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Following GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s call for a temporary pause on Muslim migration, Congressional GOP leaders refused to say whether the omnibus bill would fund President Obama’s resettlement of Muslim refugees, and whether the omnibus would allow Obama to continue distributing the same large number of visas and green cards to Muslim migrants.Senior Senate Appropriations Subcommittee ChairmanSen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)68%has explained that if Congress intends to stop Obama’s refugee resettlement program, it must do so through appropriations in the year-end omnibus spending bill. Shelby writes: In order to carry out his plans, the President needs the annual appropriation for the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and other budget items. Congress therefore, through its spending power, can block the President’s plans. Absent such restrictions, the omnibus spending bill will give the President all the funds he needs to carry out the resettlement of nearly 100,000 refugees this year alone. First and foremost, this is a question of appropriations.Yet when Breitbart News reached out to Congressional Republican leadership, all either protested ignorance about the funding bill’s contents, or simply failed to reply.The Congressional Republican Leadership is comprised of ten members. In the Senate: Majority LeaderSen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)50%, Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)55%, Conference ChairmanSen. John Thune (R-SD)50%, Policy Committee ChairmanSen. John Barrasso (R-WY)57%, and Conference Vice ChairmanSen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)43%. In the House: SpeakerRep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)59%, Majority LeaderRep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)45%, Majority WhipRep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)72%, Conference ChairmanRep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)48%, and Policy Committee ChairmanRep. Luke Messer (R-IN)44%.The leadership offices of Roy Blunt, Luke Messer, Kevin McCarthy, and Steve Scalise all claimed that they were not familiar with the appropriations process and the bill’s contents.“That’s the first I’ve heard of that being in the omni,” one senior aide for a member of GOP Senate leadership told Breitbart News.But as Sen. Shelby explained in his joint statement withSen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)82%, funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement and related federal refugee programs is a part of every annual appropriations bill. Moreover, it was growing concern over the impact of Muslim refugees that led scores of House lawmakers to call for stripping funds from the omnibus or placing firm conditions on how the funds could be spent.The senior Senate aide was apparently unaware that two of his boss’ Senate colleagues, as well as 74 House lawmakers have urged Congress to strip the blank check for refugee resettlement from the omnibus.When Breitbart News followed up with those particular offices and asked if they agreed with Shelby’s call that the “government funding bill cancel the President’s blank check for refugee resettlement,” their offices did not answer.
