by Matthew Boyle
Newly elected House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
58%
is setting the stage this week to cave to President Barack Obama’s efforts to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees across America, even in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.
On Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET, the House Rules Committee will meet to prepare a bill from House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) that doesn’t end up stopping Syrian refugee resettlement in America. Sources Congress-wide confirm to Breitbart News that McCaul’s bill leaves the entire refugee program unchanged and doesn’t affect funding for the program.
The bill number is H.R. 4038 and its title is the American SAFE Act of 2015. “SAFE” stands for “Security Against Foreign Enemies,” and McCaul has billed the legislation in the headline of a House Homeland Security Committee press release as an act that would “Protect Americans from ISIS.”
“America has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees into our country, and we lead the world in humanitarian assistance. However, we also must put proper measures in place to ensure our country’s safety,” McCaul said.
The bill requires the nation’s top security officials—the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence—to certify before admitting any Syrian or Iraqi refugee into the United States that the individual does not represent a security threat. I sent a letter to President Obama on Monday calling for a temporary suspension of Syrian refugee admissions until a full review of the resettlement program, including vetting security risks, could be completed. It is apparent that the President will ignore these concerns, making this legislation necessary to toughen security measures in order to keep terrorists from infiltrating America disguised as refugees. We cannot afford to play Russian roulette with our national security.
McCaul’s team in the release also claimed: “The American SAFE Act requires comprehensive background checks of every refugee from Iraq or Syria before they can be admitted into the United States and certification that each does not pose a threat.”
A House Homeland Security Committee policy aide told Breitbart News that the bill “institutes an unprecedented process of having the three top national security officials have to personally certify every single refugee, which as you know a number of these top security officials are actually privately opposed to the program.”
“You introduce immediately an antagonist into the process,” the aide said. “Obviously, [FBI director] James Comey has been not too secret about the fact that he feels like he personally cannot certify the security of the vetting process.”
Comey, the aide noted, is a Republican FBI director who is going to outlast Obama’s term as president.
“Every single one of these individuals [refugees] has to go through a two-stage certification process,” the aide said.
Also, the aide noted, there’s a clear effort by the legislation to shift refugee responsibilities from the State Department and Health and Human Services Department over to the intelligence and law enforcement community.
“It is the most dramatic escalation for refugee admissions into the United States for a vetting process,” the aide said. “There has never in history ever been a level where a Cabinet secretary has had to personally affirm every refugee has number one had a background check and doesn’t have any terror ties, and number two ‘I personally certify that that person is not a national security risk to the United States.’ So it’s not just their reputations that are on the line, it’s the integrity of their Departments and agencies that are on the line.”
But despite McCaul’s and the committee’s tough-sounding rhetoric, the bill—several congressional aides and the actual text of the legislation confirm—simply requires one new step for Syrian and Iraqi refugee admittance and resettlement: That the Director of National Intelligence, the director of the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Security approve any such refugees beforehand. Each of those people work for President Obama at the pleasure of the president.
“That’s like asking Janet Napolitano to verify the border is secure,” one GOP aide told Breitbart News. “Of course they are going to approve them without hesitation.”
When asked about these concerns, the McCaul aide said that the extraordinary review process for every refugee will gum up the works and essentially grind the program to a halt.
“Our point here is this is going to have an immediate effect of a pause on the president to do what we have wanted to do all along—to make sure that the vetting process itself is appropriate,” the aide said. “Again, this bill is not designed to stop all refugees from coming into the United States period. The problem that we have identified is we haven’t been able to confidently vet these individuals.”
But another congressional GOP aide from an office highly skeptical of the package told Breitbart News if anyone expects three top officials who serve at the pleasure of the president to rebuff Obama’s wishes they’re kidding themselves.
“If you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona,” the aide said.
The only other detail in the bill is that those officials then have to take that information and report it to Congress at a later date and the Inspector General has to review it.
“The point of the Inspector General review is one extra antagonist in the process and that is for the IG to go through on a risk-based factor and ask if the FBI director, and the DNI director and the DHS Secretary are really doing the right thing,” the Homeland Security aide said. “So at this point, you lose all possibility of Barack Obama and the White House colluding secretly with these cabinet secretaries to jam this through. You have the IG looking over their backs to make sure they’re doing this appropriately and if they’re not that’s the whole point of inserting Congress into this process. Congress has never had a role in this.”
The bill, which is just five pages long, has only two sections. The first just deals with the shortened title of the legislation, while the second section deals with those new requirements.
“Review of Refugees to Identify Security Threats to the United States,” is the second section’s title.
The subheading (a) under section 2 reads “BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION” before detailing the meaningless change to federal statute:
In addition to the screening conducted by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall take all actions necessary to ensure that each covered alien receives a thorough background investigation prior to admission as a refugee. A covered alien may not be admitted as a refugee until the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation certifies to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence that each covered alien has received a background investigation that is sufficient to determine whether the covered alien is a threat to the security of the United States.
Subheading (b) under section 2 reads “CERTIFICATION BY UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE” before detailing how three of the president’s administration officials need to agree on refugees before they can come in:
Article continued: >>>>Here
58%
is setting the stage this week to cave to President Barack Obama’s efforts to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees across America, even in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.
On Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET, the House Rules Committee will meet to prepare a bill from House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) that doesn’t end up stopping Syrian refugee resettlement in America. Sources Congress-wide confirm to Breitbart News that McCaul’s bill leaves the entire refugee program unchanged and doesn’t affect funding for the program.
The bill number is H.R. 4038 and its title is the American SAFE Act of 2015. “SAFE” stands for “Security Against Foreign Enemies,” and McCaul has billed the legislation in the headline of a House Homeland Security Committee press release as an act that would “Protect Americans from ISIS.”
“America has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees into our country, and we lead the world in humanitarian assistance. However, we also must put proper measures in place to ensure our country’s safety,” McCaul said.
The bill requires the nation’s top security officials—the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence—to certify before admitting any Syrian or Iraqi refugee into the United States that the individual does not represent a security threat. I sent a letter to President Obama on Monday calling for a temporary suspension of Syrian refugee admissions until a full review of the resettlement program, including vetting security risks, could be completed. It is apparent that the President will ignore these concerns, making this legislation necessary to toughen security measures in order to keep terrorists from infiltrating America disguised as refugees. We cannot afford to play Russian roulette with our national security.
McCaul’s team in the release also claimed: “The American SAFE Act requires comprehensive background checks of every refugee from Iraq or Syria before they can be admitted into the United States and certification that each does not pose a threat.”
A House Homeland Security Committee policy aide told Breitbart News that the bill “institutes an unprecedented process of having the three top national security officials have to personally certify every single refugee, which as you know a number of these top security officials are actually privately opposed to the program.”
“You introduce immediately an antagonist into the process,” the aide said. “Obviously, [FBI director] James Comey has been not too secret about the fact that he feels like he personally cannot certify the security of the vetting process.”
Comey, the aide noted, is a Republican FBI director who is going to outlast Obama’s term as president.
“Every single one of these individuals [refugees] has to go through a two-stage certification process,” the aide said.
Also, the aide noted, there’s a clear effort by the legislation to shift refugee responsibilities from the State Department and Health and Human Services Department over to the intelligence and law enforcement community.
“It is the most dramatic escalation for refugee admissions into the United States for a vetting process,” the aide said. “There has never in history ever been a level where a Cabinet secretary has had to personally affirm every refugee has number one had a background check and doesn’t have any terror ties, and number two ‘I personally certify that that person is not a national security risk to the United States.’ So it’s not just their reputations that are on the line, it’s the integrity of their Departments and agencies that are on the line.”
But despite McCaul’s and the committee’s tough-sounding rhetoric, the bill—several congressional aides and the actual text of the legislation confirm—simply requires one new step for Syrian and Iraqi refugee admittance and resettlement: That the Director of National Intelligence, the director of the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Security approve any such refugees beforehand. Each of those people work for President Obama at the pleasure of the president.
“That’s like asking Janet Napolitano to verify the border is secure,” one GOP aide told Breitbart News. “Of course they are going to approve them without hesitation.”
When asked about these concerns, the McCaul aide said that the extraordinary review process for every refugee will gum up the works and essentially grind the program to a halt.
“Our point here is this is going to have an immediate effect of a pause on the president to do what we have wanted to do all along—to make sure that the vetting process itself is appropriate,” the aide said. “Again, this bill is not designed to stop all refugees from coming into the United States period. The problem that we have identified is we haven’t been able to confidently vet these individuals.”
But another congressional GOP aide from an office highly skeptical of the package told Breitbart News if anyone expects three top officials who serve at the pleasure of the president to rebuff Obama’s wishes they’re kidding themselves.
“If you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona,” the aide said.
The only other detail in the bill is that those officials then have to take that information and report it to Congress at a later date and the Inspector General has to review it.
“The point of the Inspector General review is one extra antagonist in the process and that is for the IG to go through on a risk-based factor and ask if the FBI director, and the DNI director and the DHS Secretary are really doing the right thing,” the Homeland Security aide said. “So at this point, you lose all possibility of Barack Obama and the White House colluding secretly with these cabinet secretaries to jam this through. You have the IG looking over their backs to make sure they’re doing this appropriately and if they’re not that’s the whole point of inserting Congress into this process. Congress has never had a role in this.”
The bill, which is just five pages long, has only two sections. The first just deals with the shortened title of the legislation, while the second section deals with those new requirements.
“Review of Refugees to Identify Security Threats to the United States,” is the second section’s title.
The subheading (a) under section 2 reads “BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION” before detailing the meaningless change to federal statute:
In addition to the screening conducted by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall take all actions necessary to ensure that each covered alien receives a thorough background investigation prior to admission as a refugee. A covered alien may not be admitted as a refugee until the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation certifies to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence that each covered alien has received a background investigation that is sufficient to determine whether the covered alien is a threat to the security of the United States.
Subheading (b) under section 2 reads “CERTIFICATION BY UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE” before detailing how three of the president’s administration officials need to agree on refugees before they can come in:
Article continued: >>>>Here
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