Congress seeks to fund US Refugee Admissions Program as if Trump didn’t exist
Congress seeks to fund US Refugee Admissions Program as if Trump didn’t exist
Posted by Ann Corcoran on May 2, 2017
The so-called budget deal being ironed-out to fund the government to the end of the year commits billions to the refugee program. You might think that Obama was back in the White House and that Donald Trump never campaigned on slowing the flow of refugees from countries that produce terrorists.
I can’t make heads or tails out of the budget bill language, but here Alex Pfeiffer at the Daily Caller tells us it is full steam ahead with refugees because if they have your money, you can bet it will be spent.
It isn’t too late…
.
Trump could flex his muscles this week and say to Congress, go back to the drawing boards.
He could say: we will do another continuing resolution for a couple of weeks until you get it right. (After all, it isn’t just with the refugee program that Congress is dissing the Prez).
You may have seen the Dems gloating about their apparent budget victory yesterday.
And, the RINOs are pretty slick too!
Look at it this way, the Dems and the RINOs join forces to make sure almost none of Trump’s campaign promises are fulfilled, voters blame it on Trump and Trump becomes a one-term President. The only question is, does Trump get that and will he show some muscle and fight back right now!
Here is what the Daily Caller says about refugees:
The budget deal to keep the government funded through September agreed upon by congressional leaders would continue funding the refugee resettlement program.
An agreement on the omnibus budget was reached by leaders from both parties Sunday, as a government shutdown looms on Friday. The proposed spending agreement includes no money to construct the president’s border wall, and continues funding Planned Parenthood.
[….]
The bill would include a total of $3 billion towards migration and refugee assistance, which is roughly the same that was spent in Fiscal Year 2016. It would also include $50 million towards the emergency refugee and migration assistance fund, which is also the same amount spent in the previous fiscal year.
With President Trump’s executive orders temporarily blocking refugee resettlement held up in court, 12,397 refugees have been resettled during his presidency.***
Pay close attention to the last line here, and below.
This is why I have been saying that Trump did not have to include changing the ceiling or language about a moratorium in the Executive Order. He has the power to stay anywhere under the ceiling! The Refugee Act of 1980 tells the President to set the ceiling in advance of the fiscal year, before October 1, and if he wants to raise the ceiling during the year he must inform Congress, but he does not have to reach the ceiling—few Presidents in recent times have reached the ceiling—or even inform Congress that he will be coming in under it!
The Obama administration set a goal in September of 110,000 refugees admitted in Fiscal Year 2017. A State Department official told The Daily Caller in early April that “this language represents a ceiling on refugee admissions – it is not a mandatory target.”
It isn’t too late for Trump to quietly institute the 120-day moratorium, as he originally planned, to assess whether our security screening is adequate. It gets much harder if the agencies are awash in money that they want to send out to government contractors!
***See my post here from a couple of days ago about Trump’s refugee admissions.
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/congress-seeks-to-fund-us-refugee-admissions-program-as-if-trump-didnt-exist/
