411 on the 111

I can’t find HR 12 so checked for “Paycheck Fairness Act” and found this listing of documents (see link):

http://wwws.house.gov/search97cgi/s97_cgi/index.jsp?QueryText=Paycheck+Fairness+Act&ResultCount=25&Page=0

Does anyone have the link for HR 12? I like to read the bill because then when I write to my Congressman I can let him know I have read it and why I support it. For instance, HR 11 makes amendments to existing Acts. So, individuals who cite those Acts as a means of trying to say HR 11 isn’t needed can be shown that those other Acts don’t cover the specific issues being addressed by HR 11.

H.R. 1338 – The Paycheck Fairness Act

Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338) is legislation that would amend the Equal Pay Act and other laws nondiscrimination laws.

Federal law already provides strong protections against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act. Nevertheless, this bill would:

Eliminate the caps on punitive and compensatory damages
Make punitive and compensatory damages available for even unintentional pay disparities
Eliminate employer defenses for pay disparities, such as paying people differently because they work in different parts of the country with different costs of living
Make it easier for trial lawyers to file large class actions
Impose comparable worth “guidelines,” second guessing market forces about the relative worth of different types of jobs, and
Re-impose debunked statistical analyses and auditing methods used by the Labor Department

Testimony of Paycheck Fairness Act

http://edlabor.house.gov/testimony/042407DianaFurchtgottRothtestimony.pdf pro-paycheck equity

http://www.uschamber.com/issues/testimony/2007/070711_paycheck_fairness.htm anti-paycheck equity

Excerpts of a letter from my congresswoman:

“I fully believe that equal work deserves equal pay, regardless of an employee’s sex. In fact, the very principle has been the law of the land for decades. The Equal Pay Act within the Fair Labor Standards Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act already prohibited workplace discrimination on the basis of sex.

“Introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro on March 6, 2007, HR 1338 would increase penalties for discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex. However, the bill does not establish any new protections for women against discrimination in the workplace; rather, it vastly expands the likelihood of discrimination lawsuits by making it easier and more lucrative for trial lawyers to bring such cases. The bill would unfairly subject employers to unlimited compensatory and punitive damages even if there was no intent to discriminate.

“That’s why I voted against HR 1338 in the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections on July 24, 2008 and the House floor on July 31. Unfortunately, the House passed the bill on by a partisan vote of 247 to 178. HR 1338 has since been referred to the Senate, where it awaits further consideration.” – Judy Biggert Member of Congress

SIGN UP:
Congress. Org On The Go
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/

Track your Senators’ and Representative’s votes by e-mail

Each week (that Congress is in session) you will receive:

• Key votes by your two Senators and U.S. Representative.
• Links to send e-mail to your members of Congress using pre-addressed forms.
• Upcoming votes for your review and a chance to offer e-mail input before they vote.
Use this weekly vote monitor to track the decisions made by your elected officials on key issues.

TAX HOLIDAY BILL

PRESS RELEASE
GOHMERT CONTINUES BAILOUT FIGHT WITH NEW TAX HOLIDAY BILL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) wasted no time in continuing his fight against Washington’s excessive bailouts as the 111th Congress convened today for its first day of session. Moments after the House opened for official business, the Congressman introduced an updated version of his two month tax holiday proposal that gained extensive national support over the past month, clearly signaling that he intends to push the issue until the majority party brings this bill to the Floor of the House for a vote.

http://gohmert.house.gov/Article.aspx?NewsID=1365

Texas Congressmen Louie Gohmert notes that the federal government collects about $100 billion in income taxes every month, plus another $60 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes. If those of you who are government educated have a calculator handy, you’ll see that this adds up to about $160 billion a month. Now if you divide Obama’s proposed $800 billion stimulus plan by $160 billion, you’ll come up with five. This means that our government will collect $800 billion in income and payroll taxes from February through June of 2009.

Gohmert asks, instead of bureaucrats and politicians deciding how all of this money is going to be spent, why not let the people who actually worked for this cash make their own independent spending decisions for this money. How would you do that? Simple: declare a five-month tax holiday. From February through June everybody keeps their paycheck. No income tax withholding … no payroll taxes. No income or payroll taxes owed. What will the people do with this money? What, are you crazy? They’ll spend it, that’s what. And they’ll spend it on the stuff that they want! Not the stuff Obama promised during his campaign. Talk about stimulating the economy!

Is there a detriment to the Gohmert plan? You betcha! And the flaw is fatal. If you declare a full tax holiday people are actually going to figure out how much they earn. No more of this “take home pay” nonsense. You get your whole paycheck. Now just imagine what happens in July with the withholding starts again.

Source: Boortz

STATE CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM (SCHIP) HR2

The House is scheduled to vote on the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP on Wednesday.

Sponsered by Frank Pallone it would amend Title XII of the Social Security Act to authorize the program for the next five years and to expand the program to higher income families.

HR 2 calls for a spending increase of over $50 billion above the current levels for the next five years.

The current program covers an estimated 6 million children and this reauthorization is intended to extend coverage to an additional 4 million.

It cancels the requirement that participation in the SCHIP program provide documents verifying citizenship.

Repeal the 22nd – 22nd Amendment – column
National Review, April 1, 1988 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n6_v40/ai_6508043

Ronald Reagan supported repealing the 22nd Amendment

CARD CHECK BILL

Unions revamp campaign for card-check bill

By Kevin Bogardus
Posted: 01/13/09 01:40 PM [ET]

Organized-labor leaders announced Tuesday a campaign to spend millions to press lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize, promising a contentious fight with business associations.

American Rights at Work, a worker advocacy group, said it had made a $3 million ad buy to begin Thursday, to lobby for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The ads will run nationwide for the next two weeks and feature workers imploring lawmakers to pass the bill in order to improve their economic situation.


Several high-profile leaders in the labor and civil rights movement said the bill, which would allow workers to bypass secret-ballot elections if a majority sign petition cards, is vital to ending employers’ harassment and intimidation of workers. In turn, if employees can unionize, they can negotiate for better wages and benefits, argued the advocates.

“Restoring the middle class is key to getting our economy back on track,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director for American Rights at Work.

