WASHINGTON – At a breakfast with reporters Wednesday morning White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough affirmed the White House’s commitment to increase acceptance of refugees saying their impact on the national interest is “undeniable.”
McDonough was proud of the White House’s efforts to fulfill refugee quotas for the first time since 9/11, and is confident they will be able to continue to do this, while increasing quotas as, “the budget we got at the end of last year gives us the resources to continue to do that.” He added that, “we’ll also continue to defend the idea of America as a refuge.”
The current quota for refugees is 70,000 a year and the administration announced in October they plan to increase that to 100,000 in 2017.
Among other topics McDonough addressed at the breakfast, which was held at the St. Regis Hotel and hosted by the Christian Science Monitor as part of their “Monitor Breakfast” series, were the U.S. sailors captured and recently released by Iran saying it is “too early to draw conclusions as all the facts as of yet are unknown.”
The White House aide also claimed growing American cynicism is due to institutions not living up to their traditional role, telling reporters, “government is the best protections for the individual from getting the short end of the stick.”
Regarding Obama’s future plans for executive actions McDonough said the President told him he’s going to be asking himself “why not.” He said that while process is your “friend” it also dictates what you can do and that the the White House wants to make sure their executive actions aren’t left “hanging there for Congress to undue them.”