For Immediate Release: November 3, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

American Conservative Union Announces Inaugural Conservative Ratings

of the Nevada Legislature

Country’s Leading Conservative Organization Rating State Legislators

in Five Key Battleground States

LAS VEGAS, NV – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced its inaugural ACU Ratings of the Nevada Legislature during a press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. The nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization recently announced a new initiative to expand the highly touted ACU Congressional Ratings program to state legislatures for the first time ever, grading members on their votes on key conservative issues. The 2011 Nevada Legislative Ratings Guide is now available online at www.conservative.org.

“On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I am pleased to present our 2011 State Legislative Ratings for members of the Nevada Legislature,” said Chairman Cardenas. “Just as we hold every member of Congress accountable for his or her voting record on the most important issues facing our nation, the ACU will ensure voters in Nevada have access to the latest information on their state representatives’ conservative credentials.”

The ACU tracks a wide range of issues before state legislatures to determine which issues and votes serve as a clear litmus test separating those representatives who defend liberty and liberal members who have turned their backs on our founding principles – constitutionally limited government, individual liberty, free markets, a strong national defense and traditional values. The votes selected for our inaugural State Legislative Ratings were chosen to create a clear ideological distinction among those casting them.

The 2011 Nevada Legislative Ratings Guide includes scores for each individual member in both the State Senate and the Assembly, a description of the votes scored in each Chamber and lists of members receiving special recognition as “Defenders of Liberty or “ACU Conservatives.” The full guide can be accessed and downloaded now at www.conservative.org.

“As pleased as we are to recognize a total of 13 members of the Legislature as true conservative patriots, we are disappointed there were not more members who adhered to conservative principles,” said Chairman Cardenas. “Thankfully, Governor Brian Sandoval, a rising star of the conservative movement, has championed limited government and pro-growth policies by vetoing several ill-conceived pieces of legislation passed by the Nevada Legislature.”

Chairman Al Cardenas today recognized the winners of the “Defender of Liberty” award, given to those members of the Nevada Legislature who scored 100 percent. In the State Senate, these members included Greg Brower, Don Gustavson, Elizabeth Halseth, Michael Roberson and James Settelmeyer. Unfortunately, no member of the Nevada Assembly received a 100 percent score.

The winners of the “ACU Conservative” award – given to those members who scored 80 percent or higher – in the State Senate are Barbara Cegavske and Mike McGinness. In the Assembly, winners include John Ellison, Ed Goedhart, John Hambrick, Ira Hansen, Richard McArthur and Mark Sherwood.

The one member of the Legislature who scored an atrocious “zero” on the ratings, earning a “True Liberal of the Silver State” award, is Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce.

Coming on the heels of ACU’s first regional Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida, this program expansion is the first wave of a massive state-level education campaign on conservative issues, policies and candidates. In coming years, the ACU will increase the number of State Legislatures graded, adding to these initial five targets – Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and the Commonwealth of Virginia – and further growing this successful initiative.

Founded in 1964, the ACU represents the views of Americans who are concerned with economic growth through lower taxes and reduced government spending and the issues of liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values and national security.  ACU first began rating members of Congress on key conservative voting issues in 1971, and since then their ratings system has become the most important conservative measuring stick in American politics.

For more information on the American Conservative Union or to download the full 2011 Nevada Legislative Ratings Guide, please visit our website at www.conservative.org.

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For Immediate Release: October 25, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

ACU Applauds Congressman Steve Chabot for

Withdrawing Sponsorship of NAT GAS Act

18 House Members Have Now Withdrawn Support of T. Boone Pickens’

Special Interest Energy Legislation

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today issued the following statement from ACU Chairman Al Cardenas applauding Representative Steve Chabot (OH – 1) for joining the growing coalition in Congress who are withdrawing their support for T. Boone Pickens’ NAT GAS Act: (H.R. 1380):

“Once again solidifying his strong conservative credentials, Representative Steve Chabot has withdrawn his support for T. Boone Pickens’ special interest energy legislation, the NAT GAS Act. On behalf of the American Conservative Union’s hundreds of thousands of supporters, we applaud him for his commitment to putting America’s taxpayers first.

“The goal of this legislation is not energy independence or job creation; it is to line the pockets of ‘green economy’ speculators like T. Boone Pickens and George Soros who wish to manipulate Congress for their own financial benefit. The NAT GAS Act would give taxpayer-funded handouts of up to $64,000 for natural gas vehicles that are unable to compete in the free market without government intervention.

“One by one, members learning more about the ramifications of this fiscally irresponsible legislation are withdrawing their support and helping us urge their colleagues to do the same.  As the ACU continues an aggressive advocacy campaign against the NAT GAS Act, I’m confident our coalition of opposition will only grow, ultimately defeating this proposal.”

Congressional Members Who Have Withdrawn Their Support of the “NAT GAS Act” H.B. 1380:

• Representative Todd Akin (MO-2)
• Representative Larry Bucshon (IN-8)
• Representative Bill Cassidy, M.D (LA-6)
• Representative Steve Chabot (OH-1)
• Representative Mike Coffman (CO-6)
• Representative Blake Farenthold (TX-27)
• Representative Michael Fitzpatrick (PA –
• Representative Cory Gardner (CO-4)
• Representative Tim Griffin (AR-2)
• Representative Mike Kelly [PA-3]
• Representative John Kline (MN-2)
• Representative Richard Nugent (FL-5)
• Representative Steve Pearce (NM-2)
• Representative Joseph Pitts (PA-16)
• Representative Scott Rigell (VA-2)
• Representative Glenn Thompson (PA-5)
• Representative Scott Tipton (CO-3)
• Representative Michael Turner (OH-3)

For more information, please read ACU’s letter to Congress at: http://www.conservative.org/letter-to-congress-oppose-hr-1380-the-nat-gas-act/10467/. For more information on the American Conservative Union, please visit our website at www.conservative.org.

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For Immediate Release: October 20, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]g  

ACU Statement on the Senate Confirmation of

Commerce Secretary John Bryson

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) Chairman Al Cardenas today issued the following statement regarding the Senate’s confirmation of Department of Commerce Secretary John Bryson:

“Tonight, as a result of Harry Reid and Senate leadership who did everything possible to avert an open and thorough vetting of this nomination, John Bryson, known job killer and enemy of American entrepreneurs will be the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“The senseless appointment of Mr. Bryson is just another gaffe in a series of miserable economic policy decisions made by President Obama. John Bryson has made a career of putting Americans out of work, suing small businesses, taking hundreds of millions in government loans and supporting policies that would raise taxes on American consumers. Now, he is charged with the agency responsible for fostering the nation’s economic growth. When we are plagued by sustained high unemployment, crushing debt and the potential of a double-dip recession, this nomination was recklessness of the highest order.

“Most disappointing are the votes in favor of Mr. Bryson’s confirmation from senators labeling themselves ‘conservatives.’ Put simply, a conservative should not have supported an individual for this position who seemingly objects to pro-growth policies.

“On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I applaud Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and 23 of their conservative Senate colleagues for fighting this confirmation with a vote against Mr. Bryson. We look forward to holding all members accountable on this issue when we release the next edition of our Ratings of Congress guide.

“Thankfully, in 12 short months, the American people will be presented with a referendum on President Obama’s economic agenda – and an opportunity to bring new leadership and fresh conservative faces to the U.S. Senate.”

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For more information on the American Conservative Union, please visit our website at www.conservative.org

For Immediate Release: October 19, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

ACU Calls on Senators to Vote “NO” on the Confirmation of Obama Commerce Nominee John Bryson

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) has sent the following letter to members of the Senate, calling for them to vote “no” on President Obama’s Department of Commerce Secretary Nominee John Bryson’s confirmation. It was reported yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is quietly maneuvering to force a floor vote this week to avoid a transparent, comprehensive vetting of this Obama nominee’s record.

Full text of the letter can be found below:

“October 19, 2011

“Dear Senator:

“On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I strongly urge you to oppose the confirmation of John Bryson as Secretary of Commerce.  In addition to the substantive objections outlined below, Senate leaders have severely abused the normal confirmation procedure both in committee and on the floor to prevent an open debate on this nominee’s qualifications.

“The ACU rarely commits to score a vote in its annual Ratings of Congress, but in this case the confirmation vote on John Bryson will be one of the 25 votes rated in the Senate for 2011.

“The Secretary of Commerce is supposed to be America’s top advocate for economic development and a champion of private enterprise.  Yet John Bryson has spent much of his career advocating policies that kill jobs, rather than foster job creation.  Bryson co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, which for 40 years has fought for massive increases in government regulation and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars with their endless lawsuits. 

“As Jerry Brown’s Chairman of the California Public Utility Commission, Bryson put in place regulatory policies which have helped California become an economic basket case.  As a “corporate leader,” Bryson was a leading advocate for cap-and-trade legislation, which would have imposed a de facto energy tax on every American consumer.  Just as alarming, as head of a solar power corporation, Bryson received more than $1.5 billion in stimulus funding, more than was received by the scandal-ridden Solyndra company.

“At a time of high unemployment and a weak economy, the last thing we need is a Secretary of Commerce with this record. Please vote “no” on the Bryson nomination and ask President Obama to select a more qualified nominee.

“Sincerely,

“Larry Hart

“Director of Government Relations, The American Conservative Union”

For more information on the American Conservative Union, please visit our website at www.conservative.org.

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For Immediate Release: October 18, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

ACU Statement on Senator Reid’s Efforts to Force Confirmation of Commerce Secretary

Nominee John Bryson

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) Chairman Al Cardenas today issued the following statement regarding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s reported plan to force a Senate floor vote this week on President Obama’s Department of Commerce Secretary Nominee John Bryson’s confirmation:

“Senator Reid’s quiet maneuvering to force the confirmation of John Bryson underscores just how uncomfortable Senate Democrats are with a transparent, comprehensive vetting of this Obama nominee’s record.  On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I applaud Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) for continuing his fight to block the confirmation of Mr. Bryson.

“The Secretary of Commerce is supposed to be America’s top advocate for economic development – both domestically and abroad. For this assignment, President Obama chose a known job-killer and co-founder of the litigious, left-wing National Resources Defense Council. Most recently, as head of a solar power firm, John Bryson received more than $1.5 billion in stimulus-funded federal loans – surpassing the amount Solyndra LLC even received.

“If President Obama’s goal was to nominate an anti-business opportunist to head the Commerce Department, he succeeded.

“We are currently engaging our hundreds of thousands of grassroots activists to help oppose this critical vote. Most importantly, we will hold members of the Senate accountable on this issue when we release the next edition of our Ratings of Congress guide – the nation’s best source for tracking the votes of elected officials on key conservative issues.”

ICYMI: DAILY CALLER: Harry Reid to force Tuesday vote on Obama commerce secretary

By Matthew Boyle – The Daily Caller  

10/18/2011

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to pull a procedural move Tuesday afternoon to sneak President Obama’s Commerce Secretary nominee John Bryson through Senate confirmation, The Daily Caller has learned.