Business associations, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that if the bill, also known as card-check, becomes law, strikes and work stoppages will become much more frequent, dragging down industry. The Chamber has put together a more than $10 million campaign against the bill since the election.

Labor has argued that while production and business revenue has gradually increased over the past three decades, workers’ pay has remained stagnant and they have not shared in the nation’s increasing wealth.

More at:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/unions-revamp-campaign-for-card-check-bill-2009

SENATE TO VOTE ON S181 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Congressional Legislation ‘A bill to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes. ‘
Bill # S.181


Original Sponsor:
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)

Cosponsor Total: 54
(last sponsor added 01/09/2009)
51 Democrats
2 Independents
1 Republicans

This bill is different than the House version. It would expand the class of potential plantiff’s to anyone affected by discrimation.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has introduced an alternate piece of legislation – S166

Society of Human Resources Position on Lily Ledbetter Bill

SHRM adamantly opposes discrimination based on gender and believes any intentional misconduct against an employee should be promptly addressed and resolved. We also recognize that some court decisions have narrowed the scope of pay discrimination protections. As a result, we believe that it is appropriate and necessary for Congress to re-examine pay discrimination laws to determine if changes may be needed to restore protection under the law. However, SHRM opposes any efforts to eliminate the statute of limitations for filing claims or to limit legitimate employer pay practices. As a result, SHRM is opposed to both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.

http://blog.hrsentry.com/?tag=lilly-ledbetter-fair-pay-act

THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009

Read here:
http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryReport01-15-09.pdf

A litany of pork-barrel and grow-the-government spending projects under their new and improved label, “stimulus.”

What you are also looking at is a big fat “thank you” from Barack Obama to any and all people who supported him .. he is going to pay off on his campaign promises, and he’s goi9ng to do it in the name of “economic stimulus.”

The stimulus includes just $275 billion in tax cuts, which is clearly less than the $300 billion originally proposed.

Here are just some of the examples of what Obama considers “economic stimulus”:

$3.836 billion for rural water and waste grant and loan programs

$6.2 billion to help low-income families reduce their energy costs by weatherizing their homes and make our country more energy efficient

$400 million to help state and local governments purchase efficient alternative fuel vehicles to reduce fuel costs and carbon emissions

$6 billion for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas

$650 million to continue the coupon program to enable American households to convert from analog television transmission to digital transmission

$400 million to replace the 30 year old Social Security Administration’s National Computer Center to meet growing needs for processing retirement and disability claims and records storage

$3.1 billion for infrastructure projects on federal lands including improvements to visitor facilities, road and trail restoration, preservation of buildings of cultural and historic importance, rehabilitation of abandoned mines and oil fields, and environmental cleanup projects

$400 million for ready-to-go habitat restoration projects

$850 million for hazardous fuels removal and other efforts to prevent wildfires on public lands

$1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training

$66 million for formula grants to states to provide services to homeless children including meals and transportation when high unemployment and home foreclosures have created an influx of homeless kids

$2 billion to provide child care services for an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work

$30.3 billion to extend health insurance coverage to the unemployed, extending the period of COBRA coverage for older and tenured workers beyond the 18 months provided under current law

$500 million to rehabilitate and improve energy efficiency at some of the over 42,000 housing units maintained by Native American housing programs

$1 billion to help low-income families pay for home heating and cooling at a time of rising energy costs

http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryReport01-15-09.pdf

Obama gets first major win with TARP

By DAVID ROGERS | 1/15/09 4:36 PM EST Updated: 1/16/09 8:17 AM EST

Not yet in the White House but working the phones as if he were, Barack Obama won a crucial Senate vote Thursday clearing the release of $350 billion more in bailout funds from the Treasury Department’s controversial financial rescue program.

For the incoming president, the 52-42 roll call represented a first major test of strength, and Obama threw himself into the fight, reaching out to senators on both sides of the aisle and making calls until he had won all but one of the seven Democratic freshmen elected in November.

Thursday’s victory came even as House Democrats unveiled their $825 billion two-year economic recovery plan — the next big plank for the new president and one he will speak to in industrial Ohio Friday.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17504.html

WIRETAPPING RULED LEGAL

NYTimes: FISA Court Oks Warrantless Wiretapping Law

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 08:05:33 AM EST

Eric Lichtblau reports that a FISA court has ruled the Protect America Act, passed by the Congress after the Bush violations of FISA became public, constitutional:

A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved.

. . . The appeals court is expected to uphold a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August of 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications, according to someone familiar with the ruling.

Lichtblau’s article is not good in my view in that he sees the opinion as passing on the Bush Administration’s previous activities. But his own reporting states:

The opinion is not expected to directly rule on the legality of the once-secret operation authorized by President Bush between October 2001 and early 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans suspected of ties to terrorists. The disclosure of the program’s existence in The New York Times in December 2005 set off a national debate on wiretapping, privacy and the limits of presidential power. Critics charged that Mr. Bush had violated a 1978 law requiring that the government obtain a court order to listen in on Americans’ communications.

Despite reporting this, Lichtblau editorializes that:

Still, the new ruling is expected to have broad implications for federal wiretapping law, because it is the first time that any appeals court has ruled on the constitutional question of the president’s wiretapping power.

It could also influence a number of court challenges now pending in federal court in California against telecommunications companies that took part in the N.S.A. program. Last year, Congress approved legal immunity against lawsuits for the telecommunications companies, but a federal judge has yet to decide whether the lawsuits should be thrown out.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/1/15/9533/54420

As a senator, Obama was very much against Bush’s presidential wiretapping power. But then he voted for the bill anyway that gave Bush the power to do so.

REGULATORY CZAR

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor, is slated to be America’s chief regulatory czar (White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs).

Sunstein is a dedicate animal-rights zealot. This is not just animal welfare – not causing animals unnecessary suffering – it is animal rights including the notion that people shouldn’t own or use animals at all.

Here’s what Sunstein wrote in his 2004 book, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions:

“Animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives….Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf.”

In a 2007 speech at Harvard University, Sustein argued in favor of entirely “eliminating current practices such as…..meat eating.” He supports making sport hunting illegal. He believes seeing eye dogs are nothing more than slaves.

http://consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/3807

Sunstein organized the Chicago Project on Animal Treatment Principles. He will soon have the authority to push for an overhaul of the way the federal government regulates everything Americans do with animals.

