Legislative Update: February 12, 2012

Compliments of Tea Party Patriots!

TPP Legislative Update & Newsletter

February 13, 2012

Passion to Action:  There are SO many things going on right now, but you can make a huge difference with the following small actions.

 CLASS ACT! Call/email/fax your Senators and ask them to bring the CLASS Act Repeal (HR 1173) up for a vote in the Senate, and tell them to vote YES!
 NON-RECESS! While you’re on the phone, ask them what they are planning to do about the President’s unconstitutional non-recess appointments, and tell them you expect them to fight back.
 REPEAL! Tell everyone you know about the Road to Repeal Rally in Washington DC on March 24. This is the Saturday before the Supreme Court begins to hear arguments on Obamacare. We need to show the world that Americans still want that law repealed.

Federal Budget

 Not so happy Valentines Day: Tuesday, February 14 marks the 1021st day since the Senate has passed a budget. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Obama try to dodge their responsibility in this budget fiasco. They said they had already passed a budget through passing the debt ceiling deal. Everyone knows that’s not accurate. Now they are trying to straight-up lie about what it takes to get a budget passed. On Sunday, the President’s new Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, told the morning news shows that it takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate because of the filibuster and the Republican “obstructionist.” THIS IS A BLATANT LIE. As we all learned during the Obamacare debate, the Senate may use the process of reconciliation to pass budgetary items with only 51 votes so that budgets are immune to filibustering. This also doesn’t address the fact that the Democrats had total control of the House, the Senate, and the White House for two years and only managed to pass one budget instead of two.
 Obama’s Budget: The President finally released his budget today, and as expected, it would give us deeper deficits, increased spending, bigger government, and higher taxes. Key facts from his budget:
          o Spends Too Much:
                $47 trillion of government spending over the next decade
                Proposes a net increase over current spending projections
         o Taxes Too Much:
               $1.9 trillion in new taxes
               Raises taxes, not to pay down the debt, but to fuel more government
                  spending
         o Borrows Too Much:
              Four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits; no plan to reduce the debt
              Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion
        o Budget Gimmicks & Broken Promises
              Overstates new deficit reduction by taking credit for savings already enacted
              Exploits discredited budget gimmick by “not spending” nearly $1 trillion that
                 was never going to be spent

Read more about President Obama’s budget here. And don’t forget, Obama has missed the budget deadline three out of four years. If you’d like to read the President’s one-pager on his budget, click here.
 Reports: The RSC puts out a weekly Budget and Spending Task Force report. Check it out here. They also put out a report called “Money Monitors” so be sure to check them both out, as there is good information there.
 History of Deficits: Read a paper titled, “A short history of federal deficits and surpluses,” and stay ahead of the spin regarding the budget.

Constitutional Issues

 New Website: Please check out a new website called the Intolerable Acts at http://www.theintolerableacts.org/. There you will find resources to fight against the unconstitutional provisions embedded within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). There are a number of states that are fighting back by passing resolutions. You can find templates, etc. on the website to use with your own local and state elected officials.
 Still Confused? Are you still confused about NDAA? Click here for a good explanation of why it’s so bad.

Jobs & Economic Growth

 Increasing American Competitiveness: Check out Mercatus Center’s research fellows’ testimony to the Senate Committee on Finance on tax reform. Also take a look at their testimony to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about how government can’t really “create” jobs and what it takes for long-term prosperity.
 Green Jobs: The fraud behind the President’s “green jobs” initiatives.
 Real Energy Jobs: The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012 (HR 7) passed through committee and is now moving through the Rules Committee in preparation of bringing it to the floor for a vote. Read more about it here. According to the Speaker & the Republicans, HR 7:
     o Removes barriers to job growth by approving the Keystone pipeline rejected
        by President Obama, lifting the president’s offshore drilling ban, opening a small
        portion of ANWR, and more;
     o Eliminates wasteful spending and earmarks, eliminates nearly 70 duplicative
        federal transportation programs, and ensures taxpayer dollars are spent on
        highways – not ‘beautification’ projects and other non-highway activities;
     o Cuts the permitting time in half by speeding up bureaucratic approvals, and
        delegates more decision-making authority to where it belongs: individual states, not
        Washington; and more.

