Congress in August Recess | Sen. Reid Schedules 1st Sept. Vote On Dem's Amendment To Gut First Amendment Freedoms
Today in Washington, D.C. - August 4, 2014
Today, the House reconvened at 10 AM (minimum attendance) and Considered as privileged matter. H. Con. Res. 112 — "Providing for a conditional adjournment of the House of Representatives and a conditional recess or adjournment of the Senate." The resolution was agreed to without objection.
The Speaker announced that pursuant to the order of the House of today, the House stands adjourned until noon on Thursday, August 7, 2014, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its adoption of H. Con. Res. 112, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution. Agreed to without objection.
The House Calendar has Congress in their Home Districts for Constituent Work until Sept. 8, 2014.
On Friday, Aug 1st, the House passed:
H. Res. 683 (Unanimous Consent)— "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the current situation in Iraq and the urgent need to protect religious minorities from persecution from the Sunni Islamist insurgent and terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) as it expands its control over areas in northwestern Iraq."
H. Res. 699 (Unanimous Consent) — "Welcoming African leaders to the first United States-Africa Leaders' Summit and African trade ministers to the 13th Forum of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)."
H.R. 5230 (223-189) — "Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes."
H.R. 5272 (216-192) — "To prohibit certain actions with respect to deferred action for aliens not lawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes."
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene for a short session tomorrow at 11 AM.
On Friday, this Senate passed by unanimous consent H.J. Res. 76, cosponsored by Leader McConnell, which provides emergency funding to Israel for its Iron Dome missile defense system. The House voted 395-8 to pass the bill, sending it to the president for his signature.
Also on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S. J. Res. 19, Senate Democrats’ radical constitutional amendment to curtail the free speech protections in the First Amendment. Reid has set a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed (i.e. whether to take up) to the amendment for September 8th.
The Hill reported on Friday, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has set up a procedural vote for September on a constitutional amendment to limit money in politics. Before adjourning for a five-week recess on Friday, Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 19, which is designed to overturn two recent Supreme Court decisions that allowed corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals to spend more money on federal elections. The procedural vote on the constitutional amendment is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8. . . . ‘This partisan effort to weaken the First Amendment is the clearest proof yet of how out of touch the Democrat Majority has become from the needs and concerns of ordinary Americans and how ill-equipped they are to lead in these challenging times,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday. ‘Washington Democrats have forgotten that the First Amendment is meant to empower the people, not the government.’ . . . The amendment from Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) would authorize Congress and the states to regulate and limit fundraising and spending on federal candidates. It would also prohibit the Supreme Court from reversing any future campaign finance legislation passed by Congress. . . . ‘This latest Democrat effort to abridge political speech is little more than a craven attempt to substitute the incumbent-protection desires of Washington Democrats for a fundamental right that the Constitution guarantees to all Americans,’ McConnell said.”
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) declared that in September, “We need to pass appropriations measures to keep the government from shutting down. We need to pass a temporary extension to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. We need to do something about the items I just mentioned about the Ex-Im Bank. We have to do the Defense authorization bill, which is extremely important for the fighting men and women of this country. . . . We have a lot of work to do.” And on Friday, he complained, “[W]e find ourselves at the end of this work period having done not a lot.”
So in scheduling the first votes for September, the Majority Leader of course decided to address none of these issues. Nor did he schedule any action on issues left uncompleted from this past month, like funding for border security. Instead, the Senate’s Democrat leadership has decided the first thing the Senate must vote on is their radical amendment to gut core political speech protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Democrats’ priorities are clear: not helping Americans, or even doing the basic work of government (the Senate still has not passed a single appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, which begins in October), but instead on partisan bills designed to help their party campaign from the Senate floor and a constitutional amendment that would gut First Amendment speech rights.
As Leader McConnell said in June testifying against this terrible proposal, “[E]veryone on this Committee knows this proposal will never pass Congress. This is a political exercise. The goal here is to stir up one party’s political base so they’ll show up in November and to do it by complaining loudly about certain Americans exercising their free speech and associational rights, while being perfectly happy that other Americans—those who agree with the sponsors of this amendment—are doing the same thing. But the political nature of this exercise should not obscure how shockingly bad this proposal is. When it comes to free speech, we shouldn’t substitute the incumbent-protection desires of politicians for the protection the Constitution guarantees to all Americans.”
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Tags: Congress, in recess, Harry Reid, schedules vote, amendment, limiting free speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Today, the House reconvened at 10 AM (minimum attendance) and Considered as privileged matter. H. Con. Res. 112 — "Providing for a conditional adjournment of the House of Representatives and a conditional recess or adjournment of the Senate." The resolution was agreed to without objection.
The Speaker announced that pursuant to the order of the House of today, the House stands adjourned until noon on Thursday, August 7, 2014, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its adoption of H. Con. Res. 112, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution. Agreed to without objection.
The House Calendar has Congress in their Home Districts for Constituent Work until Sept. 8, 2014.
On Friday, Aug 1st, the House passed:
H. Res. 683 (Unanimous Consent)— "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the current situation in Iraq and the urgent need to protect religious minorities from persecution from the Sunni Islamist insurgent and terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) as it expands its control over areas in northwestern Iraq."
H. Res. 699 (Unanimous Consent) — "Welcoming African leaders to the first United States-Africa Leaders' Summit and African trade ministers to the 13th Forum of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)."
H.R. 5230 (223-189) — "Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes."
H.R. 5272 (216-192) — "To prohibit certain actions with respect to deferred action for aliens not lawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes."
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene for a short session tomorrow at 11 AM.
On Friday, this Senate passed by unanimous consent H.J. Res. 76, cosponsored by Leader McConnell, which provides emergency funding to Israel for its Iron Dome missile defense system. The House voted 395-8 to pass the bill, sending it to the president for his signature.
Also on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S. J. Res. 19, Senate Democrats’ radical constitutional amendment to curtail the free speech protections in the First Amendment. Reid has set a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed (i.e. whether to take up) to the amendment for September 8th.
The Hill reported on Friday, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has set up a procedural vote for September on a constitutional amendment to limit money in politics. Before adjourning for a five-week recess on Friday, Reid filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 19, which is designed to overturn two recent Supreme Court decisions that allowed corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals to spend more money on federal elections. The procedural vote on the constitutional amendment is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8. . . . ‘This partisan effort to weaken the First Amendment is the clearest proof yet of how out of touch the Democrat Majority has become from the needs and concerns of ordinary Americans and how ill-equipped they are to lead in these challenging times,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday. ‘Washington Democrats have forgotten that the First Amendment is meant to empower the people, not the government.’ . . . The amendment from Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) would authorize Congress and the states to regulate and limit fundraising and spending on federal candidates. It would also prohibit the Supreme Court from reversing any future campaign finance legislation passed by Congress. . . . ‘This latest Democrat effort to abridge political speech is little more than a craven attempt to substitute the incumbent-protection desires of Washington Democrats for a fundamental right that the Constitution guarantees to all Americans,’ McConnell said.”
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) declared that in September, “We need to pass appropriations measures to keep the government from shutting down. We need to pass a temporary extension to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. We need to do something about the items I just mentioned about the Ex-Im Bank. We have to do the Defense authorization bill, which is extremely important for the fighting men and women of this country. . . . We have a lot of work to do.” And on Friday, he complained, “[W]e find ourselves at the end of this work period having done not a lot.”
So in scheduling the first votes for September, the Majority Leader of course decided to address none of these issues. Nor did he schedule any action on issues left uncompleted from this past month, like funding for border security. Instead, the Senate’s Democrat leadership has decided the first thing the Senate must vote on is their radical amendment to gut core political speech protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Democrats’ priorities are clear: not helping Americans, or even doing the basic work of government (the Senate still has not passed a single appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, which begins in October), but instead on partisan bills designed to help their party campaign from the Senate floor and a constitutional amendment that would gut First Amendment speech rights.
As Leader McConnell said in June testifying against this terrible proposal, “[E]veryone on this Committee knows this proposal will never pass Congress. This is a political exercise. The goal here is to stir up one party’s political base so they’ll show up in November and to do it by complaining loudly about certain Americans exercising their free speech and associational rights, while being perfectly happy that other Americans—those who agree with the sponsors of this amendment—are doing the same thing. But the political nature of this exercise should not obscure how shockingly bad this proposal is. When it comes to free speech, we shouldn’t substitute the incumbent-protection desires of politicians for the protection the Constitution guarantees to all Americans.”
-------------
Tags: Congress, in recess, Harry Reid, schedules vote, amendment, limiting free speech To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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