I don’t know exactly what is happening. I don’t have any inside track, but since you all have been calling your members of Congress to defund the Refugee Admissions Program (Rep. Babin’s strategy is a good one), I need to tell you what some House Republicans proposed two days ago.
Go here to page 8 of HR 6071 (Title III Ensuring vetting of refugees to Keep Americans Safe).
It is the same old scam they tried to pull last year where the Director of the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence would certify that individual refugees from only Iraq and Syria would have to be ‘certified’ terror free.
This is what Senator Jeff Sessions said last year when Congress was addressing the same issue!
The Republican Congress decides how many are brought to America by how much funding they make available.
Senator Jeff Sessions last year:
There is only one true check now against the President going it alone: Congressional funding. In his annual budget request, the President asked for more than $1 billion to fund the Refugee Admissions Program. All Congress has to do is make clear that the President’s funding request will not be granted unless he meets certain necessary Congressional requirements – the first of which should be to make clear that Congress, not the President, has the final say on how many refugees are brought into the United States and from where.
Apparently negotiations are on-going between the House and Senate to get the Continuing Budget Resolution done so they can get home to campaign so they can get back in there in January and not do their work again next year.
Will let you know what I learn later today or tomorrow (you may know before me!).
See my tag ‘Where is Congress’ for everything I’ve written on the funding issue in recent weeks.