WASHINGTON - Congressman Lou Barletta, PA-11, today appeared on C-Span's Washington Journal program to call for a "time out" in the United States program that admits refugees from other countries. Barletta, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, noted that he has heard from four national security experts, including two from the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Security himself, who testified that the U.S. has no ability to properly vet refugees fleeing Syria. In the wake of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, Barletta discussed the issue with C-Span host Greta Brawner and took viewer phone calls for 45 minutes.

Barletta stated, in part:

"We've had four national security experts, two from the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Security himself, Jeh Johnson, testify to our lack of ability to gather information. The FBI has no system on the ground to collect information, there's no FBI office in Syria. There's no one we can count on. And the Secretary himself said that there's a lot that we don't know about the people that we're letting in. That's a national security risk and I think it boils down to just that.

"Allowing Syrian refugees into the United States when ISIS has claimed that 'no blood is better than American blood," and that they will 'taste it soon,' I think it's irresponsible for us to turn our heads and not heed the warning of national security experts who cannot collect any background information.

"So we have a lot of talk about the 'rigorous background checks' that are done in the refugee program, and that may be true, but that doesn't mean that that's in place in Syria and that's what we're talking about. We're not talking about refugees somewhere else, we're talking about the refugees from Syria. When we know we have no way to interview them, we have no records to look at, we know nothing about their background. But we do know that ISIS wants to come here and kill us."