The continuing budget resolution has destroyed Congress' power to limit government

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans want to limit it!

Readers, you might prefer juicy and outrageous stories about immigrant and refugee crimes, about security screening, about what Trump and Hillary are doing today, about resettlement contractors rolling in your money, about immigrant fraud, about George Soros and his ilk, about progressives (Dems!) changing America by changing its people, but there is only one issue now, as boring as it might be, and that is that the Republican leadership in Congress has sold you out for more than two decades and it is they who are changing America by changing its people by not standing up for you and the US Constitution first!
This is the next installment in my recent civics lesson (I’m learning this too!) in what I hope is not a vain (time wasting) effort to focus your attention on the Republicans in Congress.

the-ruling-class
https://www.amazon.com/Ruling-Class-Angelo-M-Codevilla-ebook/dp/B0040JHNZW

Below is an excellent (2013) explanation by author Angelo Codevilla about how Congressional leaders (Rs and Ds) have subverted the Constitution to advance permanent ruling class control over our government and your money! Hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum.
From Library of Law and Liberty (sorry to snip so much but please read this and then continue reading the whole article):

The current battle over whether the 2013 Continuing Appropriations Resolution (CR) should de-fund Obamacare or not [substitute this year’s battle over refugee funding—ed] is the latest instance in which the CR mechanism is being used on behalf of a big government program the demise of which would be certain were Congress to play its Constitutional role by following its “regular order” as the keeper of the people’s purse – a role fundamental to democracy.

Herewith, a brief explanation of how new the CR system of funding the US government is, and how radically subversive of republican government. Important to America as Obamacare’s fate may be, the current battle’s stake is nothing less than whether the people can control government through their representatives or whether government can define its own scope and powers.

Since the Middle Ages, the first and most basic restraint on arbitrary government has been the people’s power to decide how much money the government will spend, and for what purposes. The US Constitution puts it this way: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of Appropriations made by law” (Art. I sect.9). Nowadays however our bipartisan ruling class limits the Congress’ opportunity to approve, disapprove, or modify what the government does, to voting on “Continuing Appropriations Resolutions” – single, all-inclusive bills crafted behind closed doors. Then it cynically asks the people’s representatives: “will you agree to laws no one has read, to programs on the continuation of which you have not voted, and to regulations that haven’t been written yet, or will you shut down the government?” This turns democracy into a choice between tyranny and anarchy.

Until circa 1990, Americans had taken seriously the relationship between appropriations and democracy. House and Senate used to divide the Executive departments’ requests for funds and programs into multiple categories and sub-categories. Then many committees and subcommittees held hearings on each item, followed by “mark-up” sessions in which each would be modified and voted on. Thereafter, the full House and Senate would debate, amend, approve or disapprove them, one by one. This was “regular order” – more or less as described in civics books.

This changed at first gradually in the 1980s, when Democrats (and Republicans) who were resisting the Reagan Administration’s efforts to trim government figured out that individual appropriations bills delayed until the end of the fiscal year could be rolled together into “omnibus” bills. These could be advertised as merely “continuing” the current year’s programs and spending levels. In reality, these all-in-one bills 1) protected current programs from scrutiny, amendment, or repeal 2) were stuffed with new favors, programs, provisions and priorities that could not have survived an open process.

[….]

…. the Republican leadership, by acquiescing in the practice of funding the government by Continuing Resolutions rather than by individual appropriations has emasculated the most virile means by which mankind has ever limited government.

Continue reading here.

And, so here we are again, in the fall of 2016, and Congress is doing the same damn thing!

If you are saying, it is too late this year (maybe next year will be a better year if Trump is President) and these mostly globalists we have elected are never going to rein-in (in our case) the out of control spending for the US Refugee Admissions Program, then quit reading right now.

But, I say that even if we have not even a snowball’s chance in hell of slowing the flow of our money to this program, we must still let everyone of our Congressmen and US Senators know we are mad as hell about it and we aren’t going to forget what they are doing to America!

