Refugee Assistance Program Estimates: ORR-2 Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) Program Quarterly Financial Report on Expenditures and Obligations

As required at 8 U.S.C. 1522 and reflected in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) program regulations at 45 CFR §400.11(c), States must submit to the Director, or designee, a financial status report no later than 30 days after the end of each quarter. The ORR-2 Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) Program Quarterly Report on Expenditures and Obligations serves as this report for the CMA grant. The ORR-2 is a single-page financial report that allows ORR to collect the necessary data to ensure that funds are adequate for the projected need and thereby meet the requirements of both the Refugee Act and ORR regulations. ORR reimburses, to the extent of available appropriations, certain non-federal costs for the provision of cash and medical assistance to refugees, along with allowable expenses for the administration of the refugee resettlement program at the state level. States and Replacement Designees (RD) currently submit the ORR-2, which provides aggregate expenditure and obligation data. The ORR-2 collects expenditures and obligations data separately for each of the four CMA program components: refugee cash assistance, refugee medical assistance, cash and medical assistance administration, and services for unaccompanied refugee minors. This breakdown of financial status data allows ORR to track program expenditures in detail, to anticipate any funding issues and to meet the requirements of ORR regulations at 45 CFR §400.211 to collect these data for use in estimating future costs of the refugee resettlement program. Each year after receipt of its annual appropriation, ORR must implement the methodology at 45 CFR §400.211 to ensure that appropriated funds will be adequate for reimbursement to States for the costs of assistance provided to eligible refugees. The estimating methodology prescribed in the regulations requires the use of actual past costs by program component. If the methodology indicates that appropriated funds are inadequate, ORR must take steps to reduce federal expenses, such as by limiting the number of months of eligibility for Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA).

The latest form for Refugee Assistance Program Estimates: ORR-2 Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) Program Quarterly Financial Report on Expenditures and Obligations expires 2029-02-28 and can be found here.