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/animallaw/faculty_research.shtml

re ^^^^^

REPOST for puma:

antifish 01.17.09 at 9:40 pm

Rancho,

As far as I can tell by reading this, everything is governed by the bill’s placement on the calendar.

Step 7. Scheduling Floor Action: After a bill is reported back to the chamber where it originated, it is placed in chronological order on the calendar. In the House there are several different legislative calendars, and the Speaker and the Majority Leader largely determine if, when, and in what order bills come up. In the Senate there is only one legislative calendar.

Step 8. Debate: When a bill reaches the floor of the House or Senate, there are rules or procedures governing the debate. These rules determine the conditions and amount of time allocated for debate.

Step 9. Voting: After the debate and the approval of any amendments, the bill is passed or defeated by the members voting.

Step 10. Referral to Other Chamber: When a bill is passed by the House or the Senate it is referred to the other chamber where it usually follows the same route through committee and floor action. This chamber may approve the bill as received, reject it, ignore it, or change it.

Step 11. Conference Committee Action: If only minor changes are made to a bill by the other chamber, it is common for the legislation to go back to the first chamber for concurrence. However, when the actions of the other chamber significantly alter the bill, a conference committee is formed to reconcile the differences. If the conferees are unable to reach agreement, the legislation dies. If agreement is reached, a conference report is prepared by describing committee members’ recommendations for changes. Both the House and the Senate must approve of the conference report.

Step 12. Final Actions: After a bill has been approved by the House and the Senate in identical form, it is sent to the President.

http://www.hacu.net/hacu/How_a_Bill_Becomes_a_law_EN.asp?SnID=2

List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo

Pendleton, Leavenworth, Miramar Included as Possible New Home for 250 Detainees

By BRIAN ROSS and LUIS MARTINEZ
Jan. 16, 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6664947&page=1

$6 billion broadband infusion in House appropriations bill

By Matthew Lasar | Published: January 16, 2009 – 09:17AM CT

Within two weeks Congress will consider a massive investment bill that includes an infusion of $6 billion for broadband and $650 million to get the government’s cash-strapped DTV coupon program back up and running. It’s part of a $550 billion proposal that House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-WI) calls the only way to handle the nation’s financial crisis.

“The economy is in such trouble that, even with passage of this package, unemployment rates are expected to rise to between eight and nine percent this year,” Obey declared in a press statement released Thursday. “Without this package, we are warned that unemployment could explode to near twelve percent.”

The “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009″ is designed to create and save between three and four million jobs, Obey says, “and begin the process of transforming [the United States] for the 21st century.” It is also packed with tech- and science-related investment programs. The broadband plan will target high speed Internet access “so businesses in rural and other underserved areas can link up to the global economy.” And the proposal includes $10 billion for science and research.

More at:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090116-6-billion-broadband-infusion-in-house-appropriations-bill.html

EWard 01.18.09 at 5:29 pm

Scarlet #91

This is not a good bill! I received this email from Rep. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

“This week, the House of Representatives pushed through legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Democrat Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Henry Waxman, made it very clear that he considered this an important first step toward universal, government-run health care.

Their bill would take a program meant to provide low-income children with access to health care coverage and expand it to illegal immigrants and middle- to upper-income families. Given the ease with which they were willing to divert federal funds away from the mission of the program, it is clear that Henry Waxman is not the only Democrat who sees this as little more than a stepping stone to government-run health care.

On the same day that the Congress took up this misguided legislation, I re-introduced my Health Care Freedom of Choice Act. This bill would even the playing field for individuals purchasing health care services and coverage by giving them the same tax deductions that businesses now enjoy. By giving people a 100% tax deduction for medical, dental, mental, and other health care services, as well as premiums, health care would be more accessible and more affordable.”

from link at #36:

Bank of America has already received $25 billion. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, it is seeking billions more in order to make possible its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
+++++++++++
I can’t pay my mortgage, so give me the money to pay it and I also want to buy the foreclosed property next door while I’m at it. Jeeesh!!

NEW WHITE HOUSE SITE

THE AGENDA • SERVICE

SERVICE
“Your own story and the American story are not separate — they are shared. And they will both be enriched if we stand up together, and answer a new call to service to meet the challenges of our new century … I won’t just ask for your vote as a candidate; I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States. This will not be a call issued in one speech or program; this will be a cause of my presidency.”
– Barack Obama, Speech in Mt. Vernon, IA
December 5, 2007

President Obama began his career on the South Side of Chicago, working with a coalition of churches to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods. During the election, people all across the country talked about feeling a new sense of civic engagement and got involved in politics for the first time. Now, President Obama and Vice President Biden are counting on Americans from all walks of life to serve the nation and help address the problems we face — and they’re committed to building the infrastructure and providing the resources that will make it possible.

Enable All Americans to Serve to Meet the Nation’s Challenges

Expand Corporation for National and Community Service: Expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots to 250,000 and focus this expansion on addressing the great challenges facing the nation — helping teachers and students in underserved schools; improving public health outreach; weatherizing homes and launching renewable energy projects; assisting veterans; and helping communities plan, prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Engage Retiring Americans in Service on a Large Scale: Expand and improve programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to quality volunteer opportunities.

Expand the Peace Corps: Double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011. Build an international network of overseas volunteers so that Americans work side-by-side with volunteers from other countries.

Show the World the Best Face of America: Set up an America’s Voice Initiative to deploy Americans who are fluent speakers of local languages for public diplomacy. Extend opportunities for older individuals such as teachers, engineers, and doctors to serve overseas.

Integrate Service into Learning

Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation’s Schools: Set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. Develop national guidelines for service learning and give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience.

Expand Youth Programs: Create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields. Expand the YouthBuild program to give 50,000 disadvantaged young people the chance to complete their high school education, learn valuable skills and build affordable housing in their communities.

Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.

Promote College Serve-Study: Ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.

Invest in the Nonprofit Sector

Create a Social Investment Fund Network: Use federal seed money to leverage private sector funding to improve local innovation, test the impact of new ideas, and expand successful programs to scale.

Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits: Create an agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service dedicated to building the capacity and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/service/

FROM INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S FORUM:

“Gender Equity” Gets Top Billing in Congress
by Allison Kasic
January 7, 2009
Townhall.com

Gender warriors are not wasting any time in 2009. Two pieces of falsely titled “gender equity” legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, are set to be the first votes of the new House. Both bills are touted as protecting “equal pay” but, in reality, do nothing of the sort. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 already requires equal pay for equal work. So, whenever modern day politicians use the term, something else is usually afoot. The recent push for pay equity is no different.

Both pieces of legislation have popped up before. The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the House in the last Congress, but was never sent to the Senate floor. The premise of the legislation is that American workplaces are systematically hostile to women and that the government must therefore intervene to provide more protection for women.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would take significant steps toward the idea of “comparable worth,” aka government intervention (rather than market mechanisms such as supply and demand) in determining salary levels for different jobs to ensure “fairness.” Under the bill, the Department of Labor would issue guidelines that compare the wages of different jobs to give employers an idea of what is considered a fair wage. It would also subject employers to unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even for unintentional pay disparities. As if that doesn’t leave employers vulnerable enough, the bill would also prevent employers from defending differences in pay as based on factors other than sex (for example, productivity, years in the workforce, education level, etc.). In other words, the bill is a trial lawyer’s dream come true. The potential for costly litigation is endless, which is likely to raise the cost of employment and discourage workplace flexibility, both of which are bad news for women.

Another bill inviting lawsuit abuse is the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed the House in the last Congress, but was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The bill’s namesake, Lilly Ledbetter, gained notoriety when she lost her equal pay case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. before the Supreme Court. Ledbetter lost her case due to statutory timing limits, and the bill seeks to extend those statutory limits for future pay equity cases (giving employees more time to file a suit for wage discrimination).

Maybe the current standard doesn’t give people enough time to file suit – that is an issue on which there could be a healthy debate. But surely there should be a reasonable limit to dredging up old grievances. The Fair Pay Act would so dramatically expand the statute of limitations that companies could face suits over pay decisions made forty years ago, with relevant employees long since moved on. A company shouldn’t have to face lawsuits about those decisions – there is simply too much room for abuse.

Politicians invariably point to the existence of the “wage gap” in pushing for these, and other gender equity bills. Women earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, they say. In their view, this proves discrimination and justifies government intervention. However, a closer look at the wage gap reveals a much different picture.

That much-cited statistic simply compares the wages of the median full-time working man and the median full-time working woman. It tells us nothing about the existence or non-existence of wage discrimination. The wage gap ignores a myriad of other relevant factors including education level, years in the workforce, and type of occupation. Once these other factors are taken into account, the wage gap shrinks. So should we really be basing policy decisions on a simple statistic that doesn’t take into account relevant information? To do so hardly seems prudent.

Both the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act are touted as key to advancing women’s rights, but in reality do little to help women. Instead they would raise the cost of employment and discourage workplace flexibility – precisely what women don’t want. Let’s hope our representatives will look beyond the political rhetoric of gender equity and reject these egregious proposals.

http://www.iwf.org/news/show/21028.html

CASH FOR CLUNKERS BILL

Congressional Legislation Details Cash for Clunkers Bill – Up to $4500 to Trade in Old Car
Bill # S.247


Status:
01/14/2009: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text of measure as introduced: CR S396-397)
01/14/2009: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S394-395)

Committee/Subcommittee Activity:
Energy and Natural Resources: Referral, In Committee

Amendment(s):
***NONE***

Sponsor/Cosponsor(s) 4:
 

Summary:
A bill to accelerate motor fuel savings nationwide and provide incentives to registered owners of high fuel consumption automobiles to replace such automobiles with fuel efficient automobiles or public transportation.

View bill here:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.247:

Justices Reject Pornography Law


By DAVID STOUT
Published: January 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to consider attempts to revive a 1998 law intended to protect children from Internet pornography, ending a legal conflict dating to the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Without comment, the court handed down an order declining to take the case of Mukasey v. A.C.L.U., No. 08-565. The administration of former President George W. Bush, through Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had asked the justices to review the law. The American Civil Liberties Union has been a leading foe of the statute.

The Child Online Protection Act has been the subject of court battles since Congress enacted it in 1998, and it has never taken effect. Some judges have called the controversy an agonizing conflict between the cherished right of free speech and society’s duty to watch over children, many of whom grow up as familiar with computers as earlier generations of children were with coloring books.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/washington/22scotus.html?_r=1&hp

cjv 01.22.09 at 6:58 am

This may be a long post so forgive me. The Hutchison Amendment to the Lily Ledbtter Act (IMO) truly waters down the original act. Debates in the Senate occured last evening and is ecpected to be voted on this morning at 11AM. I would expect live feed will be available on CSPAN2.

The National Womens Law Center also finds great fault wiht this amendment. I will post ther statement and link:

“AMERICAN WOMEN DESERVE FAIR PAY
Senate Must Pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Hutchison Alternative Falls Short

(Washington, DC) Below is a statement from Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center, on the Hutchison amendment to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The Senate is expected to debate and vote on the amendment, offered by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), as early as today.

“The Hutchison amendment weakens pay discrimination law, rather than restoring it to where it has been for decades. It does not reinstate the longstanding principle that employees may challenge each discriminatory paycheck they receive.

“The Ledbetter decision created a draconian rule that employees have 180 days from the time of their first discriminatory paycheck to file a formal government complaint and otherwise forfeit their rights to receive equal pay for equal work. The 180-day clock runs even where the employee wants to try to work it out with the employer or if the discriminatory pay persists or becomes worse over months or years. The Hutchison amendment leaves this unfair and unacceptable rule in place, with just one very limited exception – the 180 days could be extended only if the employee can prove that she did not have and ‘should not have been expected to have’ a reasonable suspicion of any discrimination.

“Instead of helping Lilly Ledbetter and employees like her to challenge their rights to equal pay, the Hutchison amendment would impose additional burdens on the victims of pay discrimination to prove a negative: that they had no reason to have known about the discrimination. And it would give the employer a free ride to continue the pay discrimination and shortchange their employees. This is an especially cruel blow when women only earn about 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.”

