DEFUND Refugee Program: Calling on Texas where
key House and Senate legislators reside by Ann Corcoran 10/21/16
This is the
first in a series of posts I will be writing in the coming weeks haranguing
readers and all those concerned with the rapidly expanding UN/US State
Department Refugee Admissions Program (RAP).
Although it is
wonderful to see and hear about all the great things you are doing to educate
the public and pressure your local and state officials about problems you see with
the RAP, but frankly there is only one place (besides electing Donald Trump)
where you should be putting most of your energy over the coming weeks.
Keep it simple!
DEFUND the Refugee program! Use all of your local action to pressure your Member of Congress and US
Senators to DEFUND the RAP on the final budget vote which must happen by
December 9th. At right is the House of Representatives calendar for the
remainder of the year (subject to change, as they say, post election). There is
little time!
The Obama
Administration has said they want 110,000 refugees (20,000-30,000 will be
Syrian Muslims) admitted to the US by September 30, 2017. If the Dept. of
State (DOS) and the ORR (in Health and Human Services) do not have the money
for that many, they will not be able to bring in that vast number. It is
that simple.
The present
Continuing Resolution has the program funded at the 2016 level (which is not
enough money for 110,000 either).
Go Texas! Already the state has shown that the will of the people is to not bring in
more refugees (based on Governor
Abbott’s strong stance on the program). However, the DOS
and the federal resettlement contractors there are thumbing their noses at the
governor and have made Texas once again the top resettlement state in the
nation this fiscal year already, see
here. Make no mistake!
This is about turning the red state blue!
Tell your
member of Congress to follow Texas Rep. Brian Babin’s lead to defund the
Refugee Admissions Program.
A few weeks
ago, relentless and brave Rep. Brian Babin made an attempt to cut the funding
for the RAP on the Continuing Resolution with this
letter and with a
visit to the House Rules Committee seeking a rider for that CR. Rules did
not grant him his request. However, we expect to see another effort by Dr. Babin on the looming
FY2017 Budget right after the election.
We are told
that he is committed to seeking out every opportunity to defund the refugee
program, including in any must-pass budget legislation, and will be looking
for other Members of Congress to join him in this effort.
All of you must go to your Congressman right
now in the weeks before the election and pressure them to support any effort by
Congressman Babin to rein-in the program. However, in our first in a series of posts, it is
members of the powerful Texas delegation that are critical to this effort.
Before I get to the Texas targets…. I can’t emphasize enough that by
controlling the flow of money for costly resettlement, it consequently reduces
the number to be resettled. At present the Administration is working
overtime to get as many refugees resettled before Inauguration Day in
January. If Hillary wins
they will have a jump on possibly an even greater flow (she will use emergency
powers) for the remainder of the year (assuming they get $$$ out of Congress).
If Donald Trump wins it will likely take a few months to slow the flow
because he will have to get his people placed, especially in the State
Department where Anne Richard would have to be gone ASAP. I anticipate
there will be much screaming and crying that there are thousands of refugees in
the pipeline and it would be heartless to stop the flow especially if Congress
has granted them a huge budget for FY2017.
So, it all comes back to Congress and funding! The House of Representatives is most
important, but you must reach your Senators too!
Although they
might like to stay in the shadows, here are the key members of the House that
Texas patriots must target in coming weeks! These are some of the most
important REPUBLICAN members with the power to rein-in the program!
House Appropriations Committee members from
Texas:
Kay Granger
John Culbertson
John Carter
House Judiciary Committee members (some of
these are already friendly to our concerns) from Texas (Judiciary
Committee has oversight responsibility for the RAP):
Lamar Smith
Louie Gohmert
Ted Poe
Blake
Farenthold
John Ratcliffe
House Rules Committee members from Texas:
Pete Sessions
(Chairman!)
Michael Burgess
House Homeland Security Committee members from
Texas (because more
than perhaps others, these members understand the security risks):
Michael McCaul
(Chairman!)
Lamar Smith
Will Hurd
John Ratcliffe
Do you see how
important Texas members of Congress are? Those are the members above and
also Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn who have the real power to slow the flow
of refugees to Texas and to America!
Call on Cruz
and Cornyn to follow Rep. Brian Babin’s initiative to defund the program on the
Senate side.
See all of
those above on the campaign trail and make sure they get the message from you
before they return to Washington on November 14th!
If you don’t live in Texas, keep pressure on
your member (and on Speaker Paul Ryan!) to back Rep. Babin. In the coming
days and weeks we will have more targets in other states. Stay tuned!
For more posts
about Congress budgetary role, go to our tag ‘Where is Congress’
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