At this point I should be linking contact information for you to contact your Washington ‘lawmakers,’ but I won’t because if you don’t know by now how to find them you are part of the problem. Tell them to shut it down now!
Next, more on the House Freedom Caucus and how you are being played!
See my tag ‘Where is Congress’ for more on funding refugee resettlement.  Forget Obama and forget the Dems, the power is in the hands of the Republicans in the House and Senate!
Update: Be sure to see what the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm of the refugee industry) is saying about contacting Congress, here. Remember they mention RRW in their toolkit.

ORR snubs Michigan elected official, says it is his duty to find out about quarterly meetings

We have reported on the legally required quarterly ‘stakeholder’ meetings that are held (or should be held) in every community being seeded with refugees.  Those meetings are largely secretive with few (if any) being announced in local newspaper public notices.  (Here is what we said in May 2015, and in October 2015 about the quarterly consultations).  LOL! they have only been holding the legally required consultations since 2013 as you will see in my October 2015 post.

bob_carey_large_photo_1-1
This is Bob Carey, the Director of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). ORR is in Health and Human Services. Carey was formerly a VP at the federal contractor International Rescue Committee. Where is Congress, couldn’t they disallow this revolving door between government agency and contractor (and back again!)?

We assume that the resettlement contractors only want to include ‘their’ people and the fewest number possible representing impacted agencies in the community, thus the secrecy.
From Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:

Robert Carey, the Obama administration’s director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), recently told Oakland County, Michigan that the agency he directs has no intention of complying with the Refugee Act of 1980‘s requirement that it “consult regularly …with local governments concerning the sponsorship process and the intended distribution among the States and localities before their placement in those States and localities.”

[….]

Carey places the burden for finding out about these “consultation” meetings and attending them on Oakland County. The Refugee Act of 1980, however, requires both the director of ORR and “the federal agency administering the program,” which could mean an employee of ORR, to consult with the locality prior to the placement of refugees there. The statute does not include any provision to accomplish this consultation through the State Refugee Coordinator, who actually is an employee of the state government, not a representative of the federal bureaucracy.

Continue reading here to see the exchange between Carey and local elected government officials in Oakland County.

Now you should call Carey out on his assertion that the State Refugee Coordinators are the ones to call to get invited to the quarterly consultations. 

Here is the list of State Refugee Coordinators.  Get on the phone today and tell yours that you are a stakeholder (a taxpayer footing the bill) and you want to be notified of the next quarterly meeting near where you live. There will likely be one in September.
If you get snubbed, or get no response….
Then take the next step and call or write to your elected officials in Washington (your Member of Congress and US Senators) and complain and tell them you want the budget cut for refugee resettlement for FY2017 as well! Nothing short of cutting off the taxpayer spigot will stop the invasion and the Republicans in Congress control the flow of money!
Our complete Michigan archive is here.  And, don’t miss Leahy this week as well about how Michigan health officials are hiding information on the health status of refugees resettled to the state.

Visit Secure Michigan!  This is a model for what you should be doing where you live—publish a state blog on the refugee program.  It does no good if you do all sorts of research and then not share the information you find with a growing number of concerned citizens in your state!

Where are legally required hearings in House and Senate on Obama refugee plan for FY2017?

President Barack Hussein Obama will send his final ‘determination’ letter to Capitol Hill this month with the number of refugees (200,000?) he wants admitted to the country in Fiscal Year 2017 which begins in 23 days!  I’m guessing the letter and the required report won’t be delivered until his big show at the UN on September 20th.

goodlatte-and-gowdy
In the House, hammer Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Rep. Trey Gowdy. Goodlatte is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Gowdy is chairman of the immigration subcommittee. In the Senate it is Chairman Chuck Grassley and Subcommittee chairman Jeff Sessions who are responsible for holding a hearing on Obama’s 2017 proposal.

That gives little time for Congress to do the job legally required of it under the Refugee Act of 1980 and that is to hold hearings in both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. However since both committees know what is required of them, they could have the hearings on their respective committee calendars for the week immediately following the 20th. I am not seeing anything on either of their calendars.

I won’t stop beating this drum!  The number of refugees admitted to the US this coming year will depend on the REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS (not on Obama!). 

They can cut the funding for the program and thus cut the number of refugees placed in your towns! If they want to!