A fact sheet on the Hutchison amendment is available here. To speak with Marcia D. Greenberger or Lilly Ledbetter, contact Ranit Schmelzer or Mary Robbins at 202-588-5180.”

http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=3430&section=newsroom

Preserve Raptor Jobs Now

American Jobs, National Security, and Billions of Dollars at Stake
Preserve F-22 Raptor Production

I urge Members of Congress and the new Administration to take immediate action to release funds already authorized to continue production of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor. Keeping the production line of this model aerospace program open currently requires no additional taxpayer dollars, and is not a rescue or bailout. Rather, it will allow us to maintain a healthy program that delivers considerable economic benefit while providing our Air Force with appropriate numbers of the best fighter aircraft ever made. Production of this aircraft is in jeopardy—and with it more than 95,000 American jobs, over $12 billion in national economic activity, and the superiority of America’s Air Force.

The Department of Defense deferred the decision regarding continued Raptor production to the Obama Administration, and now, action must be taken to ensure Raptor development can continue without cost increases or the loss of specialized jobs. In order to continue production and advance our national military strategy, it is imperative that Congress take the following steps:

1) Urge the new Administration to direct the Department of Defense to release all $140 million in advance procurement funding for 20 aircraft, which will allow the program to continue at minimal cost.;

2) Urge the new Administration to preserve the only operational 5th generation fighter production line by certifying continued production, and then support that certification with full funding for F-22 production.

http://www.preserveraptorjobs.com/

OBAMA TO OPEN UFO FILES

John Podesta speaks about releasing UFO files at National Press Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYvtqEkqG1M

President Obama has decided to act quickly and decisively in instructing all administration officials to take action to implement principles of Open Government and Transparency. In the case of classified X-Files dealing with evidence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life, Obama’s Memoranda will make it easier for the release of such files in cases where national security is not compromised. The consequences of the release of X-Files of different government agencies and military departments will be momentous if they confirm that extraterrestrial life is visiting Earth.

President Obama appears to have very little interest in UFOs or outer space. During a news flap over statements made by Shirley MacLaine last year about a UFO sighting that former Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich had, a number of other Democratic Candidates were asked how they felt about UFOs. Barack Obama told the late Tim Russert of NBC News that he was more concerned about improving the quality of people’s lives here on Earth, than space aliens.

If this is true, perhaps it was a favor to Oprah and her bud Shirley MacLaine

“GREEN STUFF IS A GIGANTIC SCAM”

With his 90th birthday in July, a trip into space scheduled for later in the year and a new book out next month, 2009 promises to be an exciting time for James Lovelock. But the originator of the Gaia theory, which describes Earth as a self-regulating planet, has a stark view of the future of humanity. He tells Gaia Vince we have one last chance to save ourselves – and it has nothing to do with nuclear power

Gaia Vince: Your work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led eventually to a global CFC ban that saved us from ozone-layer depletion. Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change?

James Lovelock: Not a hope in hell. Most of the “green” stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It’s not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it’ll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning. I am not against renewable energy, but to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad. It’s absolutely unnecessary, and it takes 2500 square kilometres to produce a gigawatt – that’s an awful lot of countryside.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?full=true&print=true

GORE HEARING ON WARMING MAY BE PUT ON ICE
Mon Jan 26 2009 17:59:26 ET

Al Gore is scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning to once again testify on the ‘urgent need’ to combat global warming.

But Mother Nature seems ready to freeze the proceedings.

A ‘Winter Storm Watch’ has been posted for the nation’s capitol and there is a potential for significant snow… sleet… or ice accumulations.

“I can’t imagine the Democrats would want to showcase Mr. Gore and his new findings on global warming as a winter storm rages outside,” a Republican lawmaker emailed the DRUDGE REPORT. “And if the ice really piles up, it will not be safe to travel.”

A spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the committee, was not immediately available to comment on contingency plans.

Global warming advocates have suggested this year’s wild winter spells are proof of climate change.

——————————————————————————–
Presidential Signing Statements Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

HR 149 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 149
To promote congressional and public awareness, understanding, and political accountability of presidential signing statements.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 6, 2009

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:2:./temp/~c111whlBRB::

This bill is to keep the president from “back dooring” the unconstitutional “line item veto”

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DIRECTIVE

INITIAL STEP TOWARDS CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE

Back in July 2008, Barack Obama, then the presidential front runner, called for a “civilian national security force” as powerful as the U.S. military.

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,” Obama told a Colorado Springs audience.

The comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but were found to be troubling by some independent journalists who compared the idea to the formation of the Nazi Hitler Youth.

Fears of “youth brigades” or civilian stasi style units increased following Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff.

INITIAL STEP TOWARDS CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE

The Defense Department has established a “civilian expeditionary workforce” that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of worldwide military missions.

The move is seen by some as an initial step towards fulfilling president Obama’s promise to form a civilian national security force as powerful as the U.S. military.

The program was officially implemented one week ago, on the 23rd January, when Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed Defense Department Directive 1404.10 (PDF), which provides a summation of the duties the workforce will undertake.

The directive, which is effective immediately, states that civilian employees of the DoD will be asked to sign agreements stating that they will deploy in support of military missions for up to two years if needed.

Workforce members, who are divided into different designations under the directive, will serve overseas in support of humanitarian, reconstruction and, if necessary, combat-support missions.

“If the employee does not wish to deploy, every effort will be made to reassign the employee to a nondeploying position.” the DoD report states.

While the directive suggests that the DoD will at first seek volunteers to serve in the civilian workforce, section 4, subsection (e) paragraph (2) states:

Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, either voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission.

In addition, the directive states that all workforce members will be subject to physical and psychological testing, both before and after deployment.

The directive refers several times to the civilian workforce as a component of the “Total Force”, which it describes as “The organizations, units, and individuals that compromise the DoD resources for implementing the National Security Strategy.” This “Total Force” includes active, reserve and retired military personnel in addition to DoD civilian employees.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DIRECTIVE

http://cryptome.org/dodi/dodd-1404-10.pdf

UNITED STATES PUBLIC SERVICE ACADEMY ACT

Rahm Emanuel is an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies – a youth corps whose students would be trained in “civilian internship in the armed forces”.

Furthermore, in a rediscovered 2006 audio clip of an interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for compulsory military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack.