Note: See below in the summary of what the House is up to this week to read about conservative concerns with HR 7.

Obamacare

 Business group states case against health care mandate
 Obama appointee muzzled Army chaplains, forbade reading of anti-Obamacare Catholic Archdiocese letter
 Obama’s covert war on insurers succeeding
 Final rules make a mish-mash of ACO’s
 Medicaid bait and switch
 Everything you wanted to know about Medicare Premium Support & more here
 Obama’s war on religion causes buyer’s remorse Loopholes may cost sick workers their coverage
 Supreme Court must consider threat to doctor-patient relationship
 Obama’s war on religion: No ceasefire on either side & the statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
 Obamacare mastermind admits premiums to soar
 Cuccinelli and Coakley debate on C-SPAN
 43 Republican Senators filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to challenge the individual mandate
 Liberty Legal Foundation file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court that connects Obamacare with the 1942 precedent of Wickard v. Filburn that allowed for the expansion of the commerce clause
 American Action Forum filed two amicus briefs with the Supreme Court that explain how the expansion of Medicaid and the individual mandate render the entire law unconsitutional
 CMS refuses to answer question about whether or not seniors can purchase health care with their own money
 Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced legislation to restore religious freedom to repeal the new Obamacare mandate that was just created by the Health and Human Services – the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012
 Democrats abandoning unconstitutional violation of religious liberties
 Obama’s fraudulent “accommodation” on mandates for Catholic Church
 Obama’s Chief of Staff says there will be no more compromises on mandates

Education

 Teacher’s Unions Don’t Care: On the New Jersey Capitol Report this past weekend, New Jersey Education Association Director Vincent Giordano was asked his views on a legislative proposal to offer private scholarships to low-income students who attend public schools judged to be under-performing. Giordano, who according to Newark Star-Ledger earned roughly $422,000 from the union in 2010, said he supported low-income children attending private schools as long as they paid for it themselves. When asked whether that was a practical solution, given their household income, Giordano responded: “Well, you know, life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that.”

Sustainable Development

 We must be making a difference: The left now feels obligated make fun of us. In their view, critics MUST be extremists. Read here and here.
 UN Treaties: Dick Morris discusses various UN treaties that President Obama’s administration is considering.
 Property Rights Council: The Property Rights Council is a group that has formed to be proactive in the fight to protect property rights. So rather than always playing defense, it’s time we started playing offense.
 RNC Resolution: The RNC resolution opposing sustainable development is making a big splash. Here’s a taste – ‘Lawson read an excerpt of the resolution: "Whereas, the United Nations Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control that was initiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment…”’ Will your legislators sign the RNC Resolution?
 From Across the Pond: Please listen to our friends across the pond and the horror of sustainable development as it destroys Europe. Listen here.
 Confused about America's Poor Economy? Here is why...
 EPA now "regulates" affordable housing: Affordable housing is subsidized housing, and just like with anything else subsidized by the government, this is why these Smart Growth neighborhoods are so expensive. When you seal off the majority of the land from development the remaining land becomes extremely scarce and expensive. Then throw in affordable housing (subsidized housing) which generates no taxes and you have truly unaffordable living standards for those that go to work everyday. Look at CA. This is why it is so expensive to live there and getting worse. People are leaving CA by the truckload.
 HR 3864: Legislation in the House that seeks to eliminate dedicated funding for the Mass Transit Account. Mass Transit is a staple of sustainable development so defunding this would be great.
 For Local Government Officials: Need help explaining why sustainable development practices are dangerous to property rights? Send this video to your local government officials to educate them.
 Petition: Recently President Obama signed an executive order establishing the President's Global Development Council. This Council is tasked with implementing sustainable development programs across the country. You can sign a petition here to ask Speaker Boehner to do something to combat this.