“The highly unusual maneuver will permit Reid to bypass the permanent Senate floor “hold” placed on Bryson’s nomination by Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe in July for Bryson’s involvement in founding ‘the radical Natural Resources Defense Council’ in the 1970′s.

“Reid’s chosen procedural maneuver, called a ‘time agreement,’ can quickly force Bryson’s confirmation to the floor with little opportunity for objection.

“If Reid is able to move forward procedurally, Bryson’s confirmation could reach the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon. In that case, a simple 50-vote majority would confirm Bryson’s nomination — meaning Democrats could simply slip him through.

“Inhofe told The Daily Caller on Tuesday morning that he will meet with the Senate Republican leadership around noon today. He said he will ask Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others to back his call for Reid to require a 60-vote threshold to confirm Bryson as the new Secretary of Commerce.

“‘We are going to tell the majority that in the event that they don’t agree to giving us a 60-vote threshold, and then go ahead and vote on the nomination, then we will go ahead and object to the motion to proceed — and go through all these arduous things and a filibuster — and then ultimately they’ll have to do a 60-vote margin anyway,’ Inhofe said in a phone interview.

“The conservative stalwart from Oklahoma added that if he wins the GOP leadership’s support, Reid can either concede the issue and hold a 60-member majority vote, or fight back and ultimately lose.

“‘I’ll find out later today if the Republicans in the conference agree with me,’ Inhofe told TheDc.

“As the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, Inhofe has held up Bryson’s nomination for reasons other than those of some GOP colleagues. Other Republicans pushed for the Obama administration to first complete three free-trade agreements, which have recently been finalized. Inhofe, however, considers Bryson’s history troubling enough to hold him up.

“Bryson, the former CEO of Edison International, was also chairman of the board of BrightSource Energy, a solar energy startup that received one of the biggest government-backed loan guarantees ever — a $1.6 billion guarantee to build a solar energy facility in California.

“‘With Solyndra right now, and everyone talking about that, this is no time to have someone who has also had a similar type of loan guarantee that Solyndra got,’ Inhofe told TheDC.

“Bryson was also a co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council, a left-leaning environmentalist organization. ‘He isn’t just a supporter of it,’ Inhofe emphasized. ‘He helped found it.’

“Inhofe also said Bryson could not possibly affect the economy in a positive way as Commerce Secretary. ‘Why have a guy as Secretary of Commerce who’s against commerce?’ Inhofe asked. Bryson opposes drilling for fossil fuels and hydrofracking natural gas deposits, the senator said, and wants to rely ‘solely on green energy where the technology does not exist yet.’

“Bryson’s nomination was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“Neither Reid’s office nor McConnell’s staff responded to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.”

To read this article online, please visit: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/18/harry-reid-to-force-tuesday-vote-on-obama-commerce-secretary/?print=1.  

Background on ACU’s Campaign to Fight Bryson Nomination:

The American Conservative Union (ACU) is waging a national grassroots campaign to fight the confirmation of John Bryson, President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, previously launching www.StopObamaBryson.com.

In partnership with Freedom Action, the ACU is leading an aggressive charge to defeat Bryson’s confirmation, including coalition-building, traditional and new media efforts and voter contact drives. The new coalition is educating Senators and voters on John Bryson’s history of supporting job-killing policies.

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For more information on the American Conservative Union, please visit our website at www.conservative.org.

ACU State Legislative Ratings Coming to Five States in Fall 2011

Country’s Leading Conservative Organization Announces Release Schedule for Inaugural Conservative Ratings of State Legislators

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced its schedule for releasing inaugural conservative ratings of state legislators in the battleground states of Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. The ACU is taking its highly touted Congressional Ratings program to state legislatures for the first time ever, grading members on their votes on key conservative issues.

Coming on the heels of ACU’s first regional Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida last week, this program expansion is the first wave of a massive state-level education campaign on conservative issues, policies and candidates. Each release date will feature the announcement of ratings for each individual member of the five State Houses, as well as a formal event honoring the “ACU Conservatives” and “Defenders of Liberty” in each Chamber. 

ACU Launches Inaugural State Legislative Ratings in Fall 2011:

• Virginia: October 13, 2011 in Richmond, VA
• Nevada: November 3, 2011 in Las Vegas, NV
• Ohio: November 9, 2011 in Columbus, OH
• Florida: November 15, 2011 in Tallahassee, FL
• North Carolina: November 29, 2011 in Raleigh, NC

“Just as we hold every member of Congress accountable for his or her voting record on the most important issues facing our nation, the ACU will ensure voters in critical states have access to the latest information on their state representatives’ conservative credentials,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. “With state governments on the frontlines of many of the most significant and controversial policy debates facing our country – from fighting ObamaCare to cutting spending to preserving traditional values – the ACU is committed to playing a defining role in this conversation at every level of government.”

A recent Google search for “ACU Ratings” returned more than 966,000 website citations of the powerful ratings index. ACU Ratings are published by the Almanac of American Politics, Congressional Quarterly and the National Journal, among others.

In coming years, the ACU will increase the number of State Legislatures graded, adding to this initial five targets and further growing this successful initiative.

The American Conservative Union is America’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization and was founded in 1964. ACU first began rating members of Congress on key conservative voting issues in 1971 and since then their ratings system has become the most important conservative measuring stick in American politics. This inaugural expansion of the program is part of Chairman Cardenas’ vision for building on successful ACU initiatives, such as CPAC.

For more information on the American Conservative Union, please visit our website at www.conservative.org.

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For Immediate Release: September 7, 2011

Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

CPAC FL to Highlight Health Care Freedom and

Strategies for Ending Unconstitutional ObamaCare

Panel to Feature Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Florida Senate President

Mike Haridopolos, former Attorney General Bill McCollum and Jordan Sekulow

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced its first panel scheduled for CPAC FL – the organization’s inaugural regional Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Health Care Freedom & Constitutionalism: Reining in the Rogue Federal Government will feature a conversation on the unconstitutional overreaching of the Obama Administration and Congress when it comes to the right to make individual health care decisions, and conservatives’ courageous efforts to protect personal liberties.

 This panel will be headlined by:

• Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, currently leading the 26-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare
• Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, recently led the effort to pass The Health Care Freedom Act through the Florida Legislature, giving Floridians an opportunity to make their own decisions on individual health care choices.
• Former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, the Sunshine State’s former chief legal officer who engineered the court challenge of ObamaCare and launched the initial coalition of participating states.
• Jordan Sekulow, attorney, national conservative radio host and the Executive Director of the American Center for Law & Justice.

Scheduled for Friday, September 23, 2011 in Orlando, CPAC FL will bring national and state conservative leaders and grassroots activists together for a day of blockbuster speeches, policy discussions and networking opportunities – all celebrating CPAC FL’s theme of “We STILL Hold These Truths.” In the coming weeks, the ACU will release additional details on CPAC’s exciting agenda and the policy and political panels scheduled for this special event.

Located at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, confirmed speakers also include the ten leading Republican presidential candidates, bestselling author Ann Coulter, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and many more conservative heroes.

The American Conservative Union is America’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization and was founded in 1964. The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation’s capital since 1974.  To register for CPAC FL, receive more information on this exciting event or learn more about the American Conservative Union, visit www.conservative.org.

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For Immediate Release: August 30, 2011
Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, [email protected]

ACU Announces Congressman Ron Paul to Address CPAC Florida
Top Ten Presidential Candidates Scheduled to Address Inaugural Regional
Conservative Political Action Conference

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) will address CPAC FL — the organization’s first in an inaugural series of regional events expanding on the legacy of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CPAC FL will be held this fall in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, September 23, 2011. With today’s announcement confirming Congressman Paul’s attendance, CPAC FL will play host this fall to the leading ten Republican presidential candidates.

“A previous winner of CPAC presidential straw polls, Ron Paul is a leading voice for adhering to a limited constitutional government. His consistent voting record and unwavering commitment to his principles have earned Congressman Paul a strong and loyal grassroots base,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. “The ACU is honored to host all of the major presidential candidates this September at our first-ever regional CPAC event.”

Just like the ACU’s marquee gathering in Washington, DC every spring — the nation’s largest annual gathering of grassroots activists — CPAC FL will bring national and state conservative leaders and grassroots activists together for a day of blockbuster speeches, policy discussions and networking opportunities — all celebrating the shared principles of smaller government, a strong national defense and traditional values.

Located at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, confirmed speakers also include Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R — MN), businessman Herman Cain, ACU Chairman Cardenas, bestselling author Ann Coulter, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, founder of The Weekly Standard Bill Kristol, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R – MI), Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Faith & Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and former Senators Rick Santorum and Jim Talent. Invited speakers include many more conservative heroes.

The American Conservative Union is America’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization and was founded in 1964. The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation’s capital since 1974. To register for CPAC FL, receive more information on this exciting event or learn more about the American Conservative Union, visit www.conservative.org.

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Kudos go to four House conservatives who asked that their name be removed as co-sponsors for HR 1380.  They are, in alphabetical order, Todd Akin of Missouri, Tim Griffin, an Arkansas freshman, Steve Pearce of New Mexico and Pennsylvania’s Glen Thompson.

This bill, which creates tax subsidies up to $64,000 to push the sale of natural gas vehicles, got a lot of traction this Spring when the legendary Texas oilman Boone Pickens decided to make it his cause for 2011.  Yes, this is the same Boone Pickens who a few years ago ran millions of dollars in TV ads saying only wind power could save the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil.  That was then.

On a first name basis with many members of Congress, particularly those from energy-producing states, Pickens was first able to get a congressman with a sterling conservative record, John Sullivan of Oklahoma, to sponsor the bill. Then he recruited an array of political opposites, from the solid conservatives listed above to the most left wing members of the Democrat caucus, such as Raul Grijalva, Jesse Jackson, Jr and Jim McDermott, to list themselves as co-sponsors, 188 in all.  It was obvious that Pickens’ goal was to quietly get a majority of the House, 218 members, to go on the bill and then demand a vote.

Then ACU went to work on a number of fronts, from letters to each member against co-sponsoring the bill, to Action Alerts generating phone calls from constituents to activating our friends on Twitter and Facebook. 17 other groups who oppose government picking winners and losers in the marketplace then followed with a joint letter opposing the bill and, most recently, some 70 food and agricultural groups have chimed in noting the last thing we need with rising food prices is legislation that would result in an increase in the price of natural gas.

HR 1380, which has no offset for the $9 or $10 billion increase in the deficit, has never been taken up by the Ways and Means Committee.  Word has it they are now reluctant to take up a “controversial” bill that affects revenue without dealing with fundamental tax reform first.

TAKE ACTION TO STOP OBAMA’S WORST JUDICIAL NOMINEE – GOODWIN LIU

On Tuesday night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture to end debate on the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the federal appeals court for the 9th District based in California.  The vote will be on Thursday and it will take 60 votes to bring Liu’s nomination to a vote.

