The U.S. House of Representatives has passed Republican-backed legislation on Thursday to suspend Obama’s program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year and then intensify the process of screening them.
It would require that high-level officials – the FBI director, the director of national intelligence and homeland security secretary – verify that each Syrian refugee poses no security risk.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill would pause the program the White House announced in September to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. He said it was important to act quickly “when our national security is at stake.”
