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 to 137, with 47 of Obama's 188 fellow Democrats breaking with the White House to support it.

It would mandate 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.