Today, House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) and a bipartisan group of senior House and Senate members wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders to urge the delay of planned furloughs and contract cancellations for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  Chairwoman Roybal-Allard and her congressional colleagues wrote to Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and USCIS Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow to explain that USCIS has sufficient funding to continue its operations without interruption through this fiscal year and into the beginning of fiscal year 2021.  The most recent USCIS Immigration Examinations Fee Account (IEFA) projections for costs not reimbursable with premium processing fees indicate that USCIS will not experience a deficit in operational funding until at least November 2020.
 
Click here to read a PDF of the letter.  The text of the letter is below.
 
August 21, 2020 
 
The Honorable Chad F. Wolf
Acting Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528
 
Mr. Joseph Edlow
Deputy Director for Policy
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001 
 
Dear Secretary Wolf and Deputy Director Edlow: 
 
We write to urge the delay of planned furloughs and contract cancellations for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  USCIS has sufficient funding to continue its operations without interruption through this fiscal year and into the beginning of fiscal year 2021.   
 
The USCIS financial situation has improved considerably since the agency first made Congress aware of a potential need for emergency appropriated funds.  As of August 12, 2020, USCIS projects that after funding necessary payroll and other operational expenses, the agency will carry over more than $230 million into fiscal year 2021 and more than $110 million will be carried into November.  These updated projections by the agency reflect an increase in revenue and recoveries totaling over $800 million more than anticipated in the agency’s May notification to Congress. 
 
The most recent USCIS Immigration Examinations Fee Account (IEFA) projections for costs not reimbursable with premium processing fees indicate that USCIS will not experience a deficit in operational funding until at least November 2020.  As a result, the agency does not need to furlough employees or to cancel or descope contracts in fiscal year 2020 in order to remain solvent. 
 
USCIS’s improved financial position and the continued efforts by Congress to ensure the agency’s operational continuity warrant a further delay in furloughs and contract reductions.   We believe this approach is the appropriate path forward for USCIS and its workforce. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Shelley Capito, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Senate Committee on Appropriations
 
Lucille Roybal-Allard, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
House Committee on Appropriations 
 
Jon Tester, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Senate Committee on Appropriations
 
Chuck Fleischmann, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
House Committee on Appropriations 
 
John Cornyn, Chairman
Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
 
Zoe Lofgren, Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship
House Committee on the Judiciary
 
Richard J. Durbin, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Immigration
Senate Committee on the Judiciary

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