Of all the poorly qualified political activists President Obama has nominated to the federal bench, Liu is arguably the worst of the bunch.  An Associate Dean at Berkeley School of Law, Liu does not even meet the standards set by the American Bar Association, having no trial experience.  A hero to the left for opposing the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, Liu, if confirmed, would nevertheless be the odds-on favorite for the next Supreme Court vacancy.

CONTACT YOUR SENIOR U.S. SENATOR AND JUNIOR SENATOR AT (202) 224-3121 NOW TO URGE A “NO” VOTE ON CLOTURE FOR THE GOODWIN LIU NOMINATION!

Liu has made it clear that he believes the constitution is merely a guide to judicial decisions.  In his writings, Liu said he “envisions the judiciary as a culturally situated interpreter of social meaning.”  The key to judicial decisions, says Liu, should be “our collective values,” “evolving norms,” and “social understandings,” rather than the Constitution as written or the laws passed by Congress.

How would this philosophy manifest itself?  Well, for one thing, Liu has said there is a constitutional right to welfare, or as he put it, “negative rights against government oppression” and “positive rights to government assistance” should have “equal constitutional status.”

TAKE ACTION NOW BY CONTACTING BOTH YOUR SENIOR U.S. SENATOR AND JUNIOR SENATOR AT (202) 224-3121 TO OPPOSE CLOTURE ON THE GOODWIN LIU NOMINATION!

Liu’s view on criminal law has resulted in the extraordinary opposition from 42 of 58 District Attorney’s in California, where the 9th Circuit is based.  Here’s what they said about a Liu paper on criminal law:

“This document demonstrated beyond serious question that his (Liu’s) views on criminal law, capital punishment and the role of the federal courts in second-guessing state decisions are fully aligned” with an appeals court that is “far outside of the judicial mainstream.”
Other writing by Liu have supported reparations for slavery and racial quotas to remedy “societal discrimination,” a position rejected by the Supreme Court.

Although Liu wants a pass for his past statements, he helped lead the fight against the Roberts and Alito Supreme Court nominations.  Roberts, he said in an op-ed, had an “ideological agenda” hostile to the environmental workplace and consumer protections.  Liu testified at Alito’s confirmation hearing that the “America envisioned by his (Alito’s) record is not the America we know, nor is it the America we aspire to be.”

STOP THE LIU NOMINATION BY TAKING ACTION NOW.  URGE YOUR STATE’S SENIOR SENATOR AND JUNIOR SENATOR TO OPPOSE CLOTURE ON THE LIU NOMINATION BY CALLING (202) 224-3121 NOW.

We at the American Conservative Union thank you for all you do to advance conservative principles.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas

Chairman
American Conservative Union

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I urge you to oppose cloture on the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals.

Not only does his record lack the experience for this critical position which, once confirmed, would make him an automatic candidate for a future Supreme Court vacancy, but his extensive record reads more like that of a political activist than a law professor.

Liu has made it clear that he believes the Constitution is merely a guide to judicial decisions and that what he calls “our collective values,” “evolving norms” and “social understandings” should be the key to judicial decisions. Liu has backed race-based admissions to our universities in an amicus brief regarding a Seattle school district case. Liu’s views on criminal law have drawn the extraordinary opposition of 42 of California’s 58 county district attorneys. Here is what they had to say referring to a paper on the subject Liu wrote in 2005:

“This document demonstrated beyond serious question that his (Liu’s) views on criminal law, capital punishment and the role of the federal courts in second-guessing state decisions are fully aligned” with an appeals court that is “far outside of the judicial mainstream.”

As for the issue of congressional deference to presidential nominees, it was Goodwin Liu who helped lead an attack on the Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Liu said that Roberts had “an ideological agenda hostile to the environmental workplace and consumer protections. In testifying against the Alito nomination, Liu claimed that “the America envisioned by his (Alito’s) record is not the America we know, nor is it the America we aspire to be.” Liu then called Alito “at the margin, not the mainstream.”

It is Professor Liu who is out of the mainstream and should be rejected by the Senate. The vote on cloture is the only meaningful vote concerning this nomination. Please vote “No” on cloture for the Liu nomination.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas

Chairman
American Conservative Union

Senator:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I strongly urge you to oppose cloture on the nomination of John J. “Jack” McConnell to the District Court of Rhode Island.  Although District Court nominees are often given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to confirmation, McConnell surely fits under the “extraordinary circumstances” outlined by the “Gang of Fourteen” some years ago as a standard for opposing nominations.

McConnell received a low rating from the American Bar Association—majority qualified, minority unqualified.  Of the 63 current judicial nominees, only four have received this low a rating.  Due to his long public antipathy to the private sector, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has broken with tradition and opposed a district court nominee—McConnell—for the first time.  

McConnell has clearly indicated he does not have the judicial temperament for a lifetime appointment to the bench.  In a 2005 interview with the Providence Journal, McConnell called himself “an emotional person” who sees the law as an avenue for “wrongs to be righted” as he sees them.

McConnell has specifically attacked companies that may come before him in court.  His frivolous lawsuit against paint companies cost the State of Rhode Island millions and the businesses attacked more millions before he lost a unanimous verdict of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The $720,000 given to elect Democratic candidates for office by McConnell and his law partners over the past 20 years gives the impression that this is the chief reason Majority Leader Reid is so intent on pushing this nomination through even though the Senate has twice sent the nomination back to the White House.

Many Senators have been reluctant to oppose cloture on a lower court judicial nomination although some of President Bush’s nominees were blocked this way.  Please do not let this tradition allow the confirmation of this clearly unqualified nominee.  Vote “No” on the cloture motion to end debate on the nomination of John McConnell.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart

Director of Government Relations
American Conservative Union

Representative:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I urge you to vote in favor of H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act this week. Now that the Congress has rejected cap and trade legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stepped in to impose draconian regulations on greenhouse gas emissions designed to force a decreased use of fossil fuels, in effect implementing a back door energy tax that will drive up the cost of utilities for every American.

This effort to impose by executive fiat what Congress and the American people rejected should be stopped.  HR 910 will do just that by prohibiting EPA from using the Clean Air Act to impose greenhouse gas regulations to address climate change.  Opponents of the bill claim that this bill will affect regulation of pollutants under the Clean Air Act, but its provisions are very specific and outlines in detail other regulatory statutes affecting emissions, ozone, etc. that would not by affected by this bill.

Much has been made by the Obama Administration about the need to restore lost American jobs and keep them from going abroad. Much has also been made of an effort to reassess “harmful regulatory policy.” Yet, the EPA’s regulations, if implemented, will be a job destroyer in the energy sector of our economy and accelerate the shipment of jobs overseas to regulatory-friendly countries.  It will also make other harmful regulatory policies pale in comparison.

By passing this bill, Congress can reassert its authority on energy policy over policy made by unelected bureaucrats.  Please support HR 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, when it comes to the floor this week.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas

Chairman
American Conservative Union

Dear Representative,

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I urge you to oppose the LaTourette Amendment to HR 658, the FAA reauthorization bill.

In 2009, the National Mediation Board reversed 75 years of precedent under Republicans and Democrats that required a majority of a workforce to agree to a union organizing election.  Instead, it will be a plurality of those voting.  This means a small minority of employees can impose its will on the majority.  In a further show of bias, the new NMB majority left standing the rule that requires an absolute majority of employees to decertify a union.

Section 903 of the bill would restore majority rule to union organizing elections.  It would also restore Congressional authority over unelected bureaucrats.  The LaTourette Amendment would strip this provision from the bill.  If the amendment passes, it will be a signal to the NMB and other regulators that they have free reign to impose laws by fiat regardless of precedent or fairness.

Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica courageously fought for this provision and succeeded in a committee vote.  Please support him and majority rule by opposing the LaTourette Amendment to H.R. 658, the FAA Authorization bill.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas
Chairman
American Conservative Union

STOP BACK DOOR CARD CHECK!

OPPOSE Big Labor’s LaTourette Amendment to the FAA Bill

There were few items on President Obama’s big government agenda that didn’t get through Congress with big Democrat majorities in 2009 and 2010. But one of those priorities was “card-check.” Card check was Big Labor’s number one agenda item. Why is that? Because card check eliminates the secret ballot in union organizing elections. Passing card check would have stripped millions of American workers of their fundamental right to a secret ballot when determining whether or not to unionize their place of work. That’s why Big Labor LOVES card check: it would have given them free rein to intimidate worker into unionizing scores of workplaces. Luckily, with your help, we stopped card check dead in its tracks and dealt Obama a monumental defeat.

Obama couldn’t achieve card check via legitimate legislative means, so his current tactic is to stack regulatory agencies with union cronies who will then do Big Labor’s bidding from their new positions of authority. Obama accomplished this by appointing former union organizers to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the National Mediation Board (NMB). As soon as he got his two-to-one labor majority on the NMB, Obama passed a version of card check, overturning 75 years of precedent and flouting your elected representatives in the process.

Title 9 of the Federal Aviation Administration bill on the floor now will reverse this ruling and protect employees from union intimidation. The LaTourette Amendment backed by Big Labor will try to strip Title 9 from the bill and the vote will be close. We need you to take action on this NOW.

Call your Member of Congress right now to tell them that you OPPOSE the LaTourette Amendment in the FAA Bill!

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica personally fought to add Title 9 to the FAA bill in his committee. He won by one vote—30 to 29—when three Republicans defected to Big Labor, and the outcome of this vote is very much in doubt.

Let your Member of Congress know that you oppose Big Labor’s LaTourette Amendment! Call them!

There is no doubt that Obama and his Big Labor allies will be watching this vote. If they win, you can be sure that they will feel free to implement many other items on the labor agenda through regulation.

If they win, Congress will cede even more of its power under the Constitution to unelected bureaucrats. If they win, Big Labor will show that they can control a Republican Congress as well as a Democrat Congress. It will also demoralize employees such as Delta Airlines flight attendants who have been fighting efforts of Big Labor to organize them.

You can act right now by contacting your Member of Congress. Oppose the LaTourette Amendment for the FAA Bill!

We at the American Conservative Union thank you for all you do to advance conservative principles.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas
Chairman
American Conservative Union

conservative.org

Wednesday saw Rep. Rick Crawford and 29 other Republican Freshmen place the onus on Minority Leader Reid to come to the budget table. The Senate has failed to pass a longterm Continuing Resolution yet have escaped much of the media blame for this failure.  They cosigned this letter:

Mr. Reid,

We the undersigned call on you and the Senate to pass a long-term Continuing Resolution; a resolution that hears the calls of the American people and makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts.

Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure.  You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing.

We do not accept your failure as our own.

The American people did not send us here to fail.  Make no mistake: any government shutdown is the result of your lack of leadership.  America has a $14 trillion debt and you offered a mere $6 billion in cuts.   The House heard the calls of the American people and offered $61 billion in cuts, but the Senate has not sent us a Continuing Resolution in return.