Last year was the first year in many, many years where the House Judiciary Committee and Senate Judiciary Committees held any legally required hearing on the President’s plan and that is only because so many of you were clamoring for hearings in light of the huge Syrian numbers being proposed (you know the number will be even bigger this year, Hillary wants 65,000!).
But, both hearings came after the fiscal year had begun. See here and here (too little too late).
Because they want to get home and campaign this fall, they will have adjourned and there will be no hearings in October, therefore we must demand a hearing in both committees this month!
This is what I said last year on September 13th, click here.
Here is what the law says.  I doubt most of this ever happens!

STATUTE-94-Pg102

“SEC. 207. (a)(1) Except as provided in subsection Q)), the number of
refugees who may be admitted under this section in fiscal year 1980,
1981, or 1982, may not exceed fifty thousand unless the President
determines, before the beginning of the fiscal year and after appropriate
consultation (as defined in subsection (e)), that admission of a
specific number of refugees in excess of such number is justified by
humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.

“(2) Except as provided in subsection (b), the number of refugees
who may be admitted under this section in any fiscal year after fiscal
year 1982 shall be such number as the President determines, before
the beginning of the fiscal year and after appropriate consultation, is
justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national
interest.

“(3) Admissions under this subsection shall be allocated among
refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in
accordance with a determination made by the President after appropriate
consultation.

[….]

“(d)(1) Before the start of each fiscal year the President shall report
to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives
and of the Senate regarding the foreseeable number of refugees who
will be in need of resettlement during the fiscal year and the
anticipated allocation of refugee admissions during the fiscal year.

The President shall provide for periodic discussions between designated
representatives of the President and members of such committees
regarding changes in the worldwide refugee situation, the
progress of refugee admissions, and the possible need for adjustments
in the allocation of admissions among refugees.

“(2) As soon as possible after representatives of the President
initiate appropriate consultation with respect to the number of
refugee admissions under subsection (a) or with respect to the
admission of refugees in response to an emergency refugee situation
under subsection (b), the (Committees on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives and of the Senate shall cause to have printed in the
Congressional Record the substance of such consultation.

“(3)(A) After the President initiates appropriate consultation prior
to making a determination under subsection (a), a hearing to review
the proposed determination shall be held unless public disclosure of
the details of the proposal would jeopardize the lives or safety of individuals.

[….]

“(e) For purposes of this section, the term ‘appropriate consultation*
means, with respect to the admission of refugees and allocation
of refugee admissions, discussions in person by designated
Cabinet-level representatives of the President with members of the
Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and of the House of
Representatives to review the refugee situation or emergency refugee
situation, to project the extent of possible participation of the United
States therein, to discuss the reasons for believing that the proposed
admission of refugees is justified by humanitarian concerns or grave
humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest, and
to provide such members with the following information:

“(1) A description of the nature of the refugee situation.

“(2) A description of the number and allocation of the refugees
to be admitted and an analysis of conditions within the countries
from which they came.

“(3) A description of the proposed plans for their movement
and resettlement and the estimated cost of their movement and
resettlement.

“(4) An analysis of the anticipated social, economic, and
demographic impact of their admission to the United States.

“(5) A description of the extent to which other countries will
admit and assist in the resettlement of such refugees.

“(6) An analysis of the impact of the participation of the United
States in the resettlement of such refugees on the foreign policy
interests of the United States.

“(7) Such additional information as may be appropriate or
requested by such members.

To the extent possible, information described in this subsection shall
be provided at least two weeks in advance of discussions in person by
designated representatives of the President with such members.

For all of my recent posts on the role Congress SHOULD be playing involving refugees, see my tag ‘Where is Congress.’

Endnote! When you write or otherwise communicate with your Washington ‘lawmakers’ tell them you expect to see hearings required by law on the President’s ‘determination’ for FY2017 this month!

Overloaded Buffalo, NY running out of housing for refugees; bring in prefabs?