When controversy arose over the program last November, the use of the word “required” to describe the program was removed from Obama’s change.gov website and replaced with “community service” type terminology.


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THESE BILLS?

More than 650 bills have been introduced in the House and more than 300 in the Senate in the 111th Congress. What is on the minds of Members of Congress that they feel need to be addressed? Here are a few examples we will track and periodically report on:

(NOTE: You can write to your Members of Congress about any of these bills by entering your ZIP Code in the box in the upper right-side of this Web site. Be sure to note the bill number in your message. Many bills are alike.)

NEW! H.R. 659 “Private Bill; For the relief of certain aliens who were aboard the Golden Venture” (Bills that benefit a few targeted individuals, like this one by Rep. Todd Platts (R-Pa.), are somewhat common.)

H.R. 15 creates a nationalized system of free health care. (No Update – 43 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 414, the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, requires cameras in cell phones to make an audible sound to alert others (such as in locker rooms) when a picture is taken. (No Update – No Co-sponsors)

H.R. 346 repeals the automatic payraises Congress receives. (No Update – 1 Co-sponsor)

H.R. 390 addresses “college football playoff games” (No Update – 2 Co-sponsors) while H.R. 187 says let Cubans play American baseball. (No Update – No Co-sponsor)

H.R. 227 states that human life begins at fertilization. (No Update – 53 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 254 moves voting to the weekend. (No Update – No Co-sponsors)

H.R. 113 requires anything funded by an earmark to be audited. (No Update – No Co-sponsors) Perhaps things like H.R. 202, which creates a “Museum of Ideas.” (No Update – No Co-sponsors)

H.R. 116 ends political “robocalls” if you are on the “Do Not Call” Registry (No update – No Co-sponsors), while Senate bill S. 30 wants there to be caller ID honesty. (No Update – 3 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 126 would limit citizenship at birth only to those who have at least one parent who is a citizen or legal resident. (No Update – No Co-sponsors)H.R. 160 would limit Social Security benefits to only legal citizens or residents. (No Update – 3 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 155 would ban taxes on unemployment benefits for two years (Failed attempt to include in stimulus bill – 5 Co-sponsors), while H.R. 162 bans taxes on Social Security benefits. (No Update – 2 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 87 says “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” and invites those who like to pay taxes to voluntarily pay extra taxes. (No Update – 3 Co-sponsors) Or how about just a “Fair Tax” (a national sales tax)and abolishing the IRS as called for in H.R. 25. (No Update – 40 Co-sponsors)

H.R. 70 would make it a hate crime to display a noose with the intent to intimidate. (No update – No Co-sponsors) And H.R. 40 explores paying reparations to African-Americans. (No Update – 3 Co-sponsors)

S. 213 would create an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. (No Update – 1 Co-sponsor)

And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is back in the swing of things. He’s introduced S. 151, a bill to protect Indian arts and crafts. (No Update – 1 Co-sponsor)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/headlines.tt

STIMULUS PACKAGE

Republicans want mortgage relief, larger tax cuts

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent – 13 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans circulated a sweeping plan to drive down the cost of mortgages by expanding the federal government’s role in the industry, officials said Monday night as debate opened on an economic stimulus bill at the top of President Barack Obama’s agenda.

McConnell also said Republicans favor cutting the two lowest tax brackets as a way to ” put money back in people’s hands directly.” If adopted, that would reduce the tax rate from 10 percent to 5 percent for the first $8,350 in individual income for the current year, and $16,700 for couples. The tax rate would be lowered from 15 percent to 10 percent on income between $8,351 and $33,950 for individuals and between $16,701 and $67,900 for couples.

Obama and the Democrats favor a different approach. The legislation provides a cut of $500 for workers and $1,000 for working couples, even if they do not earn enough in wages to pay income taxes.

Separately, Democrats privately conceded they may wind up reducing spending that has come under withering fire in recent days from Republicans.

The $885 billion Senate bill is larger than the House-passed version, principally because it includes a one-year tax cut to prevent upper-middle income taxpayers from falling victim to the Alternative Minimum Tax. The so-called AMT initially was created a generation ago to make sure the super-wealthy did not avoid taxation, but inflation has expanded its reach over the years.

In all, the Senate measure provides for roughly $560 billion in spending and $325 billion in tax cuts.

Much of the spending is in the form of health care for the poor; education funds for the states to avoid the impact of their own budget cuts on schools, and more money for food stamps, unemployment insurance and worker retraining funds.

Additionally, the bill includes a down payment on two of Obama’s domestic initiatives. They include expanding health information technology and providing spending and tax cuts to encourage development of new jobs while increasing reliance of alternative energy sources.

More at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_go_co/congress_stimulus;_ylt=AnqRpoqBmLvHqMR0Eqph0zYDW7oF

BAILOUT

Rental-car companies line up for bailouts

Posted Jan 30 2009, 01:49 PM by Kim Peterson

Filed under: Kim Peterson

The line for federal bailout money, much like the Energizer Bunny, just keeps going and going.

Add rental-car companies to the group now. They can’t find anyone to buy their used rental cars, and they’re having a hard time getting credit to buy new cars.
Which begs the obvious question: Why not just hold on to the cars they have?

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/01/30/rental-car-companies-line-up-for-bailouts.aspx

Jamie Dupree

Spending In The Senate Stimulus Bill
By Jamie Dupree @ February 2, 2009 12:00 AM Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)
Just like I did a week ago with the House version of the economic stimulus bill, I have gone through the Senate bill in search of what money is being spent on which programs.
My favorite is definitely the $350 million to develop and maintain a “broadband inventory map” at the Department of Commerce.

There is also a $125 million payment to the Washington, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority.

And then there is $248 million in security for new headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security.

Don’t forget the $500 million for upgrades and construction of new fire stations. That money would be sent out by the feds, meaning it won’t be Congressional pork, but instead will be Executive Branch pork.

Here’s a lengthy list of spending programs in the Senate bill.

