Data limitations stem from the fact that performance data are reported by multiple agencies. the United States will admit for resettlement in a given year. The presidential ceiling has decreased from about 90,000 in fiscal year 1999 to 80,000 in fiscal year 2009. However, the number of refugees actually entering the United States has increased in recent years compared to the relatively low numbers entering after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the aftermath of those attacks, a review of refugee-related security procedures was undertaken, refugee admissions were briefly suspended, and enhanced security measures were implemented. As a result of these and other factors, refugee admissions declined from 68,393 in fiscal year 2001 to 26,383 in fiscal year 2002 and 28,348 in fiscal year 2003. Admissions have rebounded since, gradually increasing to 74,652 in fiscal year 2009. The Refugee Act of 1980 provided a systematic and permanent procedure for admitting refugees to the United States and established comprehensive and uniform provisions to resettle refugees as quickly as possible and to encourage them to become self-sufficient. The Departments of State and Homeland Security handle the first part of the resettlement process by approving and processing refugees overseas. The Department of State then partners with 10 national voluntary agencies to determine where in the United States refugees will live. The national voluntary agencies consider a variety of factors when determining where refugees will live, including placing refugees where they may already have relatives and where the national agencies have offices to meet the needs of the refugees. Voluntary agencies use their network of some 350 affiliates to provide refugees with initial placement services, including meeting refugees at the airport when they first arrive in the United States and providing housing, food, clothing, and other necessities for the first 30 to 90 days. Also, during this time, staff from local voluntary agencies help refugees apply for federal assistance. After their initial month in the United States, many refugees are eligible for temporary resettlement assistance from ORR. All states, except Wyoming, administer an ORR-funded assistance program that provides up to 8 months of cash and medical assistance, as well as other social services, and states have the flexibility to choose among three program delivery models—the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, or Public Private Partnership programs. These three delivery models were established over a 20-year period and give states options in how they provide refugee assistance: Publicly Administered: Refugee resettlement assistance is provided primarily through the Publicly Administered program. States are not required to administer this program, but those that do generally model the program after their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. Wilson/Fish: In 1984, Congress authorized ORR to implement the Wilson/Fish program, which gave states flexibility in how they provide assistance to refugees, including whether to administer assistance primarily through local voluntary agencies. One of the goals in developing this program was to expand the number of states that offered a refugee program so that an ORR-funded program could exist in every state that resettles refugees. Public Private Partnership: In 2000, ORR established the Public Private Partnership program, which promotes states’ partnerships with voluntary agencies to provide assistance, and gives states the flexibility to set refugees’ cash grants at levels higher than those authorized for the Publicly Administered program. (See fig. 1 for the geographical distribution of refugee assistance programs.) In addition, some refugees participate in the Matching Grant program, which is only partially funded by ORR. According to ORR, this program is administered by a network of national voluntary agencies, and is offered in 42 states and the District of Columbia. The Matching Grant program provides refugees with cash and other assistance for 4 to 6 months with the goal of helping them become self-sufficient without receiving cash benefits from a public assistance program. Of the refugees who received cash assistance from ORR in fiscal year 2009, just over 30 percent of them participated in the privately administered Matching Grant program, while most of the remaining percent participated in ORR’s other assistance programs. (See fig. 2.) All four programs fund cash and medical assistance as well as a broad range of social services, including employment services, English language instruction, case management, citizenship and naturalization preparation services, and social adjustment services. Eligible refugees may also receive other federal benefits, such as food assistance offered through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program). Figure 3 shows the assistance offered to refugees who participate in one of ORR’s resettlement programs. Not all refugees receive assistance through ORR-funded programs. Refugees who are eligible for or receiving cash assistance from programs outside of ORR, such as TANF or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), are generally not eligible to receive cash assistance from ORR’s Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, or Public Private Partnership programs. Refugees who are eligible for TANF but who are not receiving TANF benefits may, however, receive cash assistance and other services offered by the Matching Grant program. See figure 4 for the general path of refugee resettlement in the United States. In addition to helping newly arrived refugees adjust to their surroundings and settle in the United States, the overall goal of ORR’s assistance programs is to help refugees attain self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is defined in ORR’s regulations as the refugee earning a total family income at a level that enables a family unit to support itself without receiving a cash assistance grant. ORR collects data on several employment-related outcomes to assess program performance. As part of the Government Performance and Results Act’s requirement for agencies to produce performance measures used to assess their progress toward meeting performance goals, the Publicly Administered, Public Private Partnership, and Wilson/Fish programs have six shared outcome measures. The Matching Grant program has its own measures—three of which are directly related to the program’s goal of helping refugees become economically self-sufficient. Table 1 lists the performance measures for the different types of refugee assistance programs. (For a description of these measures, see app. III.) Congress appropriates a fixed amount of funding each year to fund refugee assistance programs. ORR distributes this funding among seven budget activities—each with a specific purpose. (See table 2.) ORR’s largest budget activity, Transitional and Medical Services, primarily supports refugees’ cash and medical assistance offered through the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, and Public Private Partnership programs as well as the federal contribution to the Matching Grant program. ORR is authorized to fully reimburse program providers for the cash and medical assistance they provide to refugees enrolled in the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, and Public Private Partnership programs,even if the costs of serving all eligible refugees exceed ORR’s annual appropriation in a given fiscal year. The social services that state and voluntary agencies provide to refugees enrolled in these programs, such as employment services and case management, are primarily funded through ORR’s Social Services budget activity. ORR receives a fixed amount of Social Services funds each fiscal year and allocates these funds to states based on estimates of arriving refugees. These Social Services funds do not increase within a given year if the number of refugees served is greater than anticipated. Together Transitional and Medical Services and Social Services funding accounted for more than half of ORR’s total appropriations in fiscal year 2009 (about $436 million, including unobligated funds). Figure 5 shows the distribution of appropriations across ORR’s budget activities in fiscal year 2009. The Matching Grant program features several design elements that distinguish it from assistance offered through the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, and Public Private Partnership programs. According to state officials and voluntary agency staff, Matching Grant providers select the refugees they want to participate in the program, and these refugees can opt to participate in the Matching Grant program or may choose to apply for and receive benefits from other programs if eligible. In contrast, providers of the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, or Public Private Partnership programs enroll any eligible refugee. In interviews with providers, we learned that refugees who find employment while participating in the Matching Grant program may keep their earnings in addition to their cash grant. However, refugees enrolled in ORR’s other programs have their cash assistance reduced or terminated as a result of their employment earnings. In addition, according to ORR and providers, funding for the Matching Grant program is tied to refugees’ success in finding employment while enrolled in the program—that is, providers of the Matching Grant program who do not demonstrate that refugees have achieved specific employment-related outcomes may have their funding reduced the following program year. In contrast, funding for the Publicly Administered, Wilson/Fish, or Public Private Partnership programs is not affected by refugees’ employment outcomes, according to ORR officials. (For more information on the Matching Grant program, see table 3.) The extent to which each of the four ORR programs allow state and voluntary agencies the flexibility to develop or use various service delivery approaches differs. In the two states we visited that offered the Publicly Administered program, refugee assistance was modeled after the states’ TANF programs. In these states, refugees generally received their cash and medical benefits, employment assistance, and other social services from multiple public and private agencies, such as county social service offices and local community-based organizations, and typically met with several caseworkers to receive these services. In comparison, the Wilson/Fish, Public Private Partnership, and Matching Grant programs allow state and voluntary agencies flexibility in developing approaches that are different than those used in states’ TANF programs and at the same time focus on helping the refugee become economically self-sufficient.