Update September 9th: Be sure to see Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage magazine on ‘The Invasion of Buffalo’ here.
So what else is new.  We told you here just the other day that Missoula, MT, which is getting its first refugees, can’t even find housing for the first arrivals.
Obama’s resettlement contractors are plowing ahead nevertheless trying to hit the 85,000 mark for this fiscal year (see here).  I wonder does the US State Department give them a pass on their contracts which require providing a properly-sized house or apartment so they can get those bodies in here before the bell tolls midnight on Sept. 30th?
And, what makes them think they will have housing for 200,000 next year when they can’t find it for 85,000 this year? (If your town is gleefully building low income housing, be ready for refugees!)
Buffalo has been a long-established refugee site but gee, not enough affordable housing so now some are suggesting bringing in prefabricated housing—can you say refugee camp!
From WIVB Buffalo:

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- The number of refugees coming to Buffalo continues to grow. In 2016, more than 1,000 refugees have been resettled in the Queen City, according to city officials.

screenshot-8
With 20,000 refugees (most are on food stamps) in the city of Buffalo, it is no surprise that food stamp fraud has developed as a subsidiary industry and is rampant as we saw in this recent story. These women are angry that their Muslim husband and father was arrested for allegedly scamming you out of $2 million. Diversity is so beautiful! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/09/02/buffalony-another-food-stamp-fraud-bust-flipping-the-bird-to-america/

The growth has rejuvenated the West Side but now resettlement agencies are struggling to find housing.

“If I had 10 more multi family income properties in this neighborhood, I’d fill every one of them,” said Michael Maywalt, owner of Maywalt Realty. “The demand is very, very strong for additional refugee families to come and be with folks from their own countries.”

[….]

“In this neighborhood there’s a high concentration of Iraqi families, Burma, Nepal and more recently from Afghanistan and Syria,” said Maywalt.

He said his company is starting to look outside of Blackrock to expand, as they work to accommodate the growing number of refugees coming to Buffalo.

City officials told News 4 there are now about 20,000 refugees living in the city.

“We need more good quality housing stock and it’s not necessarily available for an affordable price in the locations that we’re looking,” said Denise Beehag, Director of Refugee Resettlement for International Institute. [This is another USCRI subcontractorLavinia Limon—ed]

The US State Department allots $2025 per head (per refugee) and here we see that USCRI keeps as much as $1100 of it for their office overhead and staff salaries. (The contractors get other money from HHS.)

Beehag said after administrative costs are taken out only about $925- $1,125 is actually available for them to use towards rent, the security deposit, furniture, clothing and other necessities.

[….]

Ozay [a local college professor] says there could be an opportunity for developers to work with resettlement agencies to apply for state or preservation grants to help create affordable housing.

Another idea they came up with was bringing in prefabricated houses.

“There’s actually a larger sort of affordable housing need in the city and we thought this could be a tool to facilitate this need as well,” said Ozay.

Continue here.
For our complete archive on Buffalo, click here.  I recommend some local reporters use this archive for a more complete picture of what has happened with Buffalo over the years.

Target House Freedom Caucus before September 15th, tell them to halt all funding for expanded refugee program

Update September 8th: The Freedom Caucus seems to be discussing how to throw us a bone by way of an amendment to the Continuing Resolution. Congress could still cut the funding without a complicated amendment. (Will have more later.) In the meantime, a reader suggests calling Members’ district offices, tell them to cut all funding for refugees and if they don’t respond, put together a demonstration in front of the district office, take photos and get them a little unwanted publicity.
What is happening September 15th? That is the day the federal resettlement contractors (that masquerade as non-profits) say they are dropping off those postcards at the US Capitol demanding more refugees (200,000!) be admitted to the US beginning on October first (the first day of the new fiscal year).  More refugees require billions more of your (taxpayer) dollars to fly them here and place them in your towns.
This is all part of the Obama Administration’s lead-up to the big pow-wow at the UN and their final push to change America by changing its people.

andy-harris
Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland is the only Member of Congress who is on the Appropriations Committee and is a member of the Freedom Caucus. If you live in Maryland let him know how you feel about funding for more refugees, especially Syrians to be resettled in Maryland

No funding=no refugees!

The contractors*** have almost no money of their own, so they need yours!
Will the Republicans you sent to Congress curtail the funding or open the US Treasury spigot? That is the question as we head to the November election!

