Legislation that would halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States passed the House with broad bipartisan support today, as President Obama’s team failed to assure even many Democrats that the current resettlement process is secure.
The bill cleared the House with 289 votes, a veto-proof majority that includes 47 Democrats. “If our law-enforcement and intelligence community cannot verify that each and every person coming here is not a security threat, then they shouldn’t be allowed in,” House speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said during his Thursday press briefing. “Right now, the government can’t certify these standards, so this plan pauses the program.”
By abjuring an outright ban on refugee resettlement, House Republicans avoided the political vulnerabilities of the positions taken by some GOP presidential candidates. And the emphasis on certification proved compelling to House Democrats, even in the face of pressure from the administration.
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough tried to rally Democrats during a Thursday morning briefing at the Capitol, alongside Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. It’s a familiar task for McDonough; last December, he quelled a Democratic revolt against the “cromnibus” government-funding package that had appeared fated for defeat just hours earlier.
#share#This time, their pitch backfired, with multiple reports suggesting that McDonough and Johnson actually lost support as the meeting went on. Obama’s opposition to the requirement that his team certify that none of the refugees are security threats was a key sticking point. “They have persuaded us that this is a really good [screening] process, but they don’t want to certify it,” Representative Jim Himes (D., Conn.) told the Washington Post. “That’s an inherently difficult argument to make.”
#related#FBI director James Comey has told lawmakers and administration officials that such a certification is impossible to provide. “There are always risks in allowing any foreigners into the U.S., Comey told the officials, adding that the FBI believes it has an effective process with intelligence and other agencies to conduct vetting of refugees,” according to CNN.
Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said that his colleagues will filibuster the bill, which would render moot both Obama’s veto threat and the House’s supermajority. “I don’t think we’ll be dealing with it over here,” he told reporters Thursday.
— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.