A group of Republican lawmakers introduced legislation on the House floor Thursday that would cut off federal funding for refugee resettlement programs until the Obama administration meets its terms.
Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, Lamar Smith of Texas and Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania said the bill is a response to President Obama’s unilateral plan to admit thousands of Syria refugees into the U.S. despite recent domestic terrorist attacks and disagreement from many in Congress.
“[Funding refugee programs] endangers our national security and costs hardworking taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, which is why an omnibus funding bill should not include a blank check for refugee resettlement,” Blackburn said in a joint statement.
The bill would require the Congressional Budget Office to issue a congressional report on the long-term costs of resettlement operations. It also would ask the White House to submit a funding report for fiscal 2014 refugee admittances and a proposal to offset spending cuts to pay for resettling the refugees.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security would have to identify all terrorist or criminal activity committed since 2001 by refugees.
“The attack in California demonstrated once again that there are radical Islamic terrorists whose main goal in life is to kill Americans. The people’s representatives in Congress should have a say in who is admitted, how much relocating them will cost and what security risks are associated with them,” Barletta said.
