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NEW RULE ON REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMS PROPOSED
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has issued a proposed rule amending current rules governing refugee cash and medical assistance. The comment period ends on March 9, 1999. 
Under the program as currently administered, state welfare agencies administered refugee cash assistance for those refugees who do not otherwise qualify for federal assistance under their Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs. 1996 welfare reform laws limited the time refugees could receive these benefits to eight months. In light of this change, and other changes that make it easier of refugee families to qualify for federal assistance, the ORR has decided that the cash assistance program should be administered through private refugee assistance organizations responsible for helping refugees settle when they first arrive in the U.S. States will have the opportunity to opt out of the new program if it can show a good faith effort to coordinate the program with a private organization that failed because the organization was unwilling or such a program would not have been in the best interests of immigrants in the state. 
There are also three proposed changes to the refugee medical assistance program. First, the refugee's eligibility will be determined on the date of application, not an average of income over the processing period. Second, the states would be given the option of determining eligibility using the higher standard of 200% of current federal poverty guidelines. Third, refugees in the U.S. for less than eight months who have lost their Medicaid eligibility because of a rise in income will still be eligible for refugee medical assistance without requiring another determination of eligibility.