Finally Republicans Get Some Guts.

House votes to block refugees from Syria, Iraq despite White House veto threat

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON (TNS) — Tapping into heightened security fears after the Paris terrorist attacks, House Republicans — joined by Democrats — rebuffed President Barack Obama on Thursday and overwhelmingly approved legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the U.S.

Faced with a White House veto, Republican leaders in Congress are threatening to include the restrictions in a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government running past Dec. 11, raising the specter of another government shutdown.

The House bill would require leaders of the nation’s security apparatus — the heads of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI and the director of national intelligence — to certify that refugees who are admitted pose no security threat.

The White House, which has proposed admitting at least 10,000 refugees to the U.S. this fiscal year from war-torn Syria, said the House bill creates “unnecessary and impractical requirements,” noting the current screening process is already rigorous and takes up to 24 months. Critics say the legislation would essentially shut down the program. Prospects for passing the measure in the Senate remain uncertain.

The House approved the measure 289-137, with several dozen Democrats joining Republicans, crossing the threshold needed to overcome a presidential veto. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed that a veto would be sustained.

The issue has lit up the presidential campaign trail, with Republicans divided and Democrats siding with the White House.

“Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims … that’s just not who we are,” said Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Republicans, who say the current vetting process cannot guarantee terrorist sympathizers won’t slip into the U.S. undetected, may decide to test Obama’s resolve in the weeks ahead. The political battle is taking shape as a slight majority of Americans in two new polls said they wanted to restrict Syrians coming to the U.S.

Conservative groups, including Heritage Action, opposed the measure, saying it did not go far enough in curtailing security risks. They want to block part of the broader $500 million the State Department has requested for its refugee settlement program worldwide next year.

Top Republican senators, including presidential candidates Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, proposed tougher measures. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also running for the GOP presidential nomination, opposes blocking Syrian refugees.

Cruz had suggested permitting only Christian refugees from Syria into the country, but such a condition is not part of the House bill.

Despite the robust bipartisan support in the House, the issue has split along partisan lines among the public.

Eight in 10 Republicans disapprove of admitting more Syrian refugees, while two-thirds of Democrats agree with the White House, according to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll released on the eve of the vote. Independents side mostly with Republicans on the issue, according to the poll.

Senate Democrats were preparing an alternative measure to slap controls on a visa waiver program, which currently allows up to 20 million visitors a year from certain countries to enter the U.S. without biometric and in-person screening. Some experts say loopholes in the waiver program pose the bigger security problem.

“The country is uneasy and unsettled,” said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). “Our first priority is to protect the American people. We can be compassionate, but we can also be safe.”

The administration is struggling to tamp down opposition to the decades-old resettlement program that has enjoyed bipartisan support since it was launched in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

But for many House Democrats under pressure to show they are tough on terrorists, the issue is “toxic” at home, according to one Democratic aide. A morning meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and White House chief of staff Denis McDonough before the vote “was not going over well,” according to the aide, granted anonymity to discuss the private session.

White House officials say the House restrictions are unneeded. Unlike the steady stream of male migrants flowing into Europe from Syria, the State Department says those admitted to the U.S. are different demographically.

Half of the Syrian refugees are children and young people, and 24 percent are males over the age of 21, according to the State Department’s Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System. The vast majority of those men are coming with family members rather than alone, according to the State Department.

Of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in recent years, the administration said “not a single one has been arrested or deported on terrorism-related grounds.”

Also Thursday, FBI Director James B. Comey announced that while U.S. law enforcement officials were on heightened alert following the Paris attacks and pledges by Islamic State to strike New York and Washington, federal law enforcement agents had not substantiated any “credible” threats at this time.

–Lisa Mascaro
Tribune Washington Bureau

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(Tribune Washington Bureau staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this report.)

The War Begins Between Republicans And Conservative Groups. This Will Guarantee A Democratic Victory!

Conservative Groups To Boehner: You Want A War? You Got It.

December 13, 2013 by Sam Rolley

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lashed out against “outside” conservative organizations this week for criticizing an $85 billion bipartisan budget compromise that many conservatives feel doesn’t do enough to cut spending. Now, conservative groups are ramping up their criticisms of the Speaker.

The lawmaker didn’t name any specific groups during a critical press conference Thursday, but it is well known that organizations like Heritage Action and Club for Growth have called out Boehner for his willingness to meet Democrats’ demands in the past. The House Speaker said that the “outside” groups, which have strongly supported many Tea Party candidates, have gone too far this time.

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin responded, saying that Boehner has declared war on the American people for trying to hold politicians accountable.

She said:

Speaker Boehner thinks ‘outside groups’ are the problem? Does he really think the American voters who are involved in the tea party, who got him elected, should not demand accountability of their elected representatives?

The Speaker’s anger and ire is misdirected towards the wrong people. President Obama is choosing whether to enforce laws in the country or not by whim. He changes policy through press conferences and tweets. He rewrites law by fiat.  Members of Congress renege on their pledges not to spend more or increases taxes on hardworking Americans.

Martin also issued a stern warning to Boehner, the “ruling class politician” who only pretends to be conservative while remaining a “tax-and-spend liberal”:

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, continuously making promises and then breaking them is how you lose credibility with the American people. Pitting your colleagues against their constituents is how you lose credibility with your conference.  Not upholding conservative principles is how you lose credibility with the voters who will find someone else if you are not willing to do your job.

Meanwhile, Heritage Action said that Boehner is simply trying to pick a fight because a political quarrel will serve to distract Americans from a serious conversation about inadequacies in the budget proposal.

“The Speaker is trying to turn this into a boring fight between outside groups and himself so we are not having a policy debate about whether or not this is a good deal,” Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham said Friday.

Needham added, “This deal increases spending, this deal increases taxes. And that is bad for the county and that is what we want to be focused on.”

Furthermore, according to Needham, Boehner is giving conservatives a taste of what to expect when immigration reform debates begin next year.

Responding to Boehner’s charge that certain conservative groups knew the government shutdown strategy wouldn’t be a success for the GOP in repealing Obamacare, but pushed conservative lawmakers to support it nonetheless, Needham said: “The Speaker is being absurd.”

Needham noted that Heritage hasn’t even been working to totally repeal Obamacare in recent months, which he sees as impossible as long as President Barack Obama is in office.

“If I thought we could repeal Obamacare I would have spent the month of August on a ‘repeal Obamacare’ tour. We spent it on a defund tour,” he said.

Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one of the authors of the controversial budget deal, sought to soften Boehner’s criticism along with conservative blowback on Friday.

“He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached a budget agreement,” Ryan said, according to The Hill.

Ryan went on to try to distance himself from Boehner’s stance.

“I was frustrated, too,” he said. “But I think these are very important elements of our conservative family. I would prefer to keep those conversations within the family. And I think he was just basically voicing his frustration with their opposition before we had reached our agreement.”

He added: “I think these taxpayer groups are indispensable to keeping taxpayer interest accounted for, keeping people accountable. And we sometimes have difference of opinions on tactics. We all believe the same thing with respect to our ultimate goal.”