Where is the House Judiciary Committee on Obama’s
refugee plan? Where is the hearing? by Ann Corcoran, 9/24/16
The Refugee Act of
1980 requires a hearing
in both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the Presidential ‘determination’
on the number of refugees the President is proposing for the upcoming fiscal
year—in advance of the fiscal year.
FY2017
begins a week from today!
We know that
Senator Jeff Sessions scheduled a hearing and that the Obama State Department refused
to attend (see here). But where is the House?
Rep. Trey Gowdy
is Chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the Refugee Admissions Program.
He did not sign the Babin letter where more than 30 of his colleagues (found
the time to sign) are asking that funding be stopped for refugees coming from
terrorist-producing regions of the world. We are told that Gowdy has since
written his own PRIVATE letter to Speaker Ryan on the subject. If there is a
letter (doubtful). Why the secrecy?
I just checked the House Judiciary Committee hearing schedule and there is nothing scheduled this week on the largest and most
dangerous number of refugees we have proposed to admit to the US probably ever!
Immigration
Subcommittee Chairman Trey Gowdy has a hearing scheduled this week on how New
Orleans became a sanctuary city, but nothing else.
(It is Gowdy’s subcommittee that would be
responsible for reforming the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions
Program, but no one in 30 years, including Gowdy, has had the guts to tackle
it.)
I’m sure that
New Orleans illegal alien problem is a very important issue, but…no
where near as important as 110,000 refugees (20,000-30,000 Syrians) arriving in
the US beginning next Saturday!
And, so far,
Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, doesn’t have any hearing
scheduled either when you know that the Administration will open the flood gates in October
trying to get as many of their 110,000 in here before Obama leaves office in
January.
Are Goodlatte and
Gowdy going to sit by silently and watch?
I want you to
have a look at the Congressional calendar (below) as it stands right now for
the last few months and through the end of the year. They can’t wait to
get that Continuing Budget Resolution (CR) done and get out of DC so they can
campaign.
And, the reason
we once again will be looking at a Budget rush-job is that Congress (under the
leadership of Speaker Paul Ryan) once
again did not get their work done in a timely fashion.
Look at this
calendar! Frankly they shouldn’t be off for 6 weeks beginning this Friday! Most
recent calendar I could find, there may be an updated one.
But, don’t despair, you have perhaps one of
the best opportunities to make their lives miserable as the majority of your
representatives will be up for re-election on November 8th. You will need to reach them in their
districts on this, in my opinion, the most critical issue this country
faces—immigration and specifically refugee resettlement! Be at every town
hall they hold. Picket their offices and their homes if you must to get their
attention. Don’t let any member of the House, or US Senator, tell you it is too
late for this year!
They will be coming back to finish the budget
during the lame duck session and you need to ‘educate’ them at home because
they can cut out funding for the refugee program in the lame duck! More on that later.
BTW, I don’t
know where they are at the moment on the CR (short term funding of the federal
government), but keep telling them you want the Refugee Admissions Program
defunded (use the word moratorium!) because as frustrating as it is trying to
get through to them, your persistence alone sends them a warning message about
how important this issue is to you (and to the future of America!).
For any of you
who want to read-up on the issue, everything I’ve written on Congress’ role as
the branch of government that doles out the money for Obama’s programs is
tagged
‘Where is Congress.’
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