=

$300 million for replacement, modernization, upgrades of agriculture labs and other facilities

$100 million in competitive grants for USDA research and education activities

$171 million in “Salaries and Expenses” for the Farm Service Agency

$400 million in farm owndership loans

$275 million for “Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations”

$120 million for “Watershed Rehabilitation Program”

$110 million for “Rural Development, Salaries and Expenses”

$11.4 billion for rural housing loans

$127 million for Rural Community Facilities Programs

$150 million for Rural Business loans and grants

$200 million in “Biorefinery Assistance”

$50 million in rural energy assistance

$1.375 billion for “Rural Water and Waste Disposal”

$200 million in “Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband”

$198 million in school lunch funding

$500 million for special WIC supplemental nutrition program

$150 million for “Commodity Assistance Program”

$200 million in farm disaster assistance funds

$28 million for emergency farm loans

$100 million in grants for “aquaculture producers” hit by high feed costs in 2008

Title II

$20 million for “Operations and Administration” of Bureau of Industry and Security

$150 million in “Economic Development Assistance Programs”

$1 billion for the 2010 Census

$9 billion for “Broadband Technology Opportunities Program” at NTIA

of that, $350 million to develop and maintain a “broadband inventory map”

$650 million for addition Digital-to-Analog Converter Box coupons

$218 million for Scientific and Technical Research and Services at NIST

$357 million for NIST “Construction of Research Facilities”

(From the Advancing Science, Serving Society” – The proposed stimulus appropriations combined with a regular

appropriation could leave NIST with a FY 2009 budget of $1.3 billion or higher, well above the $882 million authorized

for FY 2009 in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 and thus on a track to double over a decade.)

$427 million for “Operations, Research, and Facilities” at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

$795 million in NOAA “Procurement, Acquisition and Construction”

$34 million for NOAA “Departmental Management”

$200 million to develop a nationwide wireless network for federal law enforcement

$150 million for the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee – (OFDT) is an organization that achieves efficiencies,

effectiveness and operational synergies within the detention and incarceration community by fostering interagency

cooperation, mutual understanding, accountability and teamwork.

$50 million for Salaries and Expenses at the U.S. Marshal’s Service

$125 milion for Department of Justice “Construction”

$75 million for Salaries and Expenses at the FBI

$400 million for FBI “Construction”

$1 billion for buildings and facilities in the Federal Prison System

$300 million for grants to combat violence against women

$1.5 billion for Byrne grants

$440 million in State and Local law enforcement grants

$100 million in State and Local grants for anti-narcotics work

$300 million in law enforcement assistance to Indian tribes

$100 million in grants for the Office for Victims of Crime

$150 million for rural law enforcement

$50 million in aid to combat Internet Crimes Against Children

$1 billion for the COPS program (hiring new police officers)

$500 million for NASA “Science”

$250 million for NASA “Aeronautics”

$500 million for NASA “Exploration”

$250 million for NASA HQ and NASA’s nine field centers

$1.2 billion for National Science Foundation “Research and Related Activities”

$150 million for NSF “Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction”

$50 million in NSF “Education and Human Resources”

$1.16 billion for Army Operation and Maintenance

$571 million for Navy Operation and Maintenance

$112 million for Marine Corps Operation and Maintenance

$927 million for Air Force Operation and Maintenance

$79.5 million for Army Reserve Operation and Maintenance

$44.5 million for Navy Reserve Operation and Maintenance

$32.3 million for Marine Corps Reserve Operation and Maintenance

$10.6 million for Air Force Reserve Operation and Maintenance

$215 million for Army National Guard Operation and Maintenance

$20.9 million for Air National Guard Operation and Maintenance

$100 million for “Defense Production Act Purchases”

$200 million for “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”

$250 million for “Defense Health Program” for Operation and Maintenance

$2 billion for Army Corps of Engineers water projects

$500 million for Mississippi River and Tributaries projects

$1.9 billion for Army Corps operations and maintenance

$100 million for cleanup at early atomic energy sites

$50 million for Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies

$1.4 billion for water projects for Indian tribes

$50 million for the Central Utah Project Completion Act (102-575)

$50 million for the California Bay-Delta Restoration Act (108-361)

$60 million for rural water projects

$10 million to inspect canals in urban areas

$110 million for water reclamation and re-use projects

$2.1 billion for “Energy Efficiency and Conservation” grants to states

$2.1 billion on energy efficiency in government buildings

$2 billion for grants to advanced battery manufacturers

$4.5 billion for “Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability”

$4.6 billion for “Fossil Energy Research and Development”

$483 million for “Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup”

$390 million for “Uranium Enrichment and Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund”

$430 million for “Science” within the Energy Department

$1 billion for Atomic Energy Defense Activities

$5.5 billion for “Defense Environmental Cleanup”

$250 million for Community Development Financial Institutions in the Treasury Dept

$125 million for a federal payment to the Washington, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority

$9 billion for the “Federal Buildings Fund”

$6 billion of that money is for “High Performance Green Buildings”

$600 million to buy high fuel economy vehicles for the federal government

$84 million for salaries and expenses at the Small Business Administration

$248 million for security in the new headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security

$100 million for new port security inspection systems

$97 million to buy new tactical communications equipment

$200 million for security technology on the Mexican border

$800 million for construction of land border posts

$27.8 million for new radio eqiupment for US Immigration agents

$1.2 billion for Aviation Security

$572 million for Coast Guard construction and navigation facilities

$240 million for “Alteration of Bridges”

$100 million in Transportation security grants

$100 million for port security grants

$250 million for emergency operations centers

$500 million to upgrade critical infrastructure

$500 million for upgrades or new fire stations ($15 mill max)

$100 million for emergency food and shelter programs

$15 million for upgrades to FLETC facilities

$14 million for cyber security research

$135 million for Bureau of Land Management

$180 million for BLM Construction

$15 million for Wildland Fire Management

$190 million for Resource Management at Fish and Wildlife Service

$110 million for FWS Construction

$158 million for operations of the National Park System

$55 million for Historic Preservation in Park System

$589 million for NPS Construction

$135 million for US Geological Survey work

$40 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs programs

$522 million for BIA Construction

$800 million for EPA Superfund

$200 million for Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund

$6.4 billion in Clean Water grants

$650 million for Capital improvements at the Forest Service

$650 million for Wildland Fire Management

$50 million for Indian health services

$85 milion for health information technology in Indian health

$410 million for Indian health facilities

$150 million for facilities at the Smithsonian

$3.25 billion for training and employment services, Dept of Labor

$400 million for state unemployment insurance operations

$160 million for building work, Office of Job Corps

$1 billion for construction, renovation of health centers

$412 million for Centers for Disease Control facilities work

$300 million for “National Center for Research Resources” – FY 2009 budget was 1.16 billion

$2.7 billion to Office of the Director of National Institutes for Health

$500 million for buildings and facilities at NIH, Bethesda, Md.

