Refugee Contractor Lobbying

Are the refugee contractors and their friends in Congress preparing to end-run the President on refugee cap? By Ann Corcoran, 9/18/18. 

Hopefully, Mike Pompeo’s legal team will be on the look-out for any attempt by the contractors and their lobbyists to use the appropriations process to usurp the President’s authority!

I reported this morning that the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), the lobbying arm of the refugee industry, was sounding pretty cocky about going for their 75,000 refugee cap for Fiscal Year 2019 which begins less than two weeks from now in spite of the President’s proposed 30,000 cap.

Will Secretary of State Pompeo’s legal team find and extract a sleeper amendment in the State Department Appropriations Act?

It is abundantly clear that the President has the power to set the cap (aka ceiling) under the Refugee Act of 1980.

(Indeed, it is also the case that there is no requirement in the law to admit any refugees.)

So what might make the contractors and their lobbyists make what sounds like a threatening statement: We still have the desire, capacity, and resources to welcome at least 75,000 refugees to the United States in the coming year. And we will spend every waking moment looking for ways to do just that…

Admittedly they are desperate because they stand to lose millions of federal dollars if fewer refugees are admitted.

Yikes! Appropriations???

Could they be planning to get a friendly Senator or Congressman to use the upcoming Appropriations process and plant language in the State Department funding bill that would direct the President to bring in 75,000 refugees?

The strategy may be to use that upcoming State Department Appropriations Act to override the President’s determination under the Refugee Act. For this to occur properly, Congress would likely have to include in the Appropriations Act a specific line item of funding for 75,000 refugees accompanied by a statement that the funding was being provided despite the provisions of the Refugee Act. In other words, the Appropriations language would supersede existing law!

For more on the legal principles involved, take a look at page 2-67 of Principles of Federal Appropriations Law published by the Government Accountability Office.

When you have a look at the legal principles, based on a Supreme Court decision, note that if they think they can do it with simple report language they are mistaken.  It must be actually language in the bill itself.

(But can we trust a legal team that might be comprised of Obama leftovers to find the sleeper provision in time?)

We will be watching! If the contractors, who have millions of dollars at stake, and their Democrat pals pull off a dirty trick like this, it is just one more example of why American citizens are so sick of Washington and why we elected Donald Trump. Where are you Stephen Miller?

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2018/09/18/are-the-refugee-contractors-and-their-friends-in-congress-preparing-to-end-run-the-president-on-refugee-cap/

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader