AP Photo House approves Syrian refugees bill The bill sees near unanimous support from Republicans and broad support from Democrats.

The House passed a bill Thursday that would block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the country unless they pass strict background checks — setting up a collision with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.

The bill had near unanimous support from Republicans, who were joined by 47 Democrats — even after the Obama administration made a last-minute pitch to persuade wavering House Democrats to oppose the GOP-written bill. And with 289 "yes" votes, Republicans also won a veto-proof majority for the measure.


The bipartisan support was a rebuke of President Barack Obama by House Democrats who felt that the administration failed to make a compelling case as to why they should vote against the Republican-authored bill when it was bad politics to do so.

“I think a lot of us went in with open minds and really wanted to understand the administration’s position on this,” said New York Democrat Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney. “It is offensive to me that we would stigmatize refugees…but if you read the bill what you find is that you have a pretty simple certification process sitting on top of an existing and extensive screening process that most of us believe works pretty well.”

Maloney voted for the bill.

The vote was a significant loss for the White House — perhaps the biggest setback since most of the House Democratic Caucus voted against Obama on a trade bill in mid-June. Thursday’s vote, coupled with the Iranian nuclear agreement bill from September, also shows that Republicans plan to make national security a key issue in the 2016 elections.

The measure faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged Thursday that the Syria bill won’t make it to Obama’s desk. Senators will likely attempt to tack the measure as a rider to the government spending bill that Congress has to address in December.

“We’ve explained here in some detail [that] the problem is not with refugees. I haven’t read the House language,” Reid said during a press conference on Thursday. “I don’t think we’re going to be dealing with it over here.”

Already conservative House Republicans are signaling they won’t vote to support December’s so-called omnibus bill unless it includes beefed-up provisions for vetting Syrian refugees while Democrats in the House are calling for a budget bill free of all contentious policy riders.

The final 289- 137 vote was expected as House Democrats began signaling early Thursday there was not broad support in their caucus to take a tough vote on national security.

In response, the White House dispatched chief of staff Denis McDonough and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to Capitol Hill to speak with Democrats just hours before the House vote.

It was clear, lawmakers said, that the White House is trying to keep the number of Democratic defections low. But Multiple sources said McDonough and Johnson's "in the weeds" presentation didn't receive wide support in the room. The administration officials tried to make the case that the current vetting system was enough and that the Department of Homeland Security found the process too burdensome under the Republican-authored bill.

That message fell hard with Democrats. Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), who voted for the bill, said he not swayed by Johnson’s pitch to Democrats that the Homeland Security Department doesn’t have time to certify refugees.

“If you look at the bill, it’s hard to see how it’s as awful as the administration is portraying it as,” Peters said.

Sources said Maloney pushed back against the White House, saying the issue is "toxic" — even if Democrats oppose the Republican bill on policy grounds — because of the complicated messaging surrounding the national security issue. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas also questioned whether the opposition from the White House was wise for rank-and-file members of the caucus.

Rep. Gerry Connolly said White House officials didn't make an effective pitch during the meeting with Democrats. He urged them to drop their opposition to the Republican bill.

"It's one more assurance that those coming into the country are screened," the Virginia Democrat said of the GOP-sponsored measure. "That seems to me not an imprudent measure under the circumstances."

House Democratic leaders urged their colleagues to oppose the legislation but did not formally whip colleagues. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made an informal whip count Wednesday night to gauge where the caucus is.

"Nobody is asking you to do anything but listen," Pelosi told lawmakers during the closed-door meeting Wednesday, according to sources in the room.

Before the vote, Pelosi, who voted against the GOP bill, said the current process is sufficiently thorough.

“The process that is currently in place is thorough and robust and long as it is fully implemented and not diluted…it will allow us to safely admit the most vulnerable refugees while protecting the American people,” the California Democrat said on the floor.

Pelosi did push for Democrats to support a procedural move known as a motion to recommit. That move — essentially a Democratic alternative — would require the Department of Homeland Security only to certify that refugees have passed requirement standards.

It was drafted by Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, and California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the top Democrat on a Judiciary subcommittee tasked with immigration.

The Republican legislation, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, would require the FBI, Homeland Security Department and director of national intelligence to certify to Congress that any refugee from Syria or Iraq is "not a threat to the security of the United States" before being allowed to settle in the United States. President Barack Obama has proposed allowing 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the country this year, part of the Western response to the wave of millions of refugees fleeing that country's bloody civil war and Islamic State-related violence.

The White House has threatened to veto the measure.

