“National security and public safety are not simply factors to be considered,” in policy decisions said Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina representative who heads the House Special Committee on Benghazi, during debate over a refugee bill in the House of Representatives.
Instead, he argued, they are the main issues, the most important issues that should be considered in making every decision. That appears to the be the rationale behind HR 4038, a bill authored by Republican Michael McCaul of Texas and backed by Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House.
Debate raged on for hours over the bill, which ultimately passed with votes from all but three Republican representatives, and 48 Democrats. The bill, if signed into law, would introduce new checks on refugee admission into the United States. Under current policy, defined mostly by the Refugee Act of 1980, the State Department has broad discretion to determine refugee admission and resettlement, in consultation with the FBI.
The US President had earlier on said that he would veto such a bill and that it was ‘not America’ to turn their backs on ‘widows and orphans’ who are fleeing Syria.
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