Presidential Determination No. 2025-14 transfers initial refugee resettlement from State to HHS

The determination moves administration of initial resettlement grants and contracts — the Reception and Placement program — from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, on stated grounds of eliminating duplication, ensuring coordination "with State and local jurisdictions," and supporting "early economic self-sufficiency and assimilation into American society." It directs State and HHS to transfer responsibilities, personnel and resources. The effect is to strip PRM of its domestic resettlement function and to place placement decisions closer to the state-and-local-involvement objective set out in EO 14163 — relevant to LGBTQI+ and transgender refugees, whose placement historically depended on matching to receptive communities and affirming service providers.