To help you target those in a position to make that decision, see first the House and Senate Appropriations Committee lists I posted here the other day.
Then here (below) are the Members of the House that you MIGHT be able to persuade.  This is the House so-called Freedom Caucus (House Tea Party Caucus is now defunct).  I have serious doubts about some of these members since the pro-open borders (cheap labor!) Koch brothers play a role in supporting the caucus.
So, just for curiosity sake, if your member is on this list, I suggest checking with NumbersUSA Congressional score card and see how they score with their votes on immigration issues generally. But, no matter what they scored, tell them what you think about importing poverty to your towns at your expense.
Here are the members of the Freedom Caucus:

Jim Jordan of Ohio, Chair
Justin Amash of Michigan
Brian Babin of Texas
Rod Blum of Iowa
Dave Brat of Virginia
Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma
Mo Brooks of Alabama
Ken Buck of Colorado
Curt Clawson of Florida
Warren Davidson of Ohio
Ron DeSantis of Florida
Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee
Jeff Duncan of South Carolina
John Fleming of Louisiana
Trent Franks of Arizona
Scott Garrett of New Jersey
Louie Gohmert of Texas
Paul Gosar of Arizona
Morgan Griffith of Virginia
Andy Harris of Maryland
Jody Hice of Georgia
Walter Jones of North Carolina
Steve King of Iowa
Raúl Labrador of Idaho
Barry Loudermilk of Georgia
Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming
Mark Meadows of North Carolina
Alex Mooney of West Virginia
Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina
Gary Palmer of Alabama
Steve Pearce of New Mexico
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
Ted Poe of Texas
Bill Posey of Florida
Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania
Matt Salmon of Arizona
Mark Sanford of South Carolina
David Schweikert of Arizona
Marlin Stutzman of Indiana
Randy Weber of Texas
Ted Yoho of Florida

One name inexplicably missing from the list is Rep. Tim Huelskamp from Kansas who lost his primary and many blame the loss on  Speaker Paul Ryan (see here).
Is your Member of Congress listed above? Or, a member of the House or Senate Appropriations Committee?
If so, by the 15th of September tell him or her, in no uncertain terms, how you feel about billions of tax dollars being spent to import poverty and security risks into the US.
If you don’t have a member on any of these lists, you are not off the hook, tell your Republican Washington reps (tell Dems too) you want to cut the funding for the program for FY2017 (and copy whatever you send to Speaker Paul Ryan). Tell them you know they have the power of the purse, not Obama!
~You should write a letter to your DC lawmakers and be sure to ask questions so that they must answer something! (Do it the old fashioned way, write a real letter and ask for a response within 10 days).
~You could picket outside their local office back home.
~You could travel to Washington and insist on a meeting in their office on the subject of refugees. (I might be able to go with some of you.)
~Try to get on local and national talk radio shows and tell the audience that the number of refugees admitted to America in 2017 depends on Republicans in Congress (not on what Obama wishes).
~You could get a petition together that includes local citizens demanding a halt to the funding until we are all given assurances on the security issue.
~You should write letters to your local newspaper and encourage your friends to do the same. Use the opportunity to tell a refugee horror/crime story. The Leftwing propagandists love “stories,” but you have some too!
~You could find out who is contributing to your Washington reps’ political campaigns and expose any corporations that are on the hunt for cheap immigrant labor.
~You could get your local Republican Club, Tea Party (or other civic groups) to write the member a letter urging that they get involved in cutting the funds for the program.
~You must tell all your facebook friends to tell their Washington reps to cut the budget for refugee resettlement for fiscal year 2017.
~If any elected officials at the local or state level oppose the program, get them to write or call your Washington lawmakers.
~If you have a local resettlement office involved with a ‘faith’ group, expose them in letters to the editor for taking federal money for phony charitable work.
~You could hold a community forum on the topic of refugees sometime this month (probably not enough time before the 15th, but certainly for the end of the month) and invite your member of Congress.
~You could start a blog and call it Senator ____ Watch and report everything that Senator does on the immigration issue going forward.
Do something please!  And, send my latest video to everyone you know!
***These are the nine major resettlement contractors that monopolize all refugee resettlement in America, under them are 350 or so subcontractors. They will be out in force on Capitol Hill on the 15th pretending to be driven by humanitarian zeal, but in fact will be there to beat the drum for more money: