"HOUSE OF BILL REPUTE: GOP HEADS INTO AUGUST AT RECORD PACE" - Tony Perkins, Washington Watch, July 27, 2018; https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20180727/bill-repute [AS I SEE IT: We should be encouraged that many of the good bills that the House passed before going on recess, will not have to be stalled in the Senate. PRAY that those noted below and other good ones will pass the Senate BEFORE SEPT. 30 and be finally signed into law.- Stan]
If traffic was a little lighter in D.C. [last Friday morning], commuters can thank Congress. After a round of Thursday votes, House leaders turned out the lights and headed back to their districts until Labor Day. For at least one chamber, the summer recess is here. And while today's members are jetting off to campaign, the August break wasn't always about elections. It was about the heat. Before 1928, there wasn't air conditioning in the Capitol. The House chamber was "windowless, airless, and so oppressive" that people collapsed. When the ventilation system was finally installed, the Carrier Air Conditioning Company predicted that "Congress may voluntarily remain in session throughout the summer!" They were wrong.
This summer, though, at least one side of the Capitol will be working overtime. According to Pew Research, it's been decades since the Senate gave up this much of its August holiday. The decision, made by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), means that Congress is scheduled to be in session for more days than the average since 1971. And Republicans are making the most of it.
Spending bills, judges, and dozens of other nominations are on McConnell's plate for August. And while former House Speaker John Garner once said, "No good legislation comes out of Washington after June," this leadership team is trying to prove him wrong. Before the House skipped town, it set up the Senate for the earliest passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) since Jimmy Carter. "I was actually in the first grade the last time we passed a defense authorization bill this fast," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) joked to reporters this week. Although the NDAA is already in a class of its own -- passing 57 straight years – it hasn't made it through Congress this fast in decades. If the Senate gives the green light to the conference report when it's back in town the first full week of August, House Armed Services Chair Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) says "it will be the quickest the process has finished in 41 years."
To the cheers of everyone at the Defense Department, the military will be on track to get a pay raise -- the largest in nine years -- 15,000 more troops, and new ships, submarines, planes, and weapons. After Barack Obama, who scaled back so much that pilots were scavenging museums for jet parts, this year's budget will begin in earnest the long process of rebuilding America's fighting force.
So far, the provision getting the most attention may be the bill's temporary ban on F-35 fighter sales to Turkey. With Turkey acting like anything but a NATO ally -- obtaining weapon systems from Russia, imprisoning an American pastor, Andrew Brunson -- Congress is doing everything it can to turn up the heat on President Erdogan. According to the conference report, the deal would be on hold until the Pentagon and State Department issue a report on U.S.-Turkish relations. Another part of the bill makes an outright call for Brunson's freedom, demanding that Erdogan "release wrongly detained U.S. citizens."
Meanwhile, the NDAA isn't the only evidence that Congress is plowing through spending proposals faster than normal. Every single appropriations bill has made it through committee in the House, and while some may not pass in time to beat the September 30 deadline, most will. (Of course, both chambers had plenty of motivation after March when President Trump vowed he'd never sign another omnibus.) Two of those spending bills, Homeland Security and Financial Services, also happen to include important pro-life amendments. Before the House adjourned, it wrapped up committee work on the DHS budget, which -- thanks to Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) -- includes a provision that would stop the government (and taxpayers) from facilitating abortions for women in immigration detention centers (in most situations).
After the Jane Doe tragedy, when the ACLU pressured a teenager in custody to get an abortion, there's been a growing concern that extremists would try to turn the U.S. into a sanctuary country for abortion. Republicans did their best to put the brakes on that push, approving Aderholt's amendment 30-20. Just as importantly, it gives conscience protections to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) employees who object to abortion.
Over in the House's Financial Services-Interior debate, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) stepped in to stop another bad idea in the city of D.C. Although Congress repealed the individual mandate in Obamacare, D.C. tried to recreate it at the end of June by ordering residents to buy health insurance -- and not just any insurance, but plans that include abortion on demand. Under the Palmer amendment, which passed, Americans in the District wouldn't be forced to pay for health coverage that takes an innocent life.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
If traffic was a little lighter in D.C. [last Friday morning], commuters can thank Congress. After a round of Thursday votes, House leaders turned out the lights and headed back to their districts until Labor Day. For at least one chamber, the summer recess is here. And while today's members are jetting off to campaign, the August break wasn't always about elections. It was about the heat. Before 1928, there wasn't air conditioning in the Capitol. The House chamber was "windowless, airless, and so oppressive" that people collapsed. When the ventilation system was finally installed, the Carrier Air Conditioning Company predicted that "Congress may voluntarily remain in session throughout the summer!" They were wrong.
