TPP Vote Expected Tomorrow In House - Has TiSA Annex Allowing Alteration to Immigration Law

Today in Washinton, D.C. -   Rick Manning, President of Americans for limited Government notes, "Today 34 House Republicans displayed an extraordinary amount of political courage by voting to deny Speaker Boehner the ability to bring fast track trade authority to the floor of the House. If Boehner had not succeeded in lobbying 8 Democrats to pull his bacon out of the fire, fast track would now be dead. Tomorrow, there will be significantly more Republicans voting against fast track as concerns about President Obama's surrender of U.S. sovereignty through the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes fully evident. For those 34 Republicans who took a stand, today's action deserves universal praise from freedom loving Americans nationwide. They listened to their constituents."

Tomorrow, TPA/TPP is expected to be voted on in the House. As ARRA News Service noted yesterday, included is a Secret Immigration Chapter In Obama’s Trade Agreement called the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Annex on Movement of Natural Persons which in fact unilaterally permits alteration of current U.S. immigration law. Follow the link and read the actual document shared by Brietbart.
The House reconvened at 10 AM today. As of this report, the House took up and passed H.R. 2685 (Voice Vote) — "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes."

The House is expected to address the following bills:
H.R. 2685 — "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes."
H.R. 1314 - To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for a right to an administrative appeal relating to adverse determinations of tax-exempt status of certain organizations.
Consideration of the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 644) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend and expand the charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory."

Yesterday the House passed H.R. 2393 (300-131) — "To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to repeal country of origin labeling requirements with respect to beef, pork, and chicken, and for other purposes."

The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today. Following an hour of morning business, the Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 1735, the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Authorization bill.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 31-65 against a motion to table (kill) an amendment from Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. The amendment therefore remains pending, but has not been added to the bill.

Also yesterday cloture was filed on an amendment offered by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) which contains the text of a bipartisan cybersecurity bill (S. 754).

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell discussed the urgency of passing bipartisan cybersecurity legislation in the wake of a massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management.

“I think a lot of people were shocked to hear that the Obama Administration was unable to prevent the information of 4 million Americans from being compromised by hackers. Officials in the White House now owe it to every American to let Congress help them get out of the past and up to speed with the cybersecurity realities of the 21st Century. That’s just what the measure we’ll soon consider would help do.

“It contains modern tools that cybersecurity experts tell us could help deter future attacks against both the public and private sectors. The measure would also help get the word out faster about attacks as soon as they’re detected, provide governments and businesses with knowledge they can use to erect stronger defenses, and help strike a critical balance between security and privacy in the process. . . .

“This is more than just a smart measure, it’s a transparent one too. It’s been carefully scrutinized by Senators of both parties. It’s been endorsed overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis by nearly every single Democrat and every single Republican on the Intelligence Committee. And it’s been posted online and available for anyone to read for quite some time.

“The need for this smart, bipartisan, transparent measure couldn’t be clearer. We shouldn’t wait for the Administration to fumble away another 4 million social security numbers or personal addresses before we help them get modernized and up to speed.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also emphasized the need to pass cybersecurity legislation. Last week she said, “It's impossible to overstate this threat: Trillions of dollars, the private data of every single American, even the security of critical infrastructure like our power grid, nuclear plants and drinking water are all at risk. ... We need to act quickly.”

She praised the measure Leader McConnell was discussing, saying, “Congress must take action. … The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, a bill I introduced with Senator Burr, was approved in March by the Senate Intelligence Committee on a 14-1 vote. It would permit this vital information sharing while protecting individual privacy and civil liberties and providing companies with liability protection. I believe this bill should come before the full Senate…”

Yesterday, USA Today wrote, “Cybersecurity experts say the Senate could help thwart hack attacks by passing legislation to encourage private companies to share information with the government about data breaches as soon as they are detected. . . . Senators from both parties have been urging McConnell to schedule a vote on the bill in the wake of the massive hack of the Office of Personnel Management. That attack, revealed by OPM officials last week, has compromised the data of 4 million federal employees.

“The cybersecurity bill would not stop all attacks but it would help get the word out faster about data breaches and give businesses and government agencies the knowledge they need to better defend themselves, experts said. ‘If a company gets attacked and releases that information and everybody else is made aware of that, they can immediately protect themselves,’ said Arun Vishwanath, an expert on cyber deception at the University at Buffalo. . . .

“The Senate legislation has the potential to greatly reduce the number of victims targeted by the same hackers or by hackers exploiting the same vulnerabilities, said Kurt Rohloff, a computer science professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. ‘This kind of law is basically a better way of reacting after something happens,’ Rohloff said.”

Acting quickly to address cyberattacks is the reason Leader McConnell decided to offer this cybersecurity bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill.

But of course Senate Democrats have announced that they’d rather block a bipartisan bill addressing a critical national security issue because they didn’t want to take it up in this order. According to Politico, “Top Democratic sources said Wednesday that they believe Senate Democrats have enough votes to stop the cybersecurity legislation from advancing as part of a defense authorization bill on the floor this week. . . . [B]y using the Senate’s filibuster rules to block the legislation, Democrats could open themselves to criticism that they are stalling a critical cybersecurity measure that sailed through the Intelligence Committee in March — particularly in the wake of a sweeping cyberattack that hit millions of federal workers and compromised their private information. . . .

“The top four Senate Democratic leaders wrote to McConnell on Wednesday, urging him to separate the cybersecurity battle from the overall fight on the National Defense Authorization Act. Democrats don’t like the defense bill because they say it uses a budget gimmick to boost defense funding. And California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the influential top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who co-wrote the cybersecurity bill, on Wednesday called the decision to tie cyber to NDAA a ‘mistake.’”

Leader McConnell responded this morning, saying, “Most Americans would find it awfully cynical for Democrat Leaders — in the wake of the Administration’s inability to stop such a massive cyberattack — to vote against the very same cybersecurity legislation their own party vetted and overwhelmingly endorsed in committee, for the sake of scoring a political point. We’ve got a smart, transparent, bipartisan, fully vetted measure before us that can help make our country safer.”

Unfortunately, he said, “That hasn’t stopped some Democrat leaders from thinking they should try to score political points by taking down a bipartisan measure to combat cyberattacks.” Senators will have a chance to vote on this cybersecurity bill in the next few days. Democrats will then show whether they’ll put politics in front of a key security measure.

---

Tags: T\House, TPP, TPA, TiSA, Senate, Defense Appropriations Bill, Cyber Security Amendment To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!