Illegal Immigration

 Documentary: TPP North Carolina State Coordinator Mark Hager assisted with the documentary titled, “Invasion: Freedom Under Fire!” about the struggles of American citizens who live along the southern border. If you would like to order a copy, please click here for more information.
 Waivermania: Kansas’ Agriculture Secretary is asking the Department of Homeland Security for a waiver so that agricultural businesses in Kansas could hire illegal immigrants. The agriculture businesses and others in the business community are supporting this effort. So far the Obama administration have handed out healthcare waivers and educational waivers. Are illegal immigrant waivers next? When waivers become the law of the land, there is no law.
 Alabama Too: The Attorney General in Alabama is trying to get the legislature to gut their new, stricter laws dealing with illegal aliens because he doesn’t want to have to go to court to fight for it. The Chamber of Commerce and the agricultural businesses are also supportive of the attempt to gut the laws.

House of Representatives

*Summary information provided by the RSC

Weekly Wrap Up

 Civilian Property Realignment Act — Last week, the House approved H.R. 1734, the Civilian Property Realignment Act, by a vote of 259-164. The Federal government owns more real property than any other entity in America (900,000 buildings). Republicans have long advocated selling the most wasteful of these properties. H.R. 1734 establishes an independent commission known as the Civilian Property Realignment Commission (CPRC) to provide recommendations on civilian federal properties that can be sold, transferred, exchanged, consolidated, or redeveloped, so as to reduce the civilian real property inventory, reduce the operating costs of the government, and create the highest value and return for the taxpayer. Specifically, the CPRC would be required to identify not less than five federal properties that have a total market value of at least $500 million and transmit the list to the president and Congress within 180 days. Once approved by the president, CPRC’s recommendations would be considered in Congress under expedited procedures. Under the bill, the CPRC would sunset six years after enactment. According to CBO, the bill would cost $3 million in FY 2012 and $68 million over the FY 2012 through FY 2017 period. However, H.R. 1734 could result in the sale of at least five high-value federal properties with an estimated total fair market value of at least $500 million, which would fully offset the funding provided in the bill and reduce the deficit by an additional $432 million.
 Budget Transparency — Also last week, the House approved H.R. 3581, the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act, by a vote of 245-180. This legislation will require federal credit programs to be accounted for on a fair value accounting basis. This means that federal accounting would have to consider not just the borrowing costs to the federal government, but also the cost of the market risk the federal government is incurring. The purpose of the bill is to bring federal budgeting practices in line with the private-sector in order to paint a more accurate picture of federal finances. Under current law, the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA) requires that the credit subsidy cost of federal direct loans and loan guarantees be measured on a “net present value” basis, which determines the cost of a loan program based on calculations using the interest rates on Treasury securities. However, this calculation ignores additional costs associated with market risks. According the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), “By incorporating a market-based risk premium, fair-value estimates recognize that the financial risk that the government assumes when issuing credit guarantees is more costly to taxpayers than FCRA-based estimates suggest.” By more accurately accounting for the costs of federal credit programs, H.R. 3581 increases the estimated costs of such programs compared to measures used under current law. According to CBO, if fair-value procedures were used to estimate the cost of new credit activity in 2012, the total deficit for the year would be about $55 billion greater than the deficit as measured under current estimating procedures. However, since the legislation would not
change the terms of such credit programs, but would change what is recorded in the budget as the cost of credit assistance, the changes in the estimates of the costs of credit programs would not be scored by CBO as attributable to H.R. 3581.
 Line-Item Veto — On Wednesday, the House approved H.R. 3521, the Expedited Line-Item Veto and Rescissions Act, by a vote of 254-173. H.R. 3521 establishes an expedited procedure for consideration of presidential proposals to rescind certain spending provisions in newly enacted spending legislation. Under the expedited procedure, Congress will be required to consider proposals to rescind specific funding included in spending legislation if the rescission is proposed by the president within 45 days of the spending bill’s enactment. Under the legislation, any savings achieved through these procedures would be used for reducing the deficit or increasing the surplus. The authority of the president to propose rescission packages for expedited consideration established by H.R. 3521 would expire on December 15, 2015. According to CBO, “enacting H.R. 3521, by itself, would not have a significant impact on the federal budget. Any impact on the budget would depend on the extent of the President’s use of the new cancellation procedure and on future Congressional actions.”
 STOCK Act — Yesterday, the House approved an amendment to S. 2038, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, by a vote of 417-2. The bill makes clear that Members of Congress, Congressional employees, and executive and judicial branch employees are prohibited from using nonpublic information for private profit. The bill also amends the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 and the Ethics in Government Act and would require the Senate and the House of Representatives to implement an electronic filing system for financial disclosure forms, as well as provide the public with on-line access to that information in a searchable database. In addition, the legislation requires timelier reporting of certain financial transactions by Members of Congress, Congressional employees, and executive and judicial branch officials and employees. The House amendment strengthens the Senate’s STOCK Act, expands the scope of the bill to require more financial disclosures by government employees, and ensures that the law is workable and meets the goal of preventing those who hold public office (and their staff) from profiting from insider information. According to CBO, implementing this legislation would cost $4 million over the 2012-2013 period primarily for new computer hardware and software and additional labor to support the financial disclosure system required under the bill. In addition, maintaining the new system would cost $1 million annually, CBO estimates. In total, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would cost about $9 million over the 2012-2017 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts.

