Posted by Ann Corcoran on September 24, 2016
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 they 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 townhall 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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