Refugee Council USA, a Washington. D.C.-based coalition of two-dozen organizations dedicated to welcoming refugees and protecting the U.S. Resettlement Program, has hired public affairs giant Podesta Group for Capitol Hill representation on budget appropriations issues as they pertain to immigration and refugee policies.

RCUSA has called on Congress to preserve funding for refugee programs in light of the ongoing global crisis involving asylum seekers and economic migrants from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and other nations throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Refugee Council USA

RCUSA has advocated that at least 75,000 refugees be resettled in the U.S. in 2018, and has also requested a continuance of FY17 funding levels for refugee programs within the United States Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Services, the two agencies that manage the federal government’s humanitarian response to refugees.

RCUSA has also requested about $3.6 billion in funding for the State Department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance account, which provides overseas assistance to displaced refugees.

President Trump’s budget proposal for next year, which was submitted to Congress in May, includes a 31 percent cut to refugee funding within the Department of Health and Human Services' Refugee and Entrant Assistance account as well as an 11 percent cut to the State Department’s Refugee Admissions Program.

A four-person team at Podesta manages the account, which includes Rachelle Johnson, a former senior legislative adviser to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and staff member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Dana Thompson, former legislative director and chief counsel to Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-CA) chief of staff to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's (D-TX); Matthew Johnson,  former chief counsel to now-Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX); Kevin McLaughlin, former aide and communications director for Cornyn and director of media affairs during Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) 2008 presidential run.

Washington, D.C.-based Podesta accounted for more than $10 million in net fees last year.