Syrian refugees and my appearance on CNN Sunday

Yesterday I voted for the SAFE Act, which passed the House of Representatives on an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The bill would suspend President Obama's program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States until much stronger security standards are adopted for vetting the refugees.

One of the main problems in vetting these refugees is that we often don't have any information about them in our databases. FBI Director James Comey has acknowledged these security gaps. He told Congress that "the challenge we're all talking about is that we can only query against that which we have collected. And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing [to] show up because we have no record on that person."

ISIS operatives openly proclaim that they are smuggling terrorists into the West amid the current wave of refugees. In ISIS videos, the group explicitly vows to attack the United States. Under these circumstances, I don't believe we can risk taking in thousands of Syrian refugees for whom our security agencies "have no record." The Paris terror assault shows that ISIS is ruthless, dedicated, effective, and treacherous in attacking the West. Our response requires fierce vigilance.  

I'll be discussing these issues and other topics on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday in the 6:00 am hour PST. The show will rebroadcast at 9:00 am PST. If you missed my interview on Fox News' Special Report this week, you can watch it at this link.

Discussing Paris terror attacks on Fox News in 3:00 PST hour

I'll be discussing the Paris terror attacks on Special Report with Bret Baier today on Fox News in the 3:00 PST hour.

Face the Nation appearance tomorrow 8:30 am PST

I will be discussing the Paris terror attacks on CBS' Face the Nation this Sunday. In most Central Valley locations the show will begin airing at 8:30 am PST For a full list of local broadcast times, click this link. To see some of my previous discussions of terrorism on the show, click here and here.

Keystone rejected and Monday KMJ Appleton show appearance

After a seven-year-long review process, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline today. The pipeline received widespread backing from the American people and bipartisan support in Congress. That’s not surprising – for most people, deciding whether to create more jobs, boost economic growth, and secure more oil from a stable, friendly nation like Canada is pretty easy to do.

President Obama, however, sees things differently. Time and again, he has chased after his utopian dream of a “green economy” at the expense of the real economy. His presidency is littered with taxpayer guarantees for green-energy boondoggles, impossible promises to churn out a million electric cars, and attempts to implement destructive power plant regulations. As he showed when he visited the Central Valley last year and treated us to a monologue on global warming, for him, even the California water crisis is mainly a problem of climate change.

Regardless of how much President Obama wants our economy to be powered by rainbows and unicorns, we need real sources of fuel. Keystone was an important project that would have had real economic benefits. Like the California water supply, however, it's been sacrificed on the altar of environmental extremism.

Separately, I'll be on the Ray Appleton show on Monday at 1:00 PST on KMJ. You can listen live at this link. 

Speaker Ryan's request that I continue as Intel Chairman

I have consented to a request by Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House, to continue serving as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. You can read my full statement here.

I will be discussing the Intelligence Committee, what we can expect from Paul Ryan's Speakership, and other issues on the Ray Appleton radio show on KMJ at 11:00 am PST on Friday. You can listen live here.

The military is not a political bargaining chip

On Thursday President Obama vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which funds the American military. There was strong bipartisan support for the bill, which passed the House of Representatives on a 270-156 vote and was approved in the Senate on an even more lopsided vote of 70-27.

Because of the obvious importance of funding our military, a presidential veto of the NDAA is rare – it’s only happened four times before. It is especially unusual this year because the bill’s funding level met the President’s request. But Obama is now demanding more funding for domestic programs and is also objecting to the NDAA’s restrictions on his ability to close the GITMO prison in Cuba and transfer the terrorists there to the United States.

We already know this president really likes to spend money – we’ve seen his failed stimulus programs and green-energy boondoggles. But holding our military hostage in order to raise spending even more is beyond the pale. Our servicemen and servicewomen are making huge sacrifices for their country, and they deserve to know their missions will not be exploited as a political bargaining chip in Washington. And it’s simply inexplicable that President Obama would jeopardize their missions in order to realize his bizarre scheme to bring some of the world’s worst terrorists into America.

I look forward to Congress’ upcoming vote to override the President’s veto.

Separately, I will be appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation this Sunday. In most Central Valley locations the show will begin airing at 8:30 am PST. For a list of broadcast times, click this link.