DeGette, Trahan Lead Request for Shelter and Services Program Funding Boost

Posted: March 14, 2024

Rep. Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) led a group of House members requesting $3 billion on March 12, in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program (SSP) that provides funding to states and municipalities to support migrant arrivals.

“Local communities across the country have stepped up to provide humanitarian support to those in need. In Woburn, Massachusetts local community leaders and school teachers worked to clothe and feed migrants. In Denver, one neighborhood Facebook mom’s group has grown to multiple parts of the city, helping migrant families with everything from clothing and food to transportation to various meetings and appointments,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, without additional federal resources these communities and so many others can only do so much. There is a resounding need from cities and towns across the country for increased federal support to provide migrants with short term humanitarian services.”

The request sent on March 12, pointed to the immigration court backlog, which can force some migrants to wait up to six years for an initial hearing, as well as the 150-day work moratorium that has forced state and local governments to provide shelter and support services that can total tens of millions of dollars per month. The request sent on March 12, to House appropriators expressed the urgency in allocating a total of $3 billion in federal funding for the SSP program for Fiscal Year 2024 to get desperately needed federal funds surged to states experiencing an increase in migrant arrivals.

“Multiple bipartisan groups of lawmakers have worked toward immigration compromises, including the recently unveiled national security supplemental negotiated by Senate Democrats and Republicans,” the lawmakers continued. “However, the bipartisan Senate deal has already been discarded and House Republican leadership has not expressed intent to bring bipartisan immigration reform to the floor before the election. Congressional gridlock on immigration reform has exacerbated the need for SSP dollars to support affected cities and towns.”

Members who signed the letter sent on March 12, include Representatives James P. McGovern (MA-02), Dan Goldman (NY-10), Jason Crow (CO-06), William R. Keating (MA-09), Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Robert García (CA-42), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07), Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-04), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Sean Casten (IL-06), Jonathan L. Jackson (IL-01), and Robert J. Menendez (NJ-08).

This letter comes after several pushes for additional federal aid from Rep. DeGette. In December 2023, DeGette joined members of the Colorado Democratic Congressional Delegation in writing to FEMA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security expressing concerns about the lack of federal funding going to non-border states like Colorado experiencing a significant arrival of migrants. That letter requested additional federal support for shelter and service programs.

In May 2023, DeGette co-led members of the Colorado House Democratic delegation in sending a letter to President Biden urging him to help alleviate issues surrounding the surge of migrant arrivals by expediting the release of existing federal funds. Those funds would provide critical support to interior cities like Denver that are experiencing an influx of migrants while also continuing to provide updates to migrants and asylum seekers on legal pathways for entry and processing.

Read the full letter here.