We have received nothing from the Senate except denials of the dire straits of our nation’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is accomplishing what we were elected to do.  We’ve cut spending.  We’ve terminated wasteful programs. We’ve funded the government.

Mr. Reid, we are letting you know that we will rally on the Senate steps every day until you pass a long-term Continuing Resolution.  We call on all Americans to join our fight in restoring our country’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is doing our job, Mr. Reid. The Senate needs to start doing theirs.

Mr. Reid, it’s time to pass a bill.

Bound together and determined,

1. Berg, Rick (ND-AL)

2. Black, Diane (TN-06)

3. Canseco, Francisco “Quico” (TX-23)

4. Cravaack, Chip (MN-08)

5. Crawford, Rick (AR-01)

6. Denham, Jeff (CA-19)

7. DesJarlais, Scott (TN-04)

8. Farenthold, Blake (TX-27)

9. Fincher, Stephen (TN-08)

10. Flores, Bill (TX-17)

11. Griffin, Tim (AR-02)

12. Grimm, Michael (NY-13)

13. Guinta, Frank (NH-01)

14. Hartzler, Vicky (MO-04)

15. Herrera Beutler, Jaime (WA-03)

16. Huelskamp, Tim (KS-01)

17. Landry, Jeffrey (LA-03)

18. Long, Billy (MO-07)

19. McKinley, David (WV-01)

20. Nugent, Richard  (FL-05)

21. Pompeo, Mike (KS-04)

22. Renacci, Jim (OH-16)

23. Reed, Tom (NY-29)

24. Roby, Martha (AL-02)

25. Rokita, Todd (IN-04)

26. Schweikert, David (AZ-05)

27. Scott, Tim (SC-01)

28. Stivers, Steve (OH-15)

29. Stutzman, Marlin (IN-03)

30. Womack, Steve (AR-03)

conservative.org

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I urge you to support HR 471, the Scholarships for Opportunities and Results Act.

While supporting large increases in spending for bureaucrats at the Department of Education and elsewhere, the Obama Administration and the 111^th Congress abandoned the District of Columbia’s Opportunity Scholarship Program.  This modest program allowed low income DC parents to apply for tuition vouchers to be used in private schools to help their kids get a decent education.  By allowing the program to languish, some 216 scholarships for these kids had to be rescinded and no new applications were accepted.

HR 471 would restore this program, include safeguards and oversight to make sure participating schools meet the standards expected of them and that the funds are being applied properly and allow the $60 million in authorized funds to be shared by the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, DC public schools and DC public charter schools.

This program has consistently received bipartisan support. An amendment sponsored by Senator Joe Lieberman in 2010 to restore the program was supported by Democratic Senators Feinstein, Bill Nelson and Warner as well as most Republicans.  We should not let ideological wars over education make victims of DC school children.  Please support HR 471, the Scholarships for Opportunities and Results Act.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
American Conservative Union

conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

Much of the good legislation that is working its way through the House will never be signed into law during the Obama Administration. One that may – in some form – is the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that will hit the House floor Thursday. This bill is not at the top of the national news, but it is a remarkable example of how the culture of spending is slowly changing and also how a new committee Chairman has the guts to take on Big Labor in both parties in order to try to right a wrong.

The House Transportation Committee is not known for producing conservative bills. Just the opposite. Whether under Republican Chairmen like Don Young of Alaska or Democrat Jim Oberstar, who lost in one of 2010’s biggest upsets after 36 years in office, the Committee was all about funding pet transportation projects, earmarking projects such as the infamous “bridge to nowhere” (yes, that was in Alaska) and calling for a gas tax increase to fund it all, apparently on the basis that most Americans’ energy bills aren’t high enough.

The most important provision for those who believe in worker freedom will reverse a ruling by the National Mediation Board, which under Obama is trying to implement card-check by other means. The NMB supervises union negotiations for those under the Railway Labor Act – which includes airline unions. Since 1935, under Democrats and Republicans, it had a rule that it took a majority of employees in any classification to hold an election in order to join a union. In 2010, the Obama majority changed that to a plurality of those voting. This came during a big fight to organize flight attendants and machinists at Delta Air Lines. Ironically, they have lost four votes under the new rules but they’re still trying. Despite a substantial Republican majority, this provision only survived in committee by a vote of 30-29, showing the union influence in both parties. The expectation is that there will be a “bipartisan” amendment to strip the NMB language from the bill. The Republican leadership has pledged to back Mica in this fight, meaning they will “whip” the vote but it is bound to be close. ACU will be active in this fight to preserve the bill as is.

There may also well be amendments to increase spending. Those looking to see if the new Congress really means change do not have to look further than to watch the fight on this bill Thursday and Friday of this week.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

The House is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day by eliminating the green for National Public Radio—that is, by cutting off their federal funds.  Up to now, efforts to reduce federal funding for public radio or television have been done through the appropriations process, by cutting the funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn provides grants to local public radio and television stations.  This bill doesn’t cut any funds. Instead, it prohibits any taxpayer funds from being used to fund NPR, specifically to acquire programming but for other purposes as well.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Although a variation of the bill sponsored by Doug Lamborn of Colorado—one of the top conservative champions in the House—was introduced earlier in the year, this is an obvious effort to piggyback the turmoil surrounding the resignation of top NPR officials after the firing of Juan Williams and a tape in which they were caught pandering to a fake Muslim organization.  The problem is this will never see the light of day in the Senate and no effort was made to cut even a dime from NPR funds in the recent three week continuing resolution.

Meanwhile, the Senate, quiet of late, is heating up over Republican Leader McConnell’s persistent effort to get a record vote on the EPA’s back door attempt at an energy tax by regulating greenhouse gas emissions.  There can’t be a vote without Majority Leader Reid’s bringing it up even though, under the senate’s byzantine system of procedure it is a “pending” amendment.  The amendment is to a small business bill which has nothing to do with the issue but in the Senate that doesn’t matter either.  At this point, it looks like this will lay over until after the March 21 one week recess to be fought out the week of the 28^th.  It will be interesting to watch Democrats from coal producing states squirm when they have to pit ideology against the interests of their constituents.

www.conservative.org

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

House Energy and Commerce Committee
HR910 The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 :: Full-Committee Mark-up

The House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up HR910 The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 Tuesday. Republicans, along with three Democrats (Rep. Ross (D-AZ), Rep. Matheson (D-UT) and Rep. Barrow (D-GA)), were able to advance this piece of legislation by a vote of 34-19. The bill will move on to the House floor next week with three potential Democrat co-sponsors (Collin Peterson of Minnesota,  Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Dan Boren of Oklahoma). Senator McConnell will try to get a vote on an amendment (S.Amdt.183) to a Small Business bill (S493) Wednesday or Thursday that will also prohibit the EPA from regulating Greenhouse Gases.

Democrats offered multiple amendments asking the committee to acknowledge the EPA’s finding that ‘climate change’ is attributable to man-caused Greenhouse Gas (GHG) increases over the past two centuries. Republicans, citing many climate change skeptics, called into question the veracity of the finding and defeated the amendments. Representative Markey argued with histrionics, taking it in turn to accuse Republicans of wanting to force asthma on children and accusing them of funding OPEC sponsored terrorism.

Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) reminded Democrats that when Congress considered the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (what the EPA is basing their administrative fiat upon), GHG’s were specifically not included with sulfur and other air particulates. Additionally, Congress decisively voted against the Kyoto Protocol and the Senate failed to move a cap and trade bill out of committee as early as last year. Nothing that Congress has done indicates that they intended carbon dioxide to be regulated by the EPA.

Republicans forwarded an “all of the above” policy that would have the US energy policy feature all sources, from oil and natural gas to nuclear and renewable. This constitutes a policy aimed at increasing supply, while Democrats remain fixed on a policy reducing it. Part of this Republican strategy is removing the expensive and ineffective burdens placed upon energy and manufacturing by the GHG regulations

conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

In shell shock since the election, the lobbying forces behind spending other people’s money on themselves have been regrouping and are now beginning an all out assault on the very real spending cuts for 2011 passed by the House in February.  The latest group of what the free market think tanks call “rent-seekers” to swarm the Capitol is the Corporation for National Volunteers. This includes the Clinton-era Americorps, City Year, and Teach for America which get $1.15 billion of taxpayer funds each year.  Apparently these programs are so useful no one would pay to keep them going unless they were forced to do so.  Some of these programs biggest supporters are big city political bosses like Richard Daley and Boston’s Tom Menino who everyone knows supports programs out of idealistic fervor and not because they provide contracts for their favorite relatives and political supporters.  100 mayors across the country are backing them up and supporters hope to generate over 1,000 calls.

Pork

As Republicans found out in the 1990s, every pet program has a ready made constituency of people receiving government checks.  There is no way to reduce the size of government and cut back government spending without wounding someone’s pet program.  The real test of Congress’ will to reduce spending comes when complaints from their states and districts start coming in.

The full scale revolt on this latest round of short term spending bills forced the House Republican leadership to turn to leading Democrats to pull their bacon out of the fire in today’s vote.  The 85 Democrats voting for this three week bill more than compensated for the 54 Republican defections.  However, it’s clear the Republicans will have to face the fearful government shutdown bugaboo come April 8 when the next installment comes due.  The split makes for some interesting reading and you can take a look at where your favorite member of congress came down here: HJRes48 Roll Call.

conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

When is a cut not a cut? When it’s government funding that wasn’t going to be spent anyway. House Republicans are proposing to delay the inevitable showdown over spending through September 30, 2011 by coming up with another three week budget that finds monies sloshing around the Treasury that should have been eliminated long ago. Not that this kind of sloppy government shouldn’t be dealt with, but this bill completely misses the original target—eliminating the massive 20%-35% increase—not including stimulus money—major government programs have received over the past three years and returning these programs to 2008 levels.

Examples abound in renewable energy programs, State Department empire building, HUD programs, Al Gore approved global warming programs in every department, and on and on. The budget bill that passed the House and died in the Senate did this (and was endorsed by ACU). This new gambit, known as H.J. Res 48, doesn’t.

Instead it takes $1.74 billion for the census that was never used, takes it off the books and calls it a cut. It takes $200 million for fire suppression no longer needed, takes it off the books and calls it a cut. They discover an Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission that is no longer in existence, takes it off the books and call it a cut.

To be sure, there are a few real cuts in the measure, but then, as the old Frank Sinatra song goes, too few to mention.

If this passes, as it probably will in some form, we will now have to wait to the Passover/Easter holiday break in mid-April to see what will really happen to this year’s budget.

conservative.org

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

Hillary Clinton testified before the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee within the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday to discuss the Obama proposed 2012 budget. House Republicans pressed Secretary Clinton on the need to reign in the State Department’s already bloated budget. Obama’s 2012 State Department budget projects outlays 52% higher than when he first entered office. The ACU supports a return to 2008 funding levels for the State Department.

The Energy and Power Subcommittee within the Committee on Energy and Commerce also held a hearing on Obama’s 2012 Budget with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testifying. Much of her testimony will be used next week when the full Committee on Energy and Commerce marks up HR 910: The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011.