This summer, though, at least one side of the Capitol will be working overtime. According to Pew Research, it's been decades since the Senate gave up this much of its August holiday. The decision, made by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), means that Congress is scheduled to be in session for more days than the average since 1971. And Republicans are making the most of it.
Spending bills, judges, and dozens of other nominations are on McConnell's plate for August. And while former House Speaker John Garner once said, "No good legislation comes out of Washington after June," this leadership team is trying to prove him wrong. Before the House skipped town, it set up the Senate for the earliest passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) since Jimmy Carter. "I was actually in the first grade the last time we passed a defense authorization bill this fast," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) joked to reporters this week. Although the NDAA is already in a class of its own -- passing 57 straight years – it hasn't made it through Congress this fast in decades. If the Senate gives the green light to the conference report when it's back in town the first full week of August, House Armed Services Chair Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) says "it will be the quickest the process has finished in 41 years."
To the cheers of everyone at the Defense Department, the military will be on track to get a pay raise -- the largest in nine years -- 15,000 more troops, and new ships, submarines, planes, and weapons. After Barack Obama, who scaled back so much that pilots were scavenging museums for jet parts, this year's budget will begin in earnest the long process of rebuilding America's fighting force.
So far, the provision getting the most attention may be the bill's temporary ban on F-35 fighter sales to Turkey. With Turkey acting like anything but a NATO ally -- obtaining weapon systems from Russia, imprisoning an American pastor, Andrew Brunson -- Congress is doing everything it can to turn up the heat on President Erdogan. According to the conference report, the deal would be on hold until the Pentagon and State Department issue a report on U.S.-Turkish relations. Another part of the bill makes an outright call for Brunson's freedom, demanding that Erdogan "release wrongly detained U.S. citizens."
Meanwhile, the NDAA isn't the only evidence that Congress is plowing through spending proposals faster than normal. Every single appropriations bill has made it through committee in the House, and while some may not pass in time to beat the September 30 deadline, most will. (Of course, both chambers had plenty of motivation after March when President Trump vowed he'd never sign another omnibus.) Two of those spending bills, Homeland Security and Financial Services, also happen to include important pro-life amendments. Before the House adjourned, it wrapped up committee work on the DHS budget, which -- thanks to Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) -- includes a provision that would stop the government (and taxpayers) from facilitating abortions for women in immigration detention centers (in most situations).
After the Jane Doe tragedy, when the ACLU pressured a teenager in custody to get an abortion, there's been a growing concern that extremists would try to turn the U.S. into a sanctuary country for abortion. Republicans did their best to put the brakes on that push, approving Aderholt's amendment 30-20. Just as importantly, it gives conscience protections to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) employees who object to abortion.
Over in the House's Financial Services-Interior debate, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) stepped in to stop another bad idea in the city of D.C. Although Congress repealed the individual mandate in Obamacare, D.C. tried to recreate it at the end of June by ordering residents to buy health insurance -- and not just any insurance, but plans that include abortion on demand. Under the Palmer amendment, which passed, Americans in the District wouldn't be forced to pay for health coverage that takes an innocent life.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:To learn more, please go to -https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Praying for Central Asia- In countries like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan And Kyrgyzstan, a Bible is a treasured gift—and in some places, a hard thing to come by. These believers rely on the Word of God to help them face increasing persecution. Throughout August, we’ll be focusing on bringing Scripture to this part of the world, and we ask you to join us.
August 3 | AZERBAIJAN - According to a new amendment to the state religious code, religious groups meeting without registration will be subject to one to two years in prison. Please pray with Pastor Mehman and his church as they face these difficult conditions.
*Names changed to protect identities
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan And Kyrgyzstan, a Bible is a treasured gift—and in some places, a hard thing to come by. These believers rely on the Word of God to help them face increasing persecution. Throughout August, we’ll be focusing on bringing Scripture to this part of the world, and we ask you to join us.
August 3 | AZERBAIJAN - According to a new amendment to the state religious code, religious groups meeting without registration will be subject to one to two years in prison. Please pray with Pastor Mehman and his church as they face these difficult conditions.
*Names changed to protect identities
This article talks about what the Senate hopes to accomplish while in session during their summer holiday. I wonder why they're in such a rush. Maybe they're worried that they'll be occupied with other things in the fall (e.g. campaigning for midterm elections, drafting the federal budget). As good as some of these bills are, I hope they are well-thought out and not unnecessarily rushed through the congressional lawmaking process. But whatever the reason for the working during the holiday, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
ReplyDelete-herb