Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tells Sean Hannity that he’d “hate to use” Congress’ power of the purse to block Obama’s refugee resettlement program. He’d prefer to opt for Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)’s plan, which would allow the President to resettle 85,000 or more refugees this year from countries including Somalia, the Congo and Syria.

Hannity pressed Rubio on how Republicans could stop the importation of Syrian refugees into the United States.

A recent poll showed that a majority of the public opposes letting any Syrian refugees into the United States, and Rasmussen polling shows that 65 percent of conservative voters believe we should admit zero refugees from across the Middle East. Under current immigration levels the U.S. would admit 200,000 refugees and asylees from Muslim countries and will permanently resettle half a million migrants from Muslim countries over the next five years.

Hannity asked: “How do Republicans stop this? I know [Obama] is the Commander-in-Chief, but Congress has the power of the purse. Can it be stopped?”

In response, Rubio explained that the resettlement operation could be stopped simply by blocking the President’s funding request for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is set to expire on December 11. However, Rubio said that he’d “hate” stop the resettlement operation through the funding mechanism, and would rather simply rely on the Ryan plan, which would allow the resettlement operation to continue:

It can [be stopped]. And I think part of it is the funding mechanisms that’s used, you’d hate to use that because it would impact all refugees if you did it that way. The other is, for example, the House has taken measures to make it stricter in terms of the vetting process, it would require the FBI director and other agency heads to personally attest.

Read the article “Rubio Says He’d ‘Hate to Use’ Funding Measure to Stop Obama’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement” on breitbart.com.