I can’t spend a lot of time on this, but it warrants a bit of attention.
These US Senators have no shame!
What the hell is Senator Grassley doing scolding the White House/State Department, complaining that the legal process was not followed on THIS year’s legally required consultation on the refugee CEILING/CAP.
For the last ten years (and probably the ten before I was watching), Congress never paid any attention to the law when it came to the President’s determination about how many refugees COULD be admitted in the coming fiscal year.
Someone from the Administration would come to the Hill in mid to late September, present the determination and report, and no one on the Hill said boo!
Whatever was sent up, even literally within days of October 1, Congress accepted.
Faux outrage!
Now, only now! are they screaming about how the process was subverted (because it is Trump?).
Go here where I told you almost a month ago what the process is (a process they never followed anyway!).
Here is the complaint initiated by REPUBLICAN Senator Grassley (chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee). Maybe he is getting too old to remember that he gave Obama a pass for the previous 8 years!
From Talking Points Memo (hat tip: Joanne):
Grassley, Feinstein Blast State Dept. For Barely Consulting Them On Refugee Cap
In a blistering statement Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called out the Trump administration for its rushed consultation of the committee before announcing it would lower the refugee cap next year.
Grassley and Feinstein complained that they learned of the refugee cap in the news before they had a meeting with the administration, despite asking months ago for a meeting on the issue. State Department officials met with the members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon, and only scheduled the meeting on Tuesday, per Grassley and Feinstein.
“We are incredibly frustrated that the annual consultation for refugee admissions, which is required by law, was finalized just one day in advance. It is simply unacceptable to read in the press that the administration had reached its decision on the refugee cap before the mandated meeting with Congress had even been scheduled,” Grassley and Feinstein said in the statement.
This post is filed in my ‘Laugh of the day’ category, here. ROFLMAO!
One more thing: A number of years ago I asked my Congressman to see if I could be allowed to attend the “consultation” and was told that the public cannot attend. And, besides, I was told, there isn’t much to see—just a perfunctory handing-off of the determination report sometimes by an Assistant Secretary and not the Secretary of State himself or herself.