The Trump administration recently expanded the eligibility period of the Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) programs available to all refugees and other Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)-eligible populations from four months to eight months.
The increase reverses the administration’s March 2025 decision to reduce RCA and RMA eligibility from 12 to four months, which it explained at the time as necessary “to avoid a significant budget shortfall.”
The rationale offered for the recent change was that it would “help ensure that participants have sufficient time to engage in employment services, access needed supports and health services, and move toward economic self-sufficiency, while maintaining the program within available resources.”
The eight-month period is not new. It was the standard for approximately three decades before the Biden-Harris administration expanded eligibility to 12 months in 2022. The Trump administration’s latest decision restores the period that prevailed from FY 1992 through FY 2021.
RCA and RMA are time-limited federal benefits made available following the Refugee Act of 1980 to assist resettled refugees and other eligible individuals achieve what ORR considers “economic self-sufficiency” while maintaining efficient use of federal resources and avoiding a significant burden on state and local governments. ORR defines “economic self-sufficiency” as “earning a total family income that enables a family unit to support itself without receipt of a cash assistance grant”.
The 1980 Refugee Act authorizes ORR’s director to determine the appropriate eligibility period for RCA and RMA each fiscal year based on the funds appropriated for that fiscal year, provided it does not exceed 36 months following arrival in the United States.
Despite this increase in eligibility period, the number of individuals benefiting from these ORR benefits (including refugees) remains drastically lower under Trump than under the Biden-Harris administration.
Changing Eligibility Periods
The maximum RCA and RMA eligibility period has changed repeatedly throughout the years in response to funding levels and program needs:
- 1980: The Refugee Act authorized assistance for up to 36 months.
- 1982: ORR reduced the period to 18 months.
- 1988: ORR reduced it to 12 months.
- 1992: ORR reduced it to eight months, principally because of appropriations constraints.
- 2022: The Biden-Harris administration expanded eligibility from eight to 12 months.
- 2025: The Trump administration reduced eligibility from 12 months to four months.
- 2026: The Trump administration restored the eight-month period.
ORR Benefits: RCA and RMA
Since its establishment in 1980, the refugee resettlement program has been “justified on the grounds that the admission of refugees is a federal decision, entailing some federal responsibility”. Unlike other immigrants admitted to the country through family or employment ties, refugees (and multiple other categories) are admitted on humanitarian grounds and are not required to demonstrate economic self-sufficiency.
Through the 1980 Refugee Act, Congress directed ORR, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), to provide refugees and other eligible populations with resettlement assistance. ORR’s mission is to help these populations “transition into the United States by providing benefits and assistance to achieve integration as soon as possible”. To this end, ORR funds and administers numerous programs, including RCA and MRA.
RCA provides temporary financial assistance to ORR-eligible populations who are not eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or those pending receipt of Supplemental Security Income. RMA provides temporary medical coverage to eligible individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid.
ORR defines “economic self-sufficiency” as earning enough as a family unit to support itself without relying on cash assistance grants. But even with no cash assistance, a “self-sufficient” refugee (or any ORR beneficiary) can and often does rely on other, non-cash public benefit programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid. According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, refugees tend to receive more public benefits than the U.S.-born population even 20 years after resettlement. Similarly, my colleagues Jason Richwine, Steven A. Camarota, and Karen Zeigler concluded that “recent refugees cost the [U.S.] government substantially more than they contribute in taxes, even over the long term”.
ORR Beneficiaries
ORR programs serve more than refugees admitted through the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program. ORR’s list of beneficiaries includes asylees (individuals granted asylum in the United States), Cubans and Haitians granted entry to the United States, Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders, and victims of human trafficking. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration extended the benefits and beneficiaries of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to include certain other non-refugees on U.S. soil and added Afghan and Ukrainian parolees to the list.
The Trump administration has not eliminated ORR eligibility for the Biden-Harris-era non-refugee categories and still recognizes certain Afghan and Ukrainian parolees as eligible for the same resettlement support services as other previous populations.
That said, eligibility for a specific ORR program must be distinguished from actual receipt of benefits. RCA and RMA are available only within the applicable time window tied to a person’s ORR eligibility date. Individuals admitted or granted qualifying status years earlier may therefore have exhausted their original RCA and RMA eligibility periods even if they remain eligible for other services.
For example, most Afghans and Ukrainians paroled during the Biden-Harris administration (over 200,000 Afghans through Operations Allies Refuge and Welcome, since terminated by Trump, and around 240,000 Ukrainians through the now-paused Uniting for Ukraine program) have already exhausted their original RCA/RMA periods, even if they remain eligible for certain longer-term ORR services (such as Refugee Support Services (RSS) available for up to five years) or later acquire another qualifying status such as asylum.
While the number of ORR beneficiaries was increasing under the previous administration, it dropped drastically under Trump.
In FY 2025, in addition to the 125,000 expected refugee admissions through USRAP, ORR under the Biden-Harris administration was projecting to serve 531,500 other arrivals.
Trump suspended refugee resettlement as soon as he took office in January 2025. He also dropped the refugee cap; initially setting the FY 2026 refugee ceiling at 7,500 and later increasing it to 17,500. Most of these slots were to be allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa. As of August 31, 2026, 12,904 refugees were resettled in FY 2026 (vs. 100,034 during FY 2024 under Biden).
Last point: It has been reported that starting October 1, 2026 (the beginning of FY 2027), resettled refugees (mostly Afrikaners) are to get $4,500 instead of $2,400 in initial aid. The $2,425 initial allocation refers to the first 90- day initial support put in place to provide refugees with housing, food, clothing, and access to various other services and is not to be confused with the RCA aid.