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 The measure, quickly drafted this week following the Islamic State
attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people, was approved on a
vote of 289-137, with 47 of Obama's 188 fellow Democrats breaking
with the White House to support it.
It would require that high-level officials - the FBI director, the
director of national intelligence and homeland security secretary -
verify that each Syrian refugee poses no security risk.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill would pause the
program the White House announced in September to admit 10,000
Syrian refugees over the next year. He said it was important to act
quickly "when our national security is at stake."
After the House vote, Obama's attorney general, Loretta Lynch,
called such screening both impractical and impossible.
"To ask me to have my FBI director or other members of the
administration make personal guarantees would effectively grind the
program to a halt," Lynch told reporters at a news briefing with FBI
Director James Comey.
The vote result came despite a last-ditch appeal for Democratic
votes from Jeh Johnson, Obama's secretary of homeland security, and
Denis McDonough, his chief of staff.
It followed a testy exchange at a House hearing between lawmakers
and Anne Richard, the assistant secretary of state for population,
refugees and migration. Republicans responded with incredulity to
her assertion there was only a "very, very small" threat of any of
the Syrian refugees being a "terrorist".
Some Republicans have said some refugees could be militants bent on
attacking the United States, noting reports that at least one Paris
attacker may have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in
Greece.
The bill, which would create the strictest-ever U.S. screening of
refugees from a war-torn nation, passed with the two-thirds majority
the House would need to override a presidential veto. It now goes to
the Senate, also controlled by Republicans, where its prospects
remained uncertain.
If it passes in the Senate, each chamber would have to muster a
two-thirds majority to override any Obama veto.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said there was "no way" the
House bill would pass in the Senate.
 While many Americans see the United States historically as welcoming
to immigrants, accepting refugees from Syria has raised concerns the
newcomers may pose a national security threat in a country where
about 3,000 people were killed by al Qaeda militants in the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
Lawmakers have been receiving an unusually large number of calls on
the issue. An aide to Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman said his
office got 2,710 calls between Monday and Wednesday opposing
resettlement of Syrian/Iraqi refugees in the United States, versus
only 58 in favor.
'SPASM OF RHETORIC'
Speaking in Manila after meeting with Canada's prime minister, Obama
said America had always been open to allowing people from war zones
to find refuge in the United States, where they become "part of the
fabric of American life".
Denouncing the "spasm of rhetoric" over refugees, Obama said
refugees already faced the most vigorous vetting process for anyone
admitted to the country. He added that "the idea that somehow they
pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into
the United States every single day just doesn't jibe with reality."
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The White House had said Obama would veto the House bill because it
would introduce "unnecessary and impractical requirements" that
would hamper efforts to help some of the world's most vulnerable
people without providing meaningful additional security for
Americans.
"Our position on this piece of legislation has not changed," an
official on board Air Force One, carrying Obama to a Southeast Asian
summit in Malaysia on Friday, quoted White House spokesman Josh
Earnest as saying.
Comey said there was no credible threat of an attack on U.S. soil
similar to the one in Paris, but his agency is monitoring dozens of
people it has deemed "high-risk" for copying the attack.
Islamic State militants released a video on Thursday threatening the
White House with suicide bombings and car blasts. The threat came a
day after another video from the militant group that suggested New
York was a potential target.
Ben Carson, a leading 2016 Republican presidential candidate,
likened Syrian refugees to "a rabid dog running around your
neighborhood," and said admitting them would put Americans at risk.
Some Democrats touted a different approach, promising legislation in
the Senate to tighten a visa waiver program that intelligence
experts say can be exploited by Islamic State militants or others
planning U.S. attacks.
Earnest said White House staff were talking with members of Congress
on reforming the program.
"This is an area where additional scrutiny and reforms could be
useful in enhancing the national security of the United States," he
was quoted as saying.
Honduras said on Wednesday it had detained five Syrians seeking to
reach the United States for traveling on doctored Greek passports,
but authorities in the Central American country said the men did not
belong to "any terrorist cell" and four were college students.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said members of two Syrian
families - two men, two women and four children - turned themselves
in to U.S. authorities in Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border.
There was no evidence the Syrians had any connection to terrorism,
U.S. officials said.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Doina Chiacu, Mark
Hosenball, Roberta Rampton, Alana Wise and Eric Beech in WASHINGTON,
Gustavo Palencia in TEGUCIGALPA and Matt Spetalnick on board Air
Force One; Writing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney; Editing by
Howard Goller and Nick Macfie)
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