The U.S. House passed and Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, supported legislation on Thursday to require proper security vetting of Syrian and Iraqi refugees before they are granted entry to the United States.
The bill passed 289-137 with strong bipartisan support as 47 Democrats supported the measure. The bill now goes to the Senate, which isn’t expected to act on it until after Thanksgiving. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill.
Reichert made the following statement after the bill’s passage, according to a media release from Richert’s office:
“The United States is the most compassionate nation in the world – a fact in which we should all take great pride. However, that compassion cannot come at the expense of our citizens’ security.
Starting with my service in the Air Force Reserves, through my 33 years in law enforcement, and now as a representative, my first priority is the safety of Washingtonians and all Americans. If the U.S. is going to allow Syrian refugees into our country we must have strong safeguards in place to ensure terrorist attacks, like the those that recently occurred in France, do not happen here at home.
Today, I voted for a bill to provide those safeguards. After the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and Homeland Security admitted last month that they do not have adequate intelligence on Syria to ensure our safety, it was clear to me that the status quo is not enough.
Our law enforcement officers and the communities they protect need to know their security is the federal government’s top priority. This bill gives that assurance by requiring our intelligence community and homeland security agencies to unanimously certify that each refugee has been given a sufficiently thorough background investigation and determined that he or she is not a threat.
As a country, we must remain strong and must act when radical extremists make threats to our homeland.”
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