The Week Ahead

 Transportation Bill — This week, the House may consider H.R. 7, the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act. The American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act would provide a five-year extension of federal highway and transit programs. The bill would eliminate all earmarks from the highway bill. The last surface transportation law approved by Congress in 2005 contained over 6,300 earmarks. The bill would cut red tape and streamline highway funding by consolidating or eliminating nearly 70 highway programs and eliminating mandates that prevent states from funding infrastructure needs. However, there are two main areas that cause serious concern for many conservatives. First, the cost of the legislation. The bill proposes $262 billion in spending over the next five years. This is an increase over the amount of $191.5 billion that was proposed in July and consistent with the House-passed budget. Furthermore, CBO estimates that gas tax revenues will be $193 billion over the next five years. That leaves a funding gap of roughly $70 billion. And while some of that gap may be covered from revenues from increased domestic energy production, many conservatives believe that we should use that revenue to reduce the deficit, not for new spending. The legislation also makes it harder to make the conservative case that road users—through the gas tax—pay the cost of the federal highway program. Second, many conservatives have long argued that the overwhelming majority of transportation programs and spending should be devolved to the states. While there is increased state flexibility in this bill, it falls short of devolution.
 Payroll Tax Cut Extension — Also this week, the House may consider legislation relating to H.R. 3630, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011. H.R. 3630 was approved in the House on December 13, 2011 by a vote of 234–193. The House-passed version of H.R. 3630 provided an offset one-year extension of the current payroll tax rates, a delay in the implementation of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (the so-called “Doc Fix”), and an extension of reformed Unemployment Insurance benefits. Currently these programs are operating under two-month extension (H.R.3765) set to expire on February 29, 2012.

Senate

 The Senate will convened at 2:00 p.m. today and was in Morning Business until 4:30 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., the Senate began debate on cloture on Executive Calendar #437, Adalberto Jose Jordan, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit. At 5:30 p.m., the Senate should be voting on cloture on the nomination.
 Once the Senate completes action on the Jordan nomination, the Senate will pivot back to S.1813, the Highway bill (current extension expires 3/31/12). Currently pending to S.1813 is Reid (for Johnson (SD)/Shelby) amendment #1515 (transit title). They expect the remaining Committee measures (Commerce and Finance) will also be voted on as separate amendments later this week. At this point, it is unclear if they will complete action on the Highway bill this week.
 In addition to the Highway bill, other items which are possible for floor action this week include: Payroll Conference Report and/or STOCK Act. The House amended S.2038, the STOCK Act, by a vote of 417 to 2 last week. It is unclear if a Conference Committee will be convened or if Leader Reid will turn to the House passed bill.
 Next scheduled Senate and House recess: February 20th – February 24th.
 Legislative items which are possible during the next work period include: Cybersecurity; Postal Reform; CLASS Act Repeal (H.R.1173).
 Upcoming “No Vote Days” in the Senate: March 5th, March 12th, and March 19th.
 Harry Reid resurrects SOPA.