Budget Battle: GOP Pushes to Trim Excessive Aid Earmarked for Refugees

We all saw, during the late, unlamented Biden administration, how quickly the people flooding into the United States through Joe Biden's open borders learned to claim "refugee" status. That assured them of uncontested, no-questions-asked entry into the United States, even if they had walked through every country between Tierra del Fuego and the Texas border to claim "refugee" status to the first American they encountered.

Because of this, in the Biden years, federal spending on these "refugees" shot up. Now Congressional Republicans are looking to slash that, and as we might expect, they are facing some opposition.

When Congress returns next week, lawmakers will have less than a month to pass the remaining nine appropriations bills funding federal agencies in fiscal year 2026.
Already, however, there are signs of further delay, with two Republican senators pledging to vote against the bill for Labor and Health and Human Services due to its inclusion of $5.69 billion for refugee assistance services.
The amount is less than the $6.3 billion that HHS’s Administration of Children and Families, which runs various refugee and asylee support programs, received in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
But it is still three times higher than funding levels prior to Joe Biden's presidency, leading U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., to vocally oppose the Labor-HHS funding bill.

Personally, I'd sooner see the spending on refugee assistance services slashed to nearly zero. There are some groups with legitimate refugee claims, even though the "woke" left raised a hue and cry when the Trump administration brought in a small group of white Afrikaner farmers who were fearing the theft of their land and possibly murder. But there's no good reason to spend almost $6 billion on aid for everyone, everywhere in the world, who claims "refugee" status in their demand to enter the United States.

Rubio Calls Out Europe: U.S. Embassies Ordered to Report on Mass Migration Abuses

Case in point: We have, in recent days, seen a lot of virtual ink spilled on the various fraud schemes launched by Somali nationals, in Minneapolis and other places around the fruited plain. The majority of those people came to the United States in the 2010s, claiming refugee status, and yes, Somalia was a mess then; effectively an anarchy, ruled by brutal warlords.

Now, billions of American taxpayer dollars have gone back to Somalia, much of it in suitcases carried by Somali couriers.

The Senate needs to take another good look at this bill. The United States can not and should not be expected to take in every aggrieved person from everywhere in the world. The American taxpayer shouldn't be expected to pay for the stream of benefits these people are receiving. Enough is enough. Cutting this spending will cut the incentive. Cutting the incentive will cut the number of people claiming "refugee" status. That's a problem Congress can actually help fix.

Here's where things stand:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., intends to hold a vote on a five-bill appropriations minibus, which includes the Labor-HHS bill, as soon as lawmakers return.
The bipartisan minibus also includes fiscal year 2026 funding for federal agencies that handle Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; Defense; Commerce, Justice, and Science; and Interior.
If Congress does not pass those bills in some form by Feb. 1, the end date of the current CR, they risk a partial government shutdown.

If a partial shutdown is what it takes to, at least, return this program to pre-Biden spending levels, then fine. Shut it down.

Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

Help us continue exposing Democrats' plans to lead America down a dangerous path. Join RedState VIP and use promo code MERRY74 to receive 74% off your membership.