Community-based Refugee Reception Act of 2025

The Community-based Refugee Reception Act of 2025 would create a new Community-based Refugee Reception Program within the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. It would enable community sponsorships, private sponsorships, and partnerships between resettlement agencies and community groups to provide refugees with initial reception and placement services for at least 90 days after arrival. The bill also expands access for refugees of special humanitarian concern, allowing them to be processed through this pathway if referred by eligible community sponsorship groups, and it sets criteria for who can participate as a sponsorship group, including training, funding, and biographic reporting requirements. The program would be supported by public-private funding arrangements, with oversight provisions, reporting to state/local governments, and protections to ensure continuity of support and accountability. The sense-of-Congress section emphasizes the economic and global-security rationale for expanding reception models and calls for resumption of refugee processing for all nationalities under consideration. Note: The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Senators Murphy and Blumenthal and is introduced and referred to the Judiciary Committee. The “sense of Congress” statements are non-binding, while the core provisions would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to create and govern the new program and sponsorship framework. The bill also authorizes future appropriations to fund the program.