House GOP bill would bolster checks on Syrian refugees

Chris Christie says the USA should not accept any new Syrian refugees, not even young orphans.

In the wake of Friday’s attacks in Paris, more than two dozen governors, a lot of them Republicans, have called for Syrian refugees to be barred from their US states.

“When individuals say we should have a religious test and that only Christians, proven Christians, should be admitted, that’s offensive”, Obama said.

Before the current refugee crisis began this past summer, about 50 percent of the Syrian refugee applicants were children, 25 percent were adults over age 60 and about 2 percent were single males of “combat age”, an official said.

The poll found a split along partisan lines.

“We can’t roll the dice with the safety of Americans and bring in people for whom there is an unacceptable risk that they could be jihadists coming here to kill Americans”, Ted Cruz said Sunday.

House Republican leaders have assembled a task force of seven committee chairmen to examine and put together legislation to address security concerns after the Paris attacks.

“I understand why Americans have been particularly affected”, he said. Those governors included at least one Democrat, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who is running for the Senate. “What we need to do is to increase our intelligence capability back to what it was post-9/11 so that we can prevent attacks from happening”, Christie said, slamming congressional reforms earlier this year that ended the NSA’s bulk collection of millions of American’s phone records. Rep Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., said the measure makes the system “stronger and makes it safer for America to do the right thing by accepting legitimate refugees”.

Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia admitted that the vote could be politically tough vote for Democrats, but he blasted Republicans, especially those running for president, for playing politics with the issue.

“You’ve got people deliberately exploiting a tragedy and playing to people’s fears and insecurities and I just think that’s beneath us”, Connolly said. A few want to use that bill to cut off funding for the refugee program – foreshadowing another potential government shutdown fight.

The conservative group Heritage Action for America also announced its opposition to the bill, saying it gives too much authority to appointees of Obama.

The administration officials said they are reaching out to members of congress and governors to explain the process to them.

Ryan’s office did not respond to the letter from Babin, but noted it is focused on moving a bill they believe is reasonable and strikes an important balance to pause the program, but not cancel it outright.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., center, accompanied by, from left, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La., Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the Republican Conference, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., finishes a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, November 17, 2015, following a GOP strategy session.

Christie, who prosecuted terrorism cases as a USA attorney in New Jersey, dismissed that suggestion Wednesday, calling instead for the U.S.to bolster its intelligence and data-gathering capabilities.

In September, Christie was on the other side of the issue.