House Approves Tougher Screening of Syrian Refugees

It's a major blow to Obama, although the bill's gotta go through the Senate, where Democrats are threatening a filibuster. This oughta be interesting.

At WSJ, "House Passes Bill to Halt, Overhaul Syrian Refugee Process":

WASHINGTON—Nearly four dozen Democrats joined House Republicans to pass legislation Thursday that would halt the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. and overhaul the screening process, delivering a rebuke to the White House in response to public anxiety sparked by last Friday’s Islamic State attacks in Paris.

President Barack Obama, who threatened to veto the legislation, and many Democrats have argued that barring Syrian and Iraqi refugees would be contrary to American values and a strategic blunder in the effort to combat the spread of Islamic State ideology.

The White House left open the possibility of agreement on different legislation—for which there was early bipartisan support—that would block other ways terrorists might be able to infiltrate the U.S.

The struggle to respond to the Paris attacks rippled first through the 2016 presidential campaign before quickly arriving on Capitol Hill in a messy legislative battle less than a week after the violence in France. The defection of 47 House Democrats suggested that Mr. Obama’s initial visceral response wasn’t sufficient to unify Democrats on national security, with voters feeling more vulnerable on that front heading into the elections.

In early public comments, Mr. Obama focused on the contrast between his philosophy and that of Republicans, some of whom suggested the U.S. take in only Christian, not Muslim, refugees. He said that those ideas were “shameful” and un-American and that halting the program would anger potential sympathizers with Islamic State and push them toward radicalization.

But as the House took up its bill Thursday, Mr. Obama and his administration concentrated more directly on the policy reasons for opposing it.

“We already have in place the most vigorous vetting process that we have for anybody who is admitted,” Mr. Obama said at an international summit in the Philippines. “We subject them to a process that takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months before they are admitted. And the idea that somehow they pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jibe with reality.”

White House officials on Thursday said security measures in the waiver program have already been enhanced, but expressed an openness to working with Congress on the issue.

Thursday’s vote exposed tension between lawmakers’ desire to take steps to bolster national security and the administration’s philosophical and policy objections to a bill that officials said would also be impossible to implement...

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