On the floor of the House:

H.R.830: The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act – PASSED by vote of 256-171 with the support of 18 Democrats.

H.R.836: The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act – PASSED by vote of 242-177 with the support of 8 Democrats.

Check back later for more legislative updates.

conservative.org

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

House Energy and Commerce Committee :: Subcommittee on Energy and Power
HR910 The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

The Republicans in the House are working on overdrive this week marking up bills reversing the governmental intrusions of the Pelosi era. The Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up HR 910 The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 Thursday. Let’s provide some background on the proposed bill:

1. Henry Waxman and House Democrats passed the Cap and Trade Bill (HR 2454 – The American Clean Air and Security Act) on June 26, 2009 by a slim 219-212 margin, with 44 Democrats voting against
2. The Senate Bill (S. 1733 The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act) fails to get any support and sits in Committee. Cap and Trade legislation is dead.
3. EPA Administrator under President Obama, Lisa Jackson, filed an ‘Endangerment Finding’ that claims Greenhouse Gases (GHG) negatively affect public health and are therefore able to be regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act of 1970.
4. The EPA will require power plants and manufacturing plants to purchase ‘New Source Review Permits’ when they add to GHG totals in the atmosphere beginning as soon as July of this year. This amounts to a tax on GHG emissions.

Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-MI) bill is a simple one. It would define Greenhouse Gases and prohibit the regulation of the emissions of these gases for reasons of ‘climate change.’  The EPA has created out of thin air (no pun intended) a path for regulation of GHG’s where no legislation exists. Unless legislation is passed over the objections (and potential veto) of President Obama, the costs of these regulations will prove to be astronomical in terms of energy prices and domestic jobs and manufacturing.

Republicans are attacking this EPA overstep in two ways. They are seeking passage of the Energy Tax Prevention Act, as described. But they have also inserted ‘riders’ into the HR 1, the Continuing Resolution, which passed decisively through the House a month ago, that would prohibit the EPA from using any funds to regulate GHG’s. ACU supports both of these efforts, in addition to the Roadmap for America’s Energy Future, to forestall EPA’s costly prestidigitation.

conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

Republican leaders in the House are getting concerned that a growing number of freshmen are balking at voting for another 2 week to possibly a 4 week 2011 budget extension without making meaningful cuts that the House passed in their budget bill, HR 1.  Word has it that the freshmen class leaders have arranged a special meeting with Speaker John Boehner to hash things out.

Although the two week extension that ends March 18 did cut spending, it did nothing to return programs that had received massive increases of 20 to 30 percent in the last three years back to 2008 levels.  The odds are the leadership will get another short term CR, but it’s hard to see what happens at the next deadline, since Obama and the Democrats have made it clear they aren’t going to budge.

A well intentioned bill may in the end make it harder to defund Obamacare.  Although nobody cared at the time the bill passed, every Republican and Democrat plus the Obama Administration is anxious to get rid of one of the many burdensome tax regulations in the bill.  It’s called the “1099 provision” which requires everybody who pays anybody more than $600 to do something will have to file a 1099 form with the IRS to make the potential tax cheat getting the money declare it as income.  This has created a furor, particularly from small businesses that already have a hard time dealing with a myriad of federal, state and local tax regulations.  So a bill to repeal the provision is sailing through Congress, although there are differences between House and Senate leaders as to how to replace the “lost” funds.  Republicans think they will get credit for this because they opposed this provision in the first place, but it will be a smiling Obama who will sign the bill at the White House and take credit for this remarkable display of “bipartisanship.”  Meanwhile, the Obamacare bill will have been “improved” and a whole bunch of people upset with the bill will now be less upset and less inclined to join the fight to defund it.

conservative.org

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

Financial Services Committee
Markup :: March 9, 2011

HR 861 – The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Termination Act
Rep. Miller (R-CA)
PASSED 31-24

HR 839 – The Home Affordability Modification Program (HAMP) Termination Act
Rep. McHenry (R-NC)
PASSED 32-24

From the first moment of the House Financial Services Committee’s markup of HR 861 and HR 839, the quarrelsome relationship from last week’s markup of the FHA Refinance Program Termination Act and Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act returned. A feud between Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) and Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) over the length of each other’s opening statements seemed to portend further contentiousness.

Democrats, perhaps stinging from the fact that they no longer control the power within the committee, responded with indignation that they should now be relegated to defending their programs from termination. The programs under discussion, Republicans asserted, are completely ineffective in reversing the mortgage crisis, especially the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which deals solely with already foreclosed homes (detailed further here).

The NSP has already spent six billion taxpayer dollars. This termination act would forestall the last $1B from being disbursed. These last billion dollars would help NSP to continue to directly bail out banks and lenders of foreclosed properties, under whose responsibility it lies to comply with local ordinances concerning dilapidated houses. It does not bail out homeowners or protect them from foreclosure in any way. It’s hard to argue that homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments each month should be forced to continue to fund this rehabilitation of foreclosed houses at the discretion of organizations such as Chicanos Por La Casa. Furthermore, one of Rep. Gary Miller’s (R-CA) (the bill’s sponsor) main objections to NSP is that “there are no mandates on how the money is to be used.”

The second bill terminates The Home Affordability Modification Program (also detailed further here): “A program that, without question, has troubles. It has not achieved what it has set out to achieve,” said HAMP supporter Rep. David Scott (D-GA). Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) went further, suggesting that “It has actively harmed more people than it’s helped.” He makes this claim by referencing the following:

• 734,000 temporary home modifications that have been cancelled after the trial period, at which point these people lost their homes.
• This amounts to a 54% HAMP failure rate: more than half of all enrollees within HAMP still end up being foreclosed on.
• Additionally, these cancellations occurred after many homeowners sank their entire lifesavings into the programs and saw their credit score plummet, being told that enrollment in HAMP would save their home.
• The Special Inspector General of TARP has repeatedly referenced HAMP as an unsuccessful program

The HAMP Termination Act will save the balance of the $30B obligated to the failed modification program (only $1B has been spent so far)–no measly sum. 3.5 million families have received private refinances over the same period of HAMP’s existence. Do taxpayer dollars really need to provide this $30B service when the private sector is five times as successful as the federal government?

Common to the theme of the entire Congress so far this session, the debate was permeated by the larger question at hand: the proper role of government. Vice Chairman Hensarling (R-TX) at one point flashed the monthly deficit on the television screen to underscore his point, saying “high levels of debt lead to high levels of taxes, which lead to high levels of unemployment. The equation is that simple.” Both of these programs are clear examples of ineffective and expensive governmental overreach. The bills’ adoptions by the committee were voted for by libertarian Ron Paul (R-TX) and conservative Michelle Bachman (R-MN), but most impressively, they passed over the objections of Barney Frank (always the sign of a good bill). Their termination, set for a House floor vote next week, would serve to highlight the Republican’s newfound commitment to small, constitutional government.

conservative.org

Congressman Devin Nunes
1013 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Congressman Nunes:

The American Conservative Union is pleased to endorse your “Roadmap for America’s Energy Future” and commends you for sponsoring a comprehensive bill that can serve as a benchmark for future legislation.  For four years, Congress has been moving backwards, passing what we call “anti-energy” legislation that has restricted domestic energy development and made Americans more dependent on foreign sources of energy while raising energy costs to the American consumer. By contrast, H.R. 909 would increase domestic energy production by removing barriers to domestic oil and gas production in a small portion of ANWR, the Outer Continental Shelf and oil shale in the Mountain West.  It also encourages the long-needed expansion of nuclear power without the taxpayer footing the bill.

This bill brings new ideas to the table as well, including a reverse auction mechanism to fund renewable energy projects.  Rather than a politicized system of government subsidies, a trust fund would be set up with revenues from traditional energy sources.  The criteria would include lowering the cost per megawatt and participants would have to give up existing subsidies.  A deposit to the federal government would ensure participants have “skin in the game” and are not just looking for a handout.  The first introduction of market forces to the renewable energy program would be a refreshing change from decades of ineffective policies.

ACU urges all members of the House to cosponsor this legislation and will actively support it when action is taken.

Sincerely,

Al Cardenas
Chairman
The American Conservative Union

www.conservative.org

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

Tempers flared Thursday as the House Financial Services Committee came together to mark up H.R.830: The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act, and H.R.836: The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act. Both bills survived mark-up by votes of 33-22, straight down party lines. Former Chairman and Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) got into and mediated multiple heated discussions over the merits of the programs. The visibly disgruntled Democrats, though, admitted multiple times that there were inherent flaws in these programs. The FHA Refinance Program enrolls a comical 44 people, with a total of seven enrollees in the last three months of the program. The “Refi” program obligates $50 million (with a more than $8B fund to draw from) to potential losses for those 42 people. Comparatively, the private sector has refinanced millions of Americans since the housing crisis began, and not on the backs of taxpayers.

These two bills will be placed on the floor of the House next week as the Financial Services Committee marks up H.R.839: The HAMP Termination Act and H.R.861: The NSP Termination Act, programs with access to $36 billion in TARP funds (six times the savings that Senate Democrats have proposed($6B) for the Continuing Resolution funding the government for the rest of FY2011).

The mark-up process entails a full committee meeting where members propose and vote on amendments to a bill that the committee is considering. The process, as opposed to the floor, retains a tenuous hold on decorum and rules. The combination of the smaller, less formal setting and direct exchange between political adversaries allows for a less scripted dialogue and debate than one would see on the floor of the House of Representatives. ACU will be following many of these hearings and mark-ups to bring you our democracy in action.

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

The reports on the budget battle so far have concentrated on the numbers—how many billions have been cut so far and how many more billions have to be cut to get a bill through Congress that would fund the government through September 30.  The next showdown will be March 18.

Republicans seem to have fallen into the trap the Democrats have set and lost sight of the real objective—eliminating the massive increases domestic programs have received over the past three years and return these programs to 2008 levels.  These increases have averaged 23% while some went up over 30%.  On top of that were the hundreds of billions poured into some of these programs through the failed stimulus.

The bill passed by the House at 4:40am on a Holiday weekend accomplished a lot of this.  The two-week extension of government funding now in place does not.  It uses various budget gimmicks that technically meet the numbers requirement but do not affect the bloated programs.  For example, although no earmarks were included in the resolution passed in December, past earmark funds that haven’t been carried out are sitting in an account somewhere, well over $2 billion worth.  So that constituted about half the “cuts.”  Granted, these are funds that could have been used by the government that were eliminated, but they have no effect on the problem at hand.

This is fine for two weeks but conservative freshmen in the House are beginning to be concerned about carrying out their campaign promises.  Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp was a conservative leader in the Kansas State Senate and won a tough primary victory against a moderate. Huelskamp is letting it be known that he will insist on a better deal the second time around.  This is important because the word has already gone out from the Republican leadership that at least one more short-term extension will be needed.

As I’ve mentioned before, all this is just Round One of this match, with the debt ceiling issue and the entire 2012 budget battle yet to come.

Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring

H.R.839 - HAMP Termination Act – Rep. McHenry (R-NC)
H.R.380 - FHA Refinance Program Termination Act – Rep. Dold (R-IL)
H.R.861 - NSP Termination Act – Rep. Miller (R-CA)
H.R.836 - Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act – Rep. Hensarling (R-TX)

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

Milton Friedman’s quote is particularly apt as the House Finance Committee held a hearing on Wednesday with a  Thursday mark-up and vote concerning four bills aimed at terminating failed mortgage aid programs instituted in haste during the mortgage crisis of the past few years. These failed programs ($29B Home Affordable Modification Program [HAMP]; $7B Neighborhood Stabilization Program; $8.12B FHA Refinance Program; and $1B Emergency Mortgage Relief Program) will cost the taxpayers $45 billion while doing very little to aid Americans struck by the foreclosure epidemic.

photo credit: kevinspencer

In fact, in many cases, people end up worse off through these programs, which can increase their debt and penalize those who have yet to miss a payment. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants organizations millions of dollars (Chicanos Por la Casa received $120+ million) to purchase and rehab foreclosed homes, with zero oversight. These organizations then sell these houses to American families, pocketing the balance without any obligation to return your dollars to the federal government. The FHA Refinance Program has totaled a paltry 240 applicants since its full implementation over four months ago. The Home Affordable Modification Program has or is in the process of performing seven to eight hundred thousand modifications; the Treasury Department expected upwards of three to four million. Representative McHenry, who sponsors the HAMP Termination Act, has in fact charged this program with doing “active harm” to people’s mortgage problems with their own tax dollars.

There are countless private refinancing options throughout the United States that do not commit tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to failing programs, options that actually go towards helping Americans with their problems rather than tying them up in red tape and extra fees. With this in mind, it is imperative to support the termination of these ineffective programs. The American Conservative Union will continue to watch these throughout the legislative process in an effort to encourage lawmakers to preserve quality programs by eliminating those lacking in efficacy and affordability.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

21 years ago, as a freshman congressman from California, Dana Rohrabacher shook up the Washington establishment by taking on the absurd expenditures by the National Endowment for the Arts.  The NEA had more or less been run by a small clique of New York based leftists who used taxpayer money to fund “art” that ridiculed traditional American values.  As Rohrabacher and a little known congressman from Texas, Dick Armey, put it, these artists should be free to do whatever they want “on their own time and on their own dime.” Howls of protest came not only from the liberal arts reporters at the New York and LA Times, but from wealthy Republican donors who sat on local arts boards that received NEA money.

photo credit: John-Morgan

Rohrabacher failed in that Democrat controlled Congress to eliminate funding for the NEA but was successful in forcing reforms that directed funds to more traditional forms of entertainment, music and art and substantially cut funding to around $100 million. This slimmed down version of NEA until then First Lady Laura Bush made it a cause of hers to increase the NEA budget which the Republican congress of 2005-06 and the new majority Democrats in 2007-08 dutifully did. Then Obama took over and more than doubled the 2000 figure to $205 million.

Now, once again, there is an effort to at least reduce the funds of this unneeded agency in the name of deficit reduction, culminating in a very interesting roll call Thursday on an amendment by Michigan’s Tim Walberg to take an addition $20.5 million off the $145 million figure in the House bill (in itself a 30% reduction) which would at least bring the funding back to 2006 levels.  In one of the closest votes in the dozens of roll calls on the budget bill, his amendment passed 217-209.  Three brave Democrats risked the wrath of their local arts societies voted in favor, Cardoza and Costa of California and Dan Boren of eastern Oklahoma.  However, 22 Republicans came close to defeating this modest attempt to save taxpayers’ money and here they are:

Charlie Bass (NH)
Judy Biggert (IL)
Vern Buchanan (FL)
Charlie Dent (PA)
Bob Dold (IL)
Jim Gerlach (PA)
Bob Gibson (OH)
Michael Grimm (NY)
Richard Hanna (NY)
Leonard Lance (NJ)
Steve LaTourette (OH)
David McKinley (WVA)
Pat Meehan (PA)
Todd Platts (PA)
Dave Reichert (WA)
Aaron Schock (IL)
John Shimkus (IL
Mike Simpson (ID)
Steve Stivers (OH)
Pat Tiberi (OH)
Mike Turner (OH)
Greg Walden (OR)

Look for these members to form the core of a new group Republican moderates who, like Mike Castle and Mark Kirk before them, try to put the brakes on real spending reforms.

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Dear Representative:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I urge you to support Sessions Amendment #42 to H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution. This amendment, offered on behalf of small businesses and middle class workers, would place a moratorium to the Obama Administration practice of eliminating private sector jobs in favor of adding government positions. This practice, known as “insourcing,” only serves to further bloat our already swollen bureaucracy.

A vote in favor of this amendment will send a clear message to the American people that the Congress has private sector job growth at the top of their agenda.

With private sector unemployment at 9 percent, the last thing we need is federal government policies which have the effect of reducing private sector jobs. Please vote “Yes” on the Sessions amendment (#42) to place a moratorium on “insourcing.”

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
The American Conservative Union

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

Be careful what you wish for!  House Republicans were frustrated for four years under the ever more dictatorial rule of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who virtually shut down the amendment process by the end of 2010.  Now they have gone to the other extreme and allowed a completely open rule on the 2011 budget bill with literally hundreds of amendments pending.  Their hopes of finishing up today and heading out for the President’s Day holiday has been dashed and they’re trying to figure out how they will ever get an agreement to go home.

photo credit: Zyllan

Meanwhile, with dozens of votes being taken every day, nobody except the Washington lobby community is paying much attention to the issues being dealt with, but they actually reveal an early split among the newcomers between the establishment Republican types and more philosophical conservatives, now given the label broadly as “tea party” Republicans.  Here are a few examples:

• Freshman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina tried to save $324 million in taxpayer funds from the Legal Services Corporation, a fight that goes back to the Reagan Administration.  The LSC works with groups like ACORN to encourage lawsuits paid for by the taxpayer.  The amendment was defeated with the help of 68 Republicans, including newcomers Mo Brooks, Randy Crawford, Bob Dold, Blake Farenthold, Chuck Fleischmann, Bob Gibson, Tim Griffin, Morgan Griffith, Michael Grimm, Frank Guinta, Richard Hanna, Vicki Hartzler, Joe Heck, Jamie Herrera, Adam Kinsinger, Pat Meehan, Alan Nunnelee, Tom Reed, David Rivera and Steve Stivers.  Look for these names to show up on other crucial spending votes.
• The bill eliminates the longtime boondoggle known as the Weatherization Assistance Program which puts the federal government in charge of sealing up the air leaks in your house.  This program was given tons of extra money by the failed stimulus.  New York Democrat Paul Tonko narrowly failed to take this provision out of the bill and restore the program when 23 Republicans voted with him.  They included Freshmen Lou Barletta, Rick Berg, Bob Gibson, Morgan Griffith, Richard Hanna, Andy Harris, Bill Huizenga, Pat Meehan, Tom Reed and Steve Stivers (see a pattern here?)
• Perhaps the biggest surprise so far was the failure of Wyoming’s lone house Member, Cynthis Lummis’ effort to cut the funds that allow more federal land grabs in the West, which was sunk, 213-216, when 32 Republicans voted “No.” They included freshmen Bob Dold, Stephen Fincher, Richard Hanna, Scott Rigell, and Martha Roby.  The rest were the usual hodgepodge  from New Jersey, and states on both coasts where left wing environmental groups hold considerable influence.

Overall, the budget bill with its terminations and cuts close to 2008 levels is holding up and will be quite an accomplishment for the Republicans—if they ever figure out how to get a final vote and adjourn.

www.conservative.org

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I strongly urge you to vote “yes” on final passage of H.R. 1, the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution. This CR is the vital first step in the year-long battle to turn the tide back from the reckless three-year spending binge that has helped create a $1.5 trillion deficit.

Much has been made of the undeniable fact that this spending reduction in discretionary accounts will not “solve” our deficit problem. It was also true that after the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, it took three more years to win World War II. However, it was the turning point and this bill can be the turning point in the battle of the budget. So far, Congress has used every excuse in the book to preserve every pet program and discretionary spending has ballooned 24% in just two years (and it was too high then). Passage of H.R. 1 by a substantial margin will show the American people who voted for change in November that this Congress is serious about spending.

We were somewhat disappointed by the first version of H.R. 1, but having closely reviewed the final product, we believe it accomplishes the primary goal of eliminating massive 20-30% percent increases in the liberals’ pet programs over the past two to three years and gets many programs back to near 2008 levels.

The vote on H.R. 1 is the first critical test of a year-long battle to restore fiscal sanity. Strong majority support for this legislation will put pressure on the Senate and the Obama Administration to negotiate in good faith for a budget solution. The message in November was loud and clear: the American people are fed up with endless government spending and massive deficits. This first step will send a message that this Congress heard that message and is serious about changing the Washington spending culture. Please vote “Yes” on H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
The American Conservative Union

Al Cardenas talked about his new role as chair of the American Conservative Union, his organization’s political and legislative agenda, and his perspective on the Obama administration’s budget and other major priorities. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications. – C-SPAN

Watch it here – ACU Chair Cardenas on C-SPAN

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

The House Republican leadership sent a valentine to conservatives today when they introduced HR 1, the Continuing Resolution to keep government funded after March 4, when the current resolution expires.  Having announced a modest $32 billion cut in spending from the current budget on Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee threw that out the window in 24 hours and produced a revised budget that cuts more than twice that amount and fulfills their pledge of a $100 billion cut from the proposed Obama budget (although that budget was never even voted on, no less enacted).

photo credit: C_Harvey

When I did a comparison of the two bills over the weekend, it was remarkable how much more effective the new bill is at reducing the bloated increases many programs received in the failed Stimulus and the last two regular budgets.  Just as one example, the bill first announced cut a 2% from the State Department after substantial increases since 2008.  The revised bill cuts 8 percent from the current level and a whopping 21 percent from what Obama wanted.  This is significant because part of the deal to get Hillary Clinton to give up a lifetime Senate seat to take the term limited job of Secretary of State was that she would get major funding increases to build an even larger bureaucratic empire than already exists there.

This was a substantial win for the now 170 member strong Republican Study Committee and the 87 freshmen, most of whom are members.  As a result, if this passes intact on Thursday (there will be an open rule with dozens of amendments) the House negotiating position with the Senate will be a strong one.  The strategy now for the Democrats will be to play rope-a-dope, that is, stall the process in the Senate and try to get the Republicans to agree to short term extensions of the current budget, hoping the Republicans are still in mortal fear of a another government shutdown which played so badly in 1995.  This game of cat and mouse will start after the President’s Day recess coming up next week.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

Whenever you hear the word “bipartisan” coming from Capitol Hill, hold on to your wallet.  Before they even take up some modest budget cuts next week, House and Senate Republicans have cut a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fund the $1.7 billion a year Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program in return for renewing what is known as the “Andean Trade Preferences” which helps Columbia in South America.  Remarkable, they have just discovered the TAA program expires Saturday, February 12^th and want to ram a short term renewal to July 1 on a “Suspension of the Rules” vote Tuesday which requires little debate and allows no amendments but takes a two-thirds vote to pass.

