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The U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passed Republican-backed legislation on Thursday to suspend Obama's program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year and then intensify the process of screening them.
The measure, quickly drafted this week following the Islamic State attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people, was approved on a vote of 289 to 137, with 47 of Obama's 188 fellow Democrats breaking with the White House to support it.
The vote came despite a last-ditch appeal for Democratic votes from Jeh Johnson, Obama's secretary of Homeland Security, and Denis McDonough, his chief of staff.
It followed a testy exchange between lawmakers and State Department official Anne Richard. Republicans responded with incredulity to her assertion at a House hearing that there is only a "very, very small" threat of any of the Syrian refugees being a "terrorist."
Some Republicans have asserted that some refugees could be militants bent on attacking the United States, noting reports that at least one Paris attacker may have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece.
The bill, which would create the strictest U.S. screening ever of refugees from a war-torn nation, passed with the two-thirds majority that the House would need to override a presidential veto. It now goes to the Senate, also controlled by Republicans.
While many Americans see the United States historically as welcoming to immigrants, accepting refugees from Syria has raised concerns the newcomers may pose a national security threat in a country where about 3,000 people were killed by al Qaeda militants in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The measure passed on a 289-137 vote, representing a veto-proof majority. It now goes to the Senate. But 47 Democrats — in a significant rebuke of the administration — defected to support the bill, ignoring White House appeals to oppose it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/19/us-paris-shooting-congress-idUSKCN0T82PG20151119
LOL
Suck it liberals...
The measure, quickly drafted this week following the Islamic State attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people, was approved on a vote of 289 to 137, with 47 of Obama's 188 fellow Democrats breaking with the White House to support it.
The vote came despite a last-ditch appeal for Democratic votes from Jeh Johnson, Obama's secretary of Homeland Security, and Denis McDonough, his chief of staff.
It followed a testy exchange between lawmakers and State Department official Anne Richard. Republicans responded with incredulity to her assertion at a House hearing that there is only a "very, very small" threat of any of the Syrian refugees being a "terrorist."
Some Republicans have asserted that some refugees could be militants bent on attacking the United States, noting reports that at least one Paris attacker may have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece.
The bill, which would create the strictest U.S. screening ever of refugees from a war-torn nation, passed with the two-thirds majority that the House would need to override a presidential veto. It now goes to the Senate, also controlled by Republicans.
While many Americans see the United States historically as welcoming to immigrants, accepting refugees from Syria has raised concerns the newcomers may pose a national security threat in a country where about 3,000 people were killed by al Qaeda militants in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The measure passed on a 289-137 vote, representing a veto-proof majority. It now goes to the Senate. But 47 Democrats — in a significant rebuke of the administration — defected to support the bill, ignoring White House appeals to oppose it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/19/us-paris-shooting-congress-idUSKCN0T82PG20151119
LOL
Suck it liberals...