On Thursday, the House voted 289-127 in favor of a bill that would require greater scrutiny of Syrians and Iraqis applying to become refugees in the United States. In a stunning rebuke to President Obama, 47 Democrats ignored the president's veto threat and joined 242 Republicans to pass the measure by a veto-proof majority. Reporters at CNN and the New York Times reported that the Obama administration's defense of the the refugee program actually lost Deomcratic votes:

Some House Democrats now saying GOP refugee bill could pass with veto-proof majority, presentation by WH/DHS actually lost votes for Admin

— Deirdre Walsh (@deirdrewalshcnn)
November 19, 2015

Interesting how some Democrats started as no on the refuge bill, met with Obama officials, then moved to yes, giving veto proof majority.

— jennifer steinhauer (@jestei)
November 19, 2015

While President Obama denounced efforts to restrict the number of Syrian refugees, House speaker Paul Ryan defended the legislation as a simple matter of security. "It's a security test, not a religious test," Ryan said at a press conference on Thursday.

The bill states that Syrians and Iraqis "may not be admitted as a refugee until the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation certifies to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence that each covered alien has received a background investigation that is sufficient to determine whether the covered alien is a threat to the security of the United States."

The White House issued a veto threat Wednesday night that said the "legislation would introduce unnecessary and impractical requirements that would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom are victims of terrorism, and would undermine our partners in the Middle East and Europe in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis."

Senate Democrats have vowed to block the bill.