The TAA is an add-on to dozens of duplicative job training programs that says if your job was lost due to some free trade pact, you get some money.  If you are just beat out by the competition or are hit by a recession, you’re out of luck.  It is estimated that 97 percent of people who lose their jobs are NOT eligible.  Basically, the unions, through Harry Reid, are saying “we don’t like any free trade but we’ll let the Andean bill go through if you give us more billions for TAA.”  Ironically, even the late Senator Ted Kennedy said at one point there were too many separate job training programs but neither he nor the Republicans ever did anything about it.

Speaking of budgets, Republican House leaders are pledging an “open rule” next week when they take up the budget for the rest of Fiscal Year 2011.  This means conservatives will have the opportunity to improve on the tepid $32 billion in cuts in the official bill.  Adding a little pressure are eleven Senate conservatives who have written a letter to Speaker Boehner to say they want $100 billion in cuts even though five months of the year have elapsed.  They are Senators DeMint, Lee, Johanns, Paul, Enzi, Johnson, Coburn, Rubio, Ensign, Vitter and Toomey.  It is an interesting mix of Freshmen and veterans and shows this is not your grandfather’s Republican Senate membership.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

The budget battle was joined today but it remains to be seen how meaningful the first round will be.

Here’s the state of play:  There is a continuing resolution that is funding the government at 2010 levels that ends March 4.  House Republicans are committed to lowering domestic spending other than entitlements or defense or veterans programs to the levels they were in 2008.  These programs have been massively inflated by a combination of direct spending increases and the 2009 failed stimulus, which covered many of the same programs.  When the House passed their new rules on January 5, they granted House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan the power to set the target figures for the Appropriations Committee on the basis that no budget resolution was passed in 2010 and they had no numbers to go on.

Those numbers were released today.  Since the appropriations process lumps different programs together in 12 different bills, there’s no way of saying now just what will be reduced, but Transportation and HUD, along with programs that come under the Commerce Justice and Science bill stand to get deflated from the stimulus levels.  Two surprises:  some security programs will see a cut (don’t know what) while the State Department, which got one big increase in 2010 and was supposed to get another big one this year, will stay close to current levels.  The massive increases at State were part of the deal to get Hillary Clinton to take the Secretary of State’s job.

Meanwhile, Defense would get yet another $10 billion, so there doesn’t seem to be any stomach on the Republicans’ part to tackle any waste there.

However, the lackadaisical schedule of both the House and Senate may mean the Republicans will go along with another short term continuing resolution in March, although there’s nothing official.  The later it gets in the fiscal year, the harder it is to make the cuts.  Stay tuned.

www.conservative.org

Chairman of the ACU :: David A. Keene

This article first appeared in the February 2011 issue of Townhall Magazine - http://townhallmagazine.com/

Don’t let the focus on federal deficits and spending in 2010 fool you: The Right is not now—and never has been—concerned solely with economic issues.

This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) takes place during the centennial celebration of Ronald Reagan’s birth and at a time when we conservatives are in the best political position since Reagan’s presidency to continue creating the “city upon a hill” that he and the Founders saw as America’s destiny.

Real reform is in the air. Voters have elected a new kind of Congress in the hope that America will at long last reverse the inexorable growth of an intrusive government, stave off our looming fiscal bankruptcy and guarantee that our children and grandchildren inherit as vibrant, strong and free a country as the one we inherited from our forbearers.

The many new faces in Washington should serve as a wake-up call to those who have been here for some years that at long last voters expect their elected officials to actually deliver on the promises that won them their jobs. Their challenge will be to hold their ground in the face of tradition, complexity and arrogance as the old Washington elite tries to force them to do business as it’s always been done.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I strongly urge you to vote for the McConnell Amendment to repeal the health care overhaul bill. Voters sent a clear message in November that they oppose legislation that will, when fully implemented, will allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide what kind of health care every man, woman and child will have and how much it will cost.

Much has been made of a few sections in the legislation that sound good to people, such as allowing adult children to piggyback on their parents’ health care and prohibiting companies from refusing insurance for “pre-existing conditions.” It did not take well over two thousand pages to do this. Most of the bill is devoted to transferring health care choice from the people to the government and allowing the federal government control over the health care system without congressional “interference.” Then there are the sections raising taxes now for benefits later to make believe the bill “saves money.”

The fact that HHS is already in the business of giving hundreds of “waivers” from the bill’s provisions exposes the fiction that benefits are the main goal. Rather, it’s the power to give waivers or take them away, to decide which insurance companies will live or die and what kind of insurance people will be forced to buy whether they like it or not.

Only by repealing this monstrosity and starting over with real reform that expands choice and brings down costs will work. Please vote “Yes” on the McConnell amendment to repeal the health care bill.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
The American Conservative Union

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

While the Senate and House are often at odds over policy, even when they are controlled by the same Party, this year they will even be at odds over the calendar.  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised to stick to a two weeks on, one week off policy to give the Members more certainty for their schedule back home.  The Senate is hewing to a more traditional schedule of taking breaks during Holiday weeks.  So, for example, the Senate is in session, while the House, having put in their two weeks, is on recess.

Although the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization is the first bill to be taken up by the Senate this year, the real interest is how the newfound “gentlemen’s agreement” between Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid will work in practice. Word this morning was that Reid will allow an open amendment process.  If this really happens, there may be lots of social policy issues voted on that have absolutely nothing to do with aviation.  While the House has a “germane rule” the Senate does not.  Therefore, repeal of Obamacare, gun laws and other issues could all be brought up as amendments to the FAA bill.

Although conservatives would just as soon have left the Senate procedures as is, they feel they dodged a bullet when insurgent Democrats gave up on changing the filibuster rules.  Instead, McConnell said he would reduce the use of the filibuster if Reid would allow more amendments. Also abolished was the use of the “secret hold” whereby Senators can stall legislation without the public knowing who they are. Still to be dealt with are judicial nominations which the Obama administration really want to move.  Number one on the list is Gordon Liu, a liberal activist nominated for the west coast 9^th Circuit and a prime prospect for the Supreme Court.  Remarkable, the small Republican minority held together to stop Liu and some really bad actors for other courts last year.  Ironically, Liu was a leading opponent of the confirmations of Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court on ideological grounds.  In that effort he was supported by the Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

www.conservative.org

Larry Hart :: Director of Government Relations

Some of the most conservative, tea-party backed freshmen elected to the Senate have come away with key committee assignments that will give them a strong voice in policy making, particularly if Republicans regain the Senate in 2012.

Starting with the Appropriations Committee, one of the biggest upset winners of the year, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who knocked off 18 year incumbent Russ Feingold, will join the ultimate insiders club in the Senate.  It was the Republican and Democrat members of Appropriations, who tried but failed to pass the $1 trillion omnibus budget during the lame duck session which would have been fatal to any effort to cut spending.  Johnson may be a lonely voice for fiscal sanity on that committee, but it was unheard of in the past to appoint an “outsider” such as Johnson.

photo credit: nimishgogri

Rand Paul, who ran over Republican Leader McConnell’s hand-picked candidate in the Kentucky primary, came away with spots on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as well as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.  The latter was the committee that wrote and passed Obamacare.  Homeland Security is a particularly interesting assignment for a libertarian-oriented skeptic of heavy-handed security measures.

Another remarkable pick was Mike Lee of Utah for the Judiciary Committee.  Lee, whose father was Solicitor General under Ronald Reagan, had to get a waiver from Utah’s senior Senator, Orrin Hatch, who had been close to the man Lee beat in the Republican primary, Bob Bennett, as normally two Senators from the same state cannot sit on a top committee like judiciary.  The conventional wisdom (including me, I must say) assumed that former New Hampshire Attorney general Kelly Ayotte, would get the Judiciary slot.  Ayotte did get two powerful committee assignments, Armed Services and Commerce.  All credit to Hatch and to Mitch McConnell for recognizing the message sent by the voters in November and not trying to minimize the influence of the newcomers.

Another key committee assignment goes to veteran conservative leader Tom Coburn who joins the Finance Committee, which oversees Treasury programs.  I would not want to be Timothy Geithner when Coburn starts looking at the way he is using the newfound powers he has gained from Congress the last two year.

Separate from the regular committees is the bane of pro growth conservatives, the Joint Economic Committee.  Seemingly impervious to party changes, the JEC, which includes members from the House and Senate, has consistently refused to use dynamic scoring to show the benefits of tax cuts, such as the elimination of the Death Tax.  With Jim DeMint, Mike Lee and Pat Toomey now assigned, they will at least get an earful from three Senators who are not shrinking violets.

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Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

Lost in the hype over the State of the Union was the failure of an insurgent group of Democrats in the Senate to change the filibuster rules.  The idea of making the Senate more like the House in allowing the majority to work its will may have sounded good for the next two years, but senior Democrats realized it could be bad news for them if they lose the majority in 2012.  Majority Leader Harry Reid had used a parliamentary trick on January 5 to keep the Senate in its “first” day when it came back into session three weeks later.  That way they could claim that it would only take a majority of 51 Senators to change the rules, although even that is an open question.  However, yesterday they “adjourned” the session, admitting that any change in the rules would require 67 votes and therefore bipartisan agreement.

photo credit: Anna in Exeter

Some changes, however, may still be in the works.  Secret negotiations are ongoing in a number of areas, including the elimination of so-called “secret holds” in which a Senator anonymously hold up a bill and whether to make a deal in which the minority gives up its right to have a bill read in its entirety in exchange for having the text of bills available online well before they are voted on.  Another set of negotiations involve Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Lamar Alexander over presidential nominations.  There has been an enormous increase in presidential nominations that have to be confirmed by the Senate, partly because the bureaucracy has grown so much.  Instead of reducing the bureaucracy, the talks are about allowing the president to make more appointments without confirmation.  Yet another question mark is confirmation of judges, a major issue under both Clinton and Bush.  Liberals are furious that their leading picks, such as Gordon Liu for the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, failed to get confirmation even when the Democrats had their 60 vote majority.  Secret negotiations in the Senate are always dangerous because, ironically, even though the House majority has more clout than the Senate majority, it is easier to quickly pass agreements under unanimous consent in the Senate before anybody knows what’s happening.  Stay tuned.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

In a show of real bipartisanship that the liberals won’t like, House Speaker John Boehner and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman plan to follow up the President’s State of the Union address by introducing legislation to restore the school voucher program for the District of Columbia canceled by the Obama Administration and Congress in 2010.  It is highly unusual for the Speaker of the House to either introduce bills or vote on them as technically the Speaker’s position is a carryover from the British House of Parliament, serving as Speaker of the whole House, not just the majority party. However, Boehner is making an exception in this case to show his personal interest in the issue.

photo credit: Groove2007

Although Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, have taken on the unions and the education establishment for some of their programs, they could not bring themselves to slay the sacred cow of the teacher’s unions, school tuition vouchers for private schools. Instead, they have cut off the funding for the largely African-American 1,000 Washington, DC students participating in the program.  It’s a great way for Boehner and the House Republicans to blunt the “education reform” image that Obama would like to use as part of his reelection platform.  It also annoys the Democrats to no end that Lieberman, who has announced he is retiring in 2012 and is free to do what he pleases, will be leading the charge in the Senate as he has in the past.

