House Republicans seek to shift focus from Trump to security

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans laid out a national security agenda that seeks to turn the conversation away from Donald Trump's contentious presidential campaign and toward concrete policies for securing America's borders and defeating extremist groups.

Speaking today at the Council on Foreign Relations with other GOP leaders, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Trump's proposed plan to ban all Muslims from coming into the country isn't practical.

"You can't ban an entire race or religion from coming into the country," said McCaul, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. The U.S. needs to properly target the threat to make sure attackers don't get into the country, he said.

The billionaire candidate also has pledged, if elected, to bring back the use of waterboarding – it causes the sensation of drowning – and worse against captured militants. Congress has outlawed waterboarding along with other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

The national security agenda is a key item in a broader policy blueprint House Speaker Paul Ryan is crafting that seeks to unite Republicans amid the frequent distractions triggered by Trump's unconventional presidential campaign. Ryan's policy blueprint is aimed at defining what Republicans are for, not just what they are against.