H.R. 4995 · Enduring Welcome Act of 2025
The bill to make Enduring Welcome permanent
The Enduring Welcome Act takes the relocation enterprise the United States built after August 2021 and gives it a permanent home in law. It codifies the CARE office, expands its mandate, and forces real transparency. It is bipartisan, and its core provision was stripped from the FY2026 NDAA at the last minute.
Last updated July 27, 2026
Bottom line up front
Make the welcome permanent
The Enduring Welcome Act is the bill that turns an emergency response into durable policy. After August 2021, the United States stood up an interagency machine to relocate the Afghans who served alongside American troops. Most of that machine still runs on temporary authority.
This bill gives it a permanent institutional home. It establishes an Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts inside the State Department, spells out the office's duties, and requires a secure database and reporting to Congress every 90 days. It does not create a new pathway or weaken vetting. It coordinates the pathways that already exist and makes the process accountable.
It is bipartisan. Its core provision, codifying the CARE office, cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was written into the FY2026 NDAA before Republican leadership stripped it out days before that bill became law.
Where AfghanEvac stands
What we are asking Congress to do
The bridge, while this moves. Structure is not status. The Enduring Welcome Act protects the machine that relocates people; it does not protect the people already here whose parole is expiring. Pass the Afghanistan TPS Act as the bridge, and the Enduring Welcome Act as the durable coordinating authority.
At a glance
Section by section
Every claim below is traceable to the introduced text of H.R. 4995.
| Section | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Sec. 3 – Office of the Coordinator | Establishes a permanent Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts inside the State Department and makes the Coordinator its head, building on the CARE role Congress authorized in the FY2025 NDAA. | Gives the relocation enterprise a durable institutional home, not a temporary task force that ends with an administration. |
| Sec. 3(c) – The Coordinator's mandate | Spells out seven core duties, from supporting voluntary departures and interagency vetting to family reunification, integration and medical support, and regular reporting to Congress. | Locks in the specific functions Afghan allies and their American sponsors depend on, so they cannot be quietly dropped. |
| Sec. 4 – Data and transparency | Directs State to build a secure, centralized database of Afghan applicants, beneficiaries, and relocated individuals, and to report to Congress every 90 days on pipeline metrics. | Lets Congress finally see the backlog, the family-separation cases, and the processing times, and hold the process accountable. |
| Sec. 5 – Who the office serves | Defines the covered persons, from U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their families to SIV principals, approved refugees, Operation Allies Welcome families, and caregivers of surviving children. | Ensures family reunification reaches the relatives of active-duty servicemembers and veterans, not just principal applicants. |
| Sec. 6 – Sunset | Sets a five-year sunset on the Act and its authorities, and extends the office's reporting authority from three years to five. | Time-limited by design, but long enough to finish the mission rather than leave it half-done. |
The provisions in full
What each section actually says
Sec. 3 – Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts
Building on what Congress already did. The FY2025 NDAA permanently authorized the CARE coordinator role in section 7810. This bill takes the next step, establishing a formal Office of the Coordinator inside the State Department and making the Coordinator its head, so the function has a home, not just a title.
Section 3 amends section 7810 of the FY2025 NDAA to require the Secretary of State to establish an Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, and to make the Coordinator the head of that office. It converts a coordinating role into a standing institution that survives transitions in leadership.
Sec. 3(c) – The Coordinator's responsibilities
The bill spells out seven duties the Coordinator must carry out:
- Support the voluntary departure of covered persons who request help leaving Afghanistan.
- Lead interagency coordination on vetting, security screening, and case processing with DHS and the Department of Defense.
- Facilitate relocation and resettlement logistics with resettlement support centers and U.S.-based agencies.
- Address family reunification barriers, including cases involving active-duty servicemembers and veterans.
- Coordinate integration support, including trauma recovery and medical care.
- Maintain and analyze a centralized, secure database of applicants, beneficiaries, and relocated individuals.
- Provide timely information to Congress on the status of relocation efforts.
These are not new programs. They are the functions the enterprise already performs, written into law so they cannot be quietly abandoned.
Sec. 4 – Collection of information and database
Section 4 directs the Coordinator to collect data on Afghan applicants, beneficiaries, and relocated individuals, including the number pursuing admission as SIV principals, refugees, or parolees, disaggregated by whether they are in Afghanistan, the United States, or a third country; the number of family reunification cases pending, approved, and completed; average processing times; the number denied or administratively closed and why; and the number of active-duty and veteran-linked family-separation cases.
The State Department must build a secure, centralized database to hold that information, in classified form where necessary, and must report to Congress within 30 days of standing it up and every 90 days after that. This is the accountability that has been missing.
Sec. 5 – Definitions
Section 5 defines the covered persons the office serves. The list runs from U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and their approved immediate relatives to SIV principal applicants and their spouses and children, approved refugees, the spouses and children of people admitted through Operation Allies Welcome, and the primary caregivers of surviving children of fallen allies.
The breadth is the point. It reaches the family members of American servicemembers and veterans, not just principal applicants, which is where reunification most often breaks down.
Sec. 6 – Sunset
The Act and its authorities terminate five years after enactment, except for the ongoing notification duty tied to the database. A conforming amendment extends the office's reporting authority under section 7810 from three years to five.
The sunset is deliberate. It gives the enterprise enough runway to finish the mission without creating a permanent bureaucracy for its own sake.
For the record
What this bill does not do
Precision protects credibility with the staff who have actually read the bill.
- It does not create a new immigration pathway or expand who is eligible for relocation. It coordinates the existing SIV, refugee, and parole pipelines.
- It does not weaken vetting. The findings cite the Justice Department Inspector General's June 10, 2025 review concluding that SIV vetting is rigorous and effective.
- It does not grant permanent status to any individual. It makes the coordinating office durable, not the immigration status of the people it serves.
- It is not an open-ended commitment. A five-year sunset caps it.
How it moved
Legislative timeline
Read the bill yourself
Our analysis is traceable to the text. The primary documents and the broader record live on The Ledger, AfghanEvac's public record.
About this analysis
Prepared by AfghanEvac and updated July 27, 2026. This analysis reflects the text of H.R. 4995 as introduced. We will update this page as the bill moves.
Educational reference only, not legal advice. This analysis is provided for general informational purposes. Immigration law is complex and changes without warning. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs help with an active case, consult a qualified immigration attorney or contact AfghanEvac.