The resignation of energy “czar” and former Al Gore acolyte Carol Browner is another indication that Obama wants to rid himself of the hard left image he gained in his first two years.  Browner’s crowning achievement was to be the cap and trade bill that she and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman rammed through the  House in 2009 but it died in the Senate after becoming politically radioactive.  Word is that her position will be eliminated.  What this means for the back door attempt to impose draconian greenhouse gas regulations through the EPA remains to be seen.

Congressional committees are finally beginning to organize themselves.  Democrats, who had a field day using the subpoena power of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee to harass business executives under former Chairman Henry Waxman, suddenly decided it wouldn’t be seemly for new Chairman Darrell Issa to have the same power and tried unsuccessfully today to force him to get the “concurrence” of the senior Democrat, Elijah Cummings.  This predictably failed.  At one point, when Issa asked Democrat Dennis Kucinich why, if he was so upset, he had not proposed this change during the past four years, he replied “Well, Mr. Chairman, we have a whole new House now.”  The laughter took a while to subside.

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Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

True to his word, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton has launched an ambitious oversight and legislative agenda that will try to derail the regulatory plans of the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration. In addition to looking at waste in the Department of Energy’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, the committee will look for ways to slow down or stop EPA’s proposal to control the energy sector by regulating greenhouse gas emissions as a violation of the Clean Air Act.  Also on the agenda is streamlining requirements for nuclear power plants that, along with the threat of lawsuits, have prevented new plants from being built for thirty years.

photo credit: State Records NSW

On the health care front, the wide ranging agenda calls for the possible reorganization of the entire HHS, noting that $80 billion a year is spent on overlapping programs at the Health and resources Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA has long been the source of complaints for holding down medical innovation.  The Committee plans to look at the whole fee regime that includes fees for prescription drug users, medical devices (which are taxed under Obamacare) and pediatric testing of drugs).  Some of these fees have expiration dates that would give Republicans leverage to make changes.

On the spending front, following their announcement of a budget proposal, the House Republican Study Committee is planning a letter to the leadership urging them to stick to their campaign pledge of a $100 billion budget cut for Fiscal Year 2011.  That Fiscal Year started on October 1 and no changes will be made until March 4, when the current budget resolution expires, so the Appropriations people, always looking for ways not to cut spending, have been complaining that $100 billion would be too much for the seven months remaining.  Although the once small Study Committee is now a large majority of the Republican Conference in the House, it looks like they will still be the conservative spur kicking the Republican horse to keep them moving in a conservative direction.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

True to its role as the cutting edge for conservative legislation, the House Republican Study Committee is planning to introduce their own proposals for spending cuts this week.  A quick look shows a goal of saving $250 billion per year for ten years.  This is done by reverting to the Fiscal Year 2006 spending levels starting next year instead of the 2008 levels now backed by the House Republican leadership.  As with the planned Rand Paul budget in the Senate, we will take a look at the details and see how they stack up.

photo credit: rutlo

Meanwhile, the new House rules on spending adopted on January 5 and discussed in this space are beginning to create problems for those who hope they can continue business as usual, i.e. expanding government and spending like there’s no tomorrow.  Analysts now realize the Senate and House will be dealing with budget and spending bills under completely different rules.  For example, if the Senate increases mandatory spending without a corresponding reduction somewhere else, their legislation could automatically be ruled out of order in the House.  Alternatively, if a spending cut is offset with a tax increase that also would be out of order under the House rules, which now prohibits tax increases for that purpose.

How all this is resolved—or not—when the budget fight heats up about a month from now will be interesting to watch.  Gridlock, anyone?

The back to back retirements of Connecticut Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman means the nutmeg state will have lost 60 years in seniority in two election cycles.  Although Lieberman was often given the label “moderate,” and was a maverick on a few issues such as school choice and foreign policy (the reason he endorsed McCain in ’08), his lifetime ACU rating of 16 puts him in the ACU solidly liberal category.  Lieberman was a leader in the Senate for a government takeover of our energy sector to “fight global warming” and was the driving force behind the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which he considers his crowning achievement. (Dodd’s “crowning achievement” was the federal takeover of the financial services industry in 2010).  Even if Lieberman is replaced by another liberal, likely in Connecticut, neither freshman Senator will be chairing committees any time soon.

www.conservative.org

Director of Government Relations :: Larry Hart

After a week of shocked silence following the tragic shootings in Arizona, conservative leaders in Congress started to come to grips with their new role as a majority in the House and a substantial minority in the Senate with most Senate Democrats realizing their majority will probably disappear in 2012.

After repeal of the Health Care Bill in the House Wednesday, the number one issue will quickly shift to spending. Deadlines loom as the current budget resolution ends March 4 and the debt ceiling will have to be raised again sometime in the Spring.  After newly appointed House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers made it appear he got the election message on spending by sending a memo to members and staff calling for budget cuts, the message became mixed as word got out that, just as in 1995, the new Republican majority would retain most of the liberal staff of the Appropriations Committee on the false premise that the country would fall apart without their wisdom and experience.  This was immediately hailed by public broadcasting’s favorite congressional analyst, Norm Ornstein, as a “wise” and “mature” move.

Nevertheless, the House plans to go on record next week in favor of returning the domestic discretionary budget to 2008 levels. This catches only about two thirds of the massive increases in these budgets over the last three years, but to use the 2007 figures would highlight a bad budget President Bush signed into law.  It will be interesting to see what comes out of the conservative Republican Study Committee, which in the past has challenged the official Republican budget with one of their own.  The new RSC Chairman is Jim Jordan, a strong conservative, but also an Ohio colleague of Speaker of the House Boehner.

It looks like the first bold budget move will come in the Senate, where newly elected Kentuckian Rand Paul plans to announce his own budget proposal next week.  The reduction figure Paul is using is a whopping $500 billion, spares no agency including Defense and may call for the elimination of the Education Department.  This is somewhat reminiscent of 1995, when the Gingrich House called for abolishing three agencies, including education.  This is not something that is going to happen in 2011 Washington, but it will lay down a marker for those who believe we can make bigger reductions in the deficit faster than the current conventional wisdom.  Of course, the devil is in the details, and we’ll be waiting for these and give you a rundown as soon as they become available.

Knowing they can’t pass any more of their big government agenda for the next two years, the liberals in Congress and the White House will encourage Congress to be around as little as possible so they can run the government from the regulatory agencies.  It will be up to conservatives to press forward with oversight hearings, resolutions of disapproval of regulations, and the use of the power of the purse to stop this runaway train.  It should be an interesting year.

www.conservative.org

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the American Conservative Union, I strongly urge you to vote “Yes” on H.R. 2, the first step necessary to repeal the federal government’s takeover of our health care system.

If you voted against this bill in the last Congress, you already know that this 2,200 page monstrosity fully justified the characterization by the Wall Street Journal as “The Worst Bill Ever.” If you voted for this bill, here is an opportunity to rectify that mistake now that it’s clear it will do more harm than good and that the American people recognize that in poll after poll. If you are new to Congress, this bill will lay down a benchmark for a reversal of the enormous expansion of government over the past two years.

Much has been made of the sections of the bill that “people want.” Probably the most often mentioned is the prohibition against discrimination by insurers against customers with “pre-existing conditions.” Another is allowing adult children to remain on their parents’ insurance policy.

It did not take 2,200 pages to write these provisions. The heart of the bill sets up an elaborate bureaucracy that allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide what kind of insurance each and every American must have and how much it will cost as well as which companies will be allowed to offer it. The bill also imposes a host of new tax increases and allows federal funding of abortions. At the same time, this measure did nothing to reduce health care costs, reform malpractice insurance or allow true competition by allowing the sale of insurance across state lines.

This is why it is imperative the bill be repealed rather than trying to “fix” the current bill. Only then can a sound health care reform bill be discussed and passed. Please vote “Yes” on H.R. 2, the repeal of the government takeover of health care.

Sincerely,

Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
The American Conservative Union

Senator John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Orrin Hatch
104 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Cornyn & Senator Hatch:

The American Conservative Union is pleased to endorse your proposed Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.  ACU has long supported an amendment of this kind and the lack of one has led to unrestrained growth in federal spending and a growth in the national debt that threatens the economic security of our country.

Your inclusion, in Section 4, of a tax component to the amendment, is also essential.  We cannot and should not balance the budget on the backs of the American taxpayer.  Any amendment must be designed, as yours is, to see that budgets are balanced by reducing the size of the federal government and putting a halt to the massive spending increases we have seen in recent years.

We urge all members of the Senate to co-sponsor the Hatch/Cornyn Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

Sincerely,

David A. Keene
Chairman 
The American Conservative Union

The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker-Elect
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Speaker-Elect Boehner:

The signers of this letter, representing millions of members in all fifty states, support your efforts to make changes in the rules of the House that would be a first step to help, rather than hinder, efforts by members of the House to reduce wasteful spending and reverse the massive annual spending increases in recent years. We urge you to resist any efforts to force changes that would dilute these provisions.

Specifically these rules would:

• Eliminate the Gephardt Rule that allows for an automatic increase in the debt limit when a budget resolution is adopted.
• Require any bill that increases mandatory spending to cut an equal amount of spending elsewhere in the budget.
• Prohibit the use of tax increases to “pay-for” new mandatory spending.
• Add a “spending reduction account” to appropriation bills so that motions to strike money from a bill can be placed in this account so that the actual amount of money appropriated is reduced.
• Eliminate the prohibition against amendments to strike any wasteful spending from the transportation bills while protecting the Highway Trust Fund.

Other rules that increase transparency, such as allowing a point of order against a bill that has not been available for three calendar days and making the committee process, including the markup of legislation, more open and available to public view, are positive steps to make members of Congress more accountable to those who elected them.

These changes are only a first step in changing the culture of spending that has grown worse each year and we look forward to the next step, which is making the actual spending reductions necessary to begin reducing our massive national debt.

Signed,

David A. Keene
Chairman
The American Conservative Union

William Wilson
President
Americans for Limited Government

Tim Phillips
President
Americans for Prosperity

David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United

Tom McClusky
Sr. Vice President
Family Research Council Action

Eli Lehrer
Vice President
Washington, DC Operations
The Heartland Institute

Duane Parde
President
National Taxpayers Union

Please see the PDF version of the letter here – ACU Coalition Letter – House Rules Changes