TNAG-1788-FCO40-2548-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-general-1988 — Page 110

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PR NO. 196

the current fiscal year the State Department had $338,450,000 ailable for refugee programs funded out of the Migration and Refugee Assistance account, including refugee admissions and assistance programs. The President's budget request for refugees for FY 1989 constrained as it is by Gramm-Rudman-Hollings and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement is $340,000,000. The bill

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adopted by the House provides $361,950,000, but requires that $23,500,000 be transferred to HHS, leaving a net amount of $338,450,000. The Senate bill provides the same $361,950,000. The Senate bill does not require a transfer to HHS but does earmark $140,000,000 for refugee and Amerasian immigrant admissions. The conference on these two bills is scheduled to begin next week.

If the final bill provides the State Department $338,450,000, the same amount as last year, we will have new funds to admit only 68,500 persons. If the final bill provides $361,950,000, including the $140,000,000 earmark for admissions, we will have new funds to admit 82,000 refugees and Amerasian immigrants. That is the Senate version. In addition, we estimate that carry-over funds from the fiscal year 1988 dire emergency supplemental will be available to fund an additional 2,000 refugee admissions. Therefore, the potential fully funded admissions level is between 70,500 and 84,000, depending on the final appropriation. With regard to fully funded admissions, at no time will we operate at a rate higher than that for which funds are available in the MRA account.

Establishing the ceiling requires balancing our humanitarian and foreign policy goals, refugee eligibility requirements, domestic resettlement capacity, and estimated costs. For FY 1989, therefore, despite my misgivings and my desire to be absolutely clear to the Congress and not to mislead anyone about actual admissions levels, we are proposing an aggregate, worldwide ceiling for refugee and Amerasian immigrant admissions of 94,000. It is comprised of three elements: up to 84,000 fully funded admissions; that's on the assumption we get the positive numbers that I outlined here; up to 6,000 which would be partially funded by HHS, as they are appropriated up to 90,000, and partially by the private sector; and up to 4,000 reserved for the separate, private sector program. The 6,000 partially-funded numbers will cover a group of persons, some of whom would be eligible for HHS-funded benefits and some who could be admitted without any federal funding whatsoever. Therefore, we are not seeking additional federal funds to finance these 6,000 admissions. In addition, we propose to continue the current allocation of 4,000 numbers for the fully privately-funded admissions initiative. This private sector initiative has already benefited hundreds of Cuban refugees in fiscal year 1988.