Transitional and Medical Services

What this funds

The Transitional and Medical Services (TAMS) program provides refugees and other eligible populations with time-limited cash assistance to purchase food and clothing, pay rent, use public transportation, and secure other necessities. It provides time-limited medical assistance and supports domestic medical screenings for eligible populations. Additionally, this program provides a path to economic self- sufficiency by supplying resources for employment training and placement, case management services, and English language training in order to facilitate economic self-sufficiency and effective resettlement as quickly as possible. TAMS also supports foster care placement and other services to unaccompanied refugee minors and certain other eligible populations of unaccompanied children in the U.S. Finally, the TAMS program funds overall coordination and administration of the refugee resettlement program by state refugee coordinators and refugee health coordinators, as well as their outreach and engagement with state and local stakeholders within 49 states and the District of Columbia. Most TAMS recipients receive cash and medical assistance funded by the federal government and provided through states or replacement designees (in locations where states have chosen to not directly administer these services). State refugee program offices and replacement designees are reimbursed for costs incurred to administer the program. Cash and medical assistance are provided for up to four months to income-eligible refugees, asylees, Cuban or Haitian entrants, trafficking victims, Iraqi or Afghan Special Immigrants who are not eligible for and receiving mainstream benefits such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid. The cash and medical assistance accounts for most of the funding for TAMS, and it is obligated through quarterly grants to states and replacement designees. The grants support new arrivals as well as individuals who arrived in the previous fiscal year who are still within their four-month eligibility period. An alternative to traditional cash benefits is the Matching Grant Program, in which participants are placement and placement follow-up, and interim housing and cash assistance through grants awarded to participating national refugee resettlement agencies. These agencies provide a match (in cash and/or in- kind services) of one dollar for every two dollars of federal participant direct assistance. The purpose of the program is to help families become self-sufficient within the 240-day Matching Grant service period. Participating refugees may not access other forms of public cash assistance while receiving benefits through this program but may be eligible for refugee medical assistance. ACFC awards funds for Matching Grant on a quarterly basis. The Wilson-Fish Bridge to Employment Program provides funds to ensure all recipients of cash assistance receive employment services as required by the Refugee Act. ACFC awards funds for these Some states and replacement designees are also reimbursed for providing foster care and other appropriate placement and services to Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM). Unaccompanied minors Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 20 within the following immigration categories are eligible for the URM program: refugees, asylees, Cuban or Haitian entrants, victims of trafficking with a letter of eligibility, Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ) who meet certain criteria, recipients of U non-immigrant status (qualified victims of certain crimes), and certain unaccompanied Afghan and Ukrainian minors paroled into the United States. The State Department identifies and refers children to the URM program from overseas who are eligible for admission to, and resettlement in, the United States as refugees but who do not have a parent or a relative available and committed to providing for their long-term care. The other populations eligible for the URM program are identified in the United States and referred for URM placement. All minors enrolled in the URM program are placed in licensed child welfare programs where they receive foster care placement and services up to age 21 in most states. They may also be eligible to receive transition to adulthood services up to age 23 and education benefits up to age 26, depending on the state. In addition to foster care placement and services, the URM program offers reunification services, transitional housing and other support services, help for youth to adapt to and integrate into their new surroundings and new country, and assistance with preserving a youth's ethnic, religious, and cultural heritage. Funding for the URM program is included in the quarterly grants to states and replacement designees. In FY 2025, Congress appropriated $6.4 billion for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account through the FY 2025 full-year continuing resolution, of which ACFC allocated $1.6 billion to TAMS. ACFC estimates that the funding for TAMS supported an estimated 164,213 arrivals in FY 2025, as well as individuals who arrived in the previous fiscal year who were still within their eligibility period. Funding for the program supports eligible populations through various programs and resources. An estimate of the historical estimates by major category are as follows: The TAMS program receives funding from Congress that is available to obligate over a three-year period, allowing unused funds in one year to be carried over and obligated in the next two years. The availability of funds over multiple years helps ACFC respond to fluctuating rates of arrivals of populations eligible Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 21 Funding for the TAMS program - net of any authorized changes such as transfers or reprogramming - for Funding for this program is also used to pay for salaries and benefits, monitoring/on-site review costs, information technology support, overhead, grants paneling, and other related administrative costs.

Extracted from Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, p. 9. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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