Republican lawmakers are demanding the right to review and reject plans of President Barack Obama to allow the entry of thousands more refugees into the United States, citing security and safety concerns amid global threats of terrorism.
Secretary of State John Kerry earlier announced plans of the administration to raise to 85,000 by 2016 and to 100,000 by 2017 the number of refugees eligible to resettle in the United States in response to the growing refugee crisis in Europe due to the raging civil war in Syria.
Europe, particularly Germany, has been accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria.
Lawmakers said there is a high probability for terrorists to pose as refugees and sneak into the United States unless the plan is carefully thought of and approved unanimously by Congress.
Last week, Republican Senators Shelley Moore Capito, Mark Kirk, Joni Ernest, Mike Rounds and Roger Wicker, as well as Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, wrote a letter to Kerry and Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, expressing their concerns on the matter and urging the White House to tightly screen all refugees before letting them enter the US.
Although Congress does not have to approve the Obama administration's plan to accept tens of thousands of refugees, the law states that the House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, should appropriate money to pay for any expanded effort.
Kerry said one of the compelling reasons why the US had taken in only 1,500 refugees in the previous years was the safety of American people. He said the current US screening process for immigrants from Syria is already tightly done.
Meanwhile, a bill introduced by US Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee, is expected to institutionalise resettlement of Syrians in the United States and further tighten security screenings for them.
"This bill will rein in the Administration's refugee resettlement plans and give Congress more control over the process," said McCaul, whose committee oversees US immigration law.
If enacted, McCaul's bill would bar the Obama administration from admitting the refugees until both the House and Senate passed a joint resolution admitting them, according to Reuters.
The bill also requires the administration to prioritise the admission of members of Christians and other religious minorities when admitting refugees from Iraq and Syria.
