee to safeguard the State Department's 
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM)'s leadership role 
in refugee protection and resettlement. CWS is deeply opposed to the 
proposal in the President's Budget request that would reduce PRM's 
budget by 90 percent and remove from PRM the important tool of overseas 
assistance, combining that funding with the International Disaster 
Assistance account and Food for Peace into a new International 
Humanitarian Assistance account and drastically cutting funding 
overall. This would eliminate PRM's ability to leverage resettlement 
and overseas assistance for the benefit of regional stability and other 
U.S. foreign policy interests. The proposal also contravenes 
congressional intent to maintain PRM within the Department of State, 
which has been stated in report language in the past two State 
Department and Foreign Operations appropriations bills in response to 
similar proposals.
    CWS is also opposed to the Trump administration's plan to close all 
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) international field 
offices, which would place additional burdens on the diplomatic 
infrastructure, drastically reduce services for U.S. military personnel 
stationed abroad and other American citizens, place additional barriers 
to family reunification, and further dismantle the refugee admissions 
program.
    CWS calls on Congress to robustly fund refugee protection and 
affirm the importance of refugee resettlement as a life- saving program 
during this global refugee crisis, with over 68.5 million people 
displaced worldwide, 25.8 million of whom are refugees.