Bill Would Explore Creating an Office of New Americans

Lawmakers fearing tough times ahead for immigrants and refugees in Vermont expressed support on Tuesday for a bill that could establish an independent Office of New Americans within state government.

Sen. Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden Central) told colleagues that there is an urgent need to coordinate services for immigrants as the federal funding picture looks increasingly bleak.

“I think there is a real existential worry that our refugee office could be in jeopardy depending on what happens with funding from the federal government,” Gulick told members of the Senate Government Operations Committee. “This is a plan for action that could help us in the future.”

Immigrants to Vermont are the fastest-growing working-age demographic and are vital to the state’s economy, Gulick said. But they experience a number of challenges, including language barriers, professional licensing issues and integration into the workforce, she said.

Her bill, S.56, would establish a 14-member committee to study whether to create an Office of New Americans to help coordinate such services, which vary widely from community to community. The committee would have until September 1, 2026, to issue a report on whether the office makes sense and how it would be structured and funded.

The committee would be chaired by Tracy Dolan, director of the Vermont State Refugee Office. That office is currently housed within the state’s Agency of Human Services. It largely coordinates the services provided by three different nonprofit organizations in the state, including the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The refugee office’s mission is much narrower than what is imagined for the Office of New Americans.

Vermont is home to more than 30,000 immigrants, including current or former refugees, asylum seekers and visa holders. Vermont had been expecting 650 additional refugees to settle in the state this year, but only 250 had arrived by the time President Donald Trump took office and ceased all new resettlements.

That means 400 people who had hoped to move here, in many cases to join their families and the local workforce, now cannot, Dolan said.

There is so much more Vermont could be doing to help new Americans settle in Vermont and become a part of the workforce, Dolan said. The office would help expand and coordinate such efforts, she said.

Sen. Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor), who chairs the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee, framed the office as a tool to help grow the economy.

“This workforce is critically important to our state and how it’s going to grow,” Clarkson said. “I applaud this effort.”

Groups working in the field, such as the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, the Vermont Afghan Alliance and the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, would nominate people to serve on the study committee. Lawmakers and officials in the Scott administration would also appoint several members.

The committee’s report would need to summarize the “current demographic, economic and public health data” about new Americans and the services they use. It would also investigate how other states deliver services to this population, whether Vermont should consolidate such services into the new office, and how that office should be structured, staffed and funded.

The committee would meet no more than 20 times and members would receive the state per diem of $50 per day plus expenses, which is what is paid to 20 other standing committees.