White House threatens veto of House GOP bill on Syrian refugees

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House issued a formal veto threat of a Republican-backed bill to strengthen the screening process for Syrian refugees, saying the House bill would "introduce unnecessary and impractical requirements" to the system.

The veto threat used the strongest language the White House uses to communicate its opinions on pending legislation, using this phrasing as the punchline: "Given the lives at stake and the critical importance to our partners in the Middle East and Europe of American leadership in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, if the president were presented with H.R. 4038, he would veto the bill."

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the House would vote Thursday on the bill. called the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, or American Safe Act. Spokesman Doug Andres said the veto threat was "disappointing news amid widespread and bipartisan concern about the president’s plan."

The bill is sponsored by Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and is also picking up support from Democrats, including a majority of the 15-member Blue Dog Democrat coalition.

The core of the bill would require three three top administration officials — the Secretary of Homeland Security,the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the FBI — to personally sign off that each Syrian refugee "is not a threat to the security of the United States."

That provision, the White House said, "is untenable and would provide no meaningful additional security for the American people, instead serving only to create significant delays and obstacles."

But the House bill is also getting opposition from the right. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee, said the House proposal "allows the president to continue to bring in as many refugees as he wants from anywhere in the world." Sessions said he wouldn't be satisfied with any system of vetting Syrian refugees.

Sessions said the only way to attack the administration's refugee policy was through cutting off its funding — raising the specter of another shutdown crisis as Congress must pass a new, long-term spending bill by Dec. 11.

Earlier Wednesday in Manila, the Philippines, Obama mocked critics of his refugee policy, saying "they’re scared of widows and orphans."

Obama has told Congress that he intends to allow an additional 10,000 Syrians into the United States over the next year in response to a refugee crisis that has forced more than 4 million Syrians from their country. The debate escalated after terrorists struck Paris in a coordinated attack last Friday, killing at least 129 people. Police found a Syrian passport near the body of one of the terrorists, but later said the passport was fake.

The veto threat — the 67th that the White House has issued this year — comes amid a week of veto threats by the White House. On Tuesday, the White House issued veto threats on four bills that would:

► Overturn new Environmental Protection Agency rules on carbon emissions by newly built power plants;

► Overturn a similar regulation that applies to existing power plants;

► Require an audit of the Federal Reserve Board's monetary policy; and

► Reduce underwriting regulations on mortgage bankers who originate their own mortgage loans.