e-News 11/20/15

• House Approves the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act
• The Dangerous Flow of Foreign Fighters
• “Dancing with Dictators Against the Islamic State”
• Support for Our Veterans
• Salute:  Maggie Doyne of Mendham Township

House Approves the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act

In the wake of the horrifying slaughter in Paris last week, the House yesterday approved legislation which suspends the flow of Syrian refugees into the U.S. until the refugees can be properly and thoroughly vetted.  I co-sponsored and voted for this bill and hope the Senate and the President will support it as well.  

Specifically, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act (H.R. 4038) prevents admission to the United States of any potential Syrian or Iraqi refugee until the nation’s top security officials—the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence— unanimously certify that the individual does not represent a security threat.

Read more about H.R. 4038 here.

There are currently tens of thousands of people streaming out of Syria into Europe.  Because reliable intelligence is unavailable on these refugees, we simply do not know who they are. Records do not exist in Syria, especially after five years of brutal civil war.  Syria is now an ungoverned area. So how do you vet individuals from a war-torn country that has few criminal and terrorist databases to check?

And this is not my view exclusively.  The Director of the FBI, James Comey, has acknowledged that ‘gaps’ remain in the screening process for Syrian refugees attempting to flee to the United States.

Our federal government has no greater responsibility than keeping Americans safe. Knowing that our nation has a proud tradition of opening its arms to those in need, terrorists will certainly attempt to take advantage of our compassion.  We cannot allow ISIS infiltration through our refugee assistance program. 

House approval of the SAFE Act is another step toward enhancing American security.  There will be more.  It is simply prudent that this program be suspended for people leaving the Syrian war zone until we can be sure that the Obama Administration has installed a robust screening process and we receive strong assurances of safety from our intelligence officials and our NATO allies.  

This week, the House Committee on Homeland Security recently released a staff report on outlining the preliminary findings of a nearly year-long investigation into the counterterrorism challenges associated with Syrian refugee flows. The report, “Syrian Refugee Flows: Security Risks and Counterterrorism Challenges,” makes important findings about the crisis.  You can read that report here.

Of course, the most effective way to stop Syrians from fleeing their own country is by destroying ISIS and ending a civil war that has taken over 250,000 lives.

The Dangerous Flow of Foreign Fighters

But the danger to America and the West goes far beyond the proper vetting of refugees.  There is a larger issue that must be recognized and addressed: the flow of foreign fighters, including Americans, to and from the Middle East war zone.  According to a report issued by the House Homeland Security Committee a few weeks ago, we are witnessing “the largest global convergence of jihadists in history in Syria, and foreign fighters have taken the lead in recruiting a new generation of terrorists to spread terror back home.”

The Key Findings:

• Despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists. Of the hundreds of Americans who have sought to travel to the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, authorities have only interdicted a fraction of them.
• The U.S. government lacks a national strategy for combating terrorist travel and has not produced one in nearly a decade.
• Gaping security weaknesses overseas—especially in Europe—are putting the U.S. homeland in danger by making it easier for aspiring foreign fighters to migrate to terrorist hotspots and for jihadists to return to the West.

Make no mistake: our nation faces a very serious and growing threat from these foreign fighters. Efforts around the world have failed to stop the flow of these aspiring jihadists into Syria.  U.S. intelligence and law enforcement confirm that ‘returnees’ from the war zone have come home to America and to plan and plot acts of terror.

Read the Homeland Security Committee’s report here.

To make matters worse, those still on the battlefield are radicalizing their peers online and inciting them to launch homegrown attacks.

That aspect of the crisis was highlighted in a New York Times story yesterday, “U.S. Investigators Struggle to Track Homegrown ISIS Suspects.”  Read it here.

“Dancing with Dictators Against the Islamic State”

Garry Kasparov writes in the Wednesday Wall Street Journal, “Three days after coordinated terror attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and put the lie to President Obama’s recent claim that Islamic State was “contained,” Mr. Obama took to the podium on Monday. Speaking from Antalya, Turkey, where he was attending a G-20 meeting, he threw the full weight of his rhetoric behind solidarity with France and behind the French military response against Islamic State, or ISIS. But he offered no policy changes. In other words, once again America is leading from behind…”

Read the entire column here.

Support for Our Veterans

Congress continues to demand a comprehensive strategy from the Obama Administration to implement major systemic change at the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure proper, timely and dignified care for our nation’s veterans.  At the same time, the House is working on additional legislation to increase support for veterans. 

For example, one bill passed by the House this week, H.R. 1338, limits financial bonuses paid to senior VA employees during current fiscal year 2016.

Here’s a listing of the bills approved this week alone:

H.R. 1694 - Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015 adds veteran-owned small businesses to the list of entities eligible to receive contracts under the Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) program. 

H.R. 3114 - To provide funds to the Army Corps of Engineers to hire veterans and members of the Armed Forces to assist the Corps with curation and historic preservation activities,  

H.R. 1338 - Dignified Interment of Our Veterans Act of 2015 requires the VA to report to Congress on matters relating to the interment of the unclaimed remains of deceased veterans in national cemeteries to ensure they are treated with dignity and respect.

H.R. 1384 - Honor America's Guard-Reserve Retirees Act would provide honorary veteran status to members of the National Guard or Reserve who have served for 20 years and do not meet the full requirements for veteran status under title 38, United States Code.

Thank you to Parsippany-Troy Hills students for visiting me in the U.S. Capitol Building!

Salute:  Maggie Doyne, originally from Mendham Township, named this week as CNN’s Hero of the Year.  Maggie used her babysitting savings to change the lives of hundreds of Nepalese women and children! A decade ago, her backpacking trip to Nepal transformed into a long-term commitment. Spending $5,000 in savings from her babysitting days, she bought land and worked with the community to build a school, a women's center and the Kopila Valley Children's Home in Nepal.