Rep. Vern Buchanan votes to limit U.S. acceptance of Syrian refugees

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, voted with a majority Thursday to only allow Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States if the FBI director, secretary of Homeland Security and director of National Intelligence personally certify each one is not a security threat.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the measure 289-137 after intelligence indicating one terrorist in the recent Paris attacks had snuck into the country posing as a refugee. Buchanan was one of the first members of Congress to send a letter to President Barack Obama urging a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees.

Obama has threatened to veto the measure.

"Radical Islam is waging war against America and Western civilization," Buchanan said in a release. "We cannot allow terrorists to seep through a porous refugee screening process to kill Americans."

Top national security officials from the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have all said publicly they lack information needed to determine whether Syrian refugees are security threats, Buchanan noted in the release the measure will halt refugee admissions until that situation changes.

Obama announced earlier this year he planned to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees given the regional instability caused by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Rep. Vern Buchanan votes to limit U.S. acceptance of Syrian refugees ."