Special to The Leader

Washington, DC – U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36), who is organizing support for a new effort in Congress to put a moratorium on refugees coming from terrorist hotbeds of Syria, the Middle East, and North Africa in the upcoming spending bill, issued the following statement today in response to President Obama’s announcement that he plans to raise the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. to 110,000 and bring in a “significantly higher” number of Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year:

“By doubling down and defying warnings from his own security experts, the President is further jeopardizing the security and well-being of each and every person in the United States. As someone who has been working tirelessly to stop this madness for over a year, I am deeply alarmed and troubled by this latest announcement and the reckless expansion of America’s broken U.N.-led refugee resettlement program.

“As the world has changed and our national security threats have grown, it is commonsense to adjust to these evolving threats. It is past due that we reevaluate our refugee program.  We can do humanitarian relief for these folks close to their home and take affirmative steps so that they can return to their homelands.

“As elected officials, we have a sworn duty to act in the best interests of the American people – not the United Nations. The upcoming spending bill presents Congress with a new opportunity to reassert its authority over the refugee program and fix this gaping hole in our national security. Since this refugee law was enacted in the 1980s by Senator Ted Kennedy, Congress has gradually ceded its authority to the President, and with national security and billions of dollars in deficit spending on the line, it is time for Congress to take back oversight of this program.”

In July 2015, Rep. Babin introduced the Resettlement Accountability National Security Act (H.R. 3314), which is now supported by 85 of his colleagues, to pause the refugee resettlement program until Congress (1) completes a full national security review to make sure terrorists are not being let into the U.S. and (2) gets a full accounting of the costs of the refugee program to federal, state and local taxpayers.