House Passes Bill to Halt, Overhaul Syrian Refugee Process

In response to Paris attacks, legislation would put FBI in charge of migrants’ background checks.

The House on Thursday passed a bill to halt and overhaul the process for screening refugees from Syria and Iraq, with Republican sponsors winning significant support from Democrats in a rejection of the White House’s response to Islamic State attacks on Paris last week.

In a rebuke to President Barack Obama, a substantial contingent of House Democrats voted for a bill the White House had threatened to veto and which top administration officials had lobbied against in a last-minute visit to Capitol Hill Thursday morning. Their support handed new House Speaker Paul Ryan his first major foreign policy victory against Mr. Obama since the Wisconsin Republican assumed his post late last month.

Rep. Gerald Connolly (D., Va.), an influential foreign policy voice, said more Democrats had warmed to the legislation because the administration hadn’t given them “a compelling reason to vote no,” as he left a closed-door meeting with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

“It is sufficient, but I think the public right now wants to be reassured it’s especially sufficient,” Mr. Connolly said of the vetting process. “We shouldn’t put ourselves in the position of having to defend something—a ‘no’ vote—that doesn’t really make sense.”

The bill’s fate in the Senate is unclear. Senate Democrats are expected to block the legislation if it comes to the floor there, which wouldn’t occur until after the Thanksgiving break.

“We’ve explained here in some detail the problem is not with refugees,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters. “Don’t worry—it won’t get passed.”

Democrats said that while they trusted the administration’s assurances that the screening process used to vet refugees was already rigorous and lengthy, they saw the legislation’s added checks as a reasonable response to the concerns of their constituents shaken after the Paris attacks.

The legislation from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), passed in a 289-137 vote, would halt the entry of refugees from Syria and Iraq into the U.S. The bill would make the Federal Bureau of Investigation the primary agency in conducting background checks to certify that any incoming refugee isn’t a national-security threat.

That screening process is now largely run by the Department of Homeland Security, though it works with other agencies, including the FBI.

It also would require the Homeland Security secretary, the director of the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence to personally sign off that each refugee isn’t a security threat.

To be approved as a refugee—a process that typically takes two years or longer—an applicant must establish that he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, creed or origin. Syrian refugees go through additional security checks.

Minute details of the refugee screening process aren’t divulged by U.S. authorities. But all potential refugees are fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed by federal officials abroad. Biometric data is run through federal databases to confirm identity and check for criminal and other nefarious activity. Men receive special scrutiny.

Democratic opponents of the bill said its new certification requirements could essentially halt the flow of refugees into the U.S. for years while the program is restructured.

“It’s a security test, not a religious test,” Mr. Ryan said of the House bill on Thursday. “If our law enforcement and intelligence community can not verify each and every person here is not a security threat, then they shouldn’t be allowed in.”

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