$700 million for health care research and quality

$2 billion for child care grants to states

$400 million in social services block grants

$1 billion for Children and Families Services Programs

$1.1 billion to expand Early Head Start programs

$100 million in Aging nutrition services

$5 billion for Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology – in 2007, this office received 42

million dollars

$5.8 billion in Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund

of that – $400 million for screening and prevention of STD’s, including HIV

$870 million for flu vaccine development and purchase

$13 billion for education grants

$17 billion in “School Improvement Programs”

$13.5 billion for “Special Education”

$13.8 billion for Pell Grants and other student financial assistance

$3.5 billion for Higher Education Facilities

$750 million for replacing the National Computer Center for Social Security

$140 million for Social Security IT to facilitate electronic medical records

$200 million for GAO Salaries and Expenses

$637 million for Army Military Construction

$990 million for Navy and Marine Corps construction – half of that money goes to energy conservation and alternative energy projects

$87 million for Air Force construction projects

$118 million for military energy conservation projects

$150 million for Army NationalGuard readiness centers

$110 million for Air National Guard construction projects

$34 million for construction of Army family housing

$80 million for construction of Air Force family housing

$1.04 billion for VA Medical facilities

$323 million for VA energy efficiency initiatives

$64 million for National Cemetery Administration

$195 million for VA information technology systems

$1.1 billion for VA hospital and national cemetery construction

$860 million for VA health care “minor construction”

$257 million for VA nursing home grants to states

$60 million for Cemeterial Expenses – Army

$75 million for a consolidated diplomatic security training facility

$120 million for a State Department backup information management facility

$5.5 billion in grants for surface transportation infrastructure

$200 million for FAA air traffic infrastructure

$1.1 billion in supplementary airport grants

$27 billion in “Supplemental Grants for Highway Investment”

$250 million in grants for intercity passenger rail service

$850 million in capital projects for passenger rail service

$2 billion for high speed rail corridor program

$8.4 billion in grants for public transit investment

$100 million in grants to “small shipyards”

$510 million in Native American Housing Block Grants

$5 billion in “Public Housing Capital Fund”

$2.25 billion for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes

$2.25 billion in “Home Investment Partnership Program”

$1.5 billion for “Homelessness Prevention Fund”

$3.5 billion in Green retrofit efforts in federally assisted housing

$79 billion in stabilization funds to states for education

What GOP Leaders deem wasteful in Senate stimulus bill

(CNN) — On Monday, Congressional Republican leaders put out a list of what they call wasteful provisions in the Senate version of the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill that is being debated:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak.

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/02/gop.stimulus.worries/index.html

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html

New Hampshire talks Civil War against feds!
The New Hampshire state legislature took an unbelievably bold step today by introducing a resolution to declare certain actions by the federal government to completely totally void and warning that certain future acts will be viewed as a “breach of peace” with the states themselves that risks “nullifying the Constitution.”

This act by New Hampshire is a clear warning to the federal government that they could face being stripped of their power by the States (presumably through civil war!

The remarkable document outlines with perfect clarity, some basics long forgotten. For instance, it reminds Congress “That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever;. . . . . therefore all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force;”

Federal gun crime laws? Void. Federal drug crime laws? Void. The gazzillion other federal criminal laws that deal with anything other than the specific enumerated crimes? ALL VOID.

One would think that if any lawyer anywhere in the entire country was worth his salt, all federal criminal trials would have ended years ago. This seems to prove that most lawyers are dullards.

New Hampshire deals a complete death blow to the pending federal hate crimes legislation by pointing out “That, therefore, all acts of Congress of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force; . . . . .”

Later in the Resolution, New Hampshire makes clear what the feds are now risking if they proceed further: The removal of all powers from the federal government by the States!

Quoting directly from the Resolution: “That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:
I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually.”

So now we have Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Washington State, and Arizona…things are going to get mighty interesting!

Arizona State Reps Introduce Bill on State Sovereignty
Posted on February 5th, 2009 by David-Crockett
Source: The Arizona State Legislator

A concurrent RESOLUTION

claiming sovereignty under the tenth amendment to the constitution of the united states over certain powers, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”; and

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

Whereas, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

Whereas, today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

Whereas, many federal laws are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp; and

Whereas, Article IV, section 4, United States Constitution, says in part, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”, and the Ninth Amendment states that “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”; and

Whereas, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

Whereas, a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, that:

1. That the State of Arizona hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

2. That this Resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

3. That all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.

4. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state’s legislature and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Forty-ninth Legislature

First Regular Session

2009

EMAIL, PHONE NUMBERS AND FAX NUMBERS OF CONGRESS

The staff of the conservative group, Our Country Deserves Better Committee, has put together a database of phone numbers, fax numbers, and emails for each Senator. See the listing below, contact the two Senators from your state and if you want, work through the rest of the list as well. In terms of effectiveness, phone calls and faxes are most important, followed by emails.

http://www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com/issues/stopstimulus.html

Cures for Our Economic Disease

I have recently had several opportunities on various news programs to discuss the economy and what is wrong with the so-called economic stimulus package. I have said over and over what we shouldn’t be doing, and now I’d like to explain what we should be doing.

But to improve the situation, you must first have a solid grasp of how we got here. Government policies and central planning created the housing bubble, now going bust. About a decade ago the government made expanded homeownership and affordable housing a public goal. Through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market the government incentivized creative, low down-payment, more widely available mortgage products, and discouraged the market-proven lending standards of the past. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates artificially low, which added more fuel to this fire. Many related sectors temporarily flourished because of this, and many people got into homes they otherwise could not have afforded. The increased demand for housing sent prices soaring until in many markets housing became even more unaffordable, necessitating even more creative mortgages, and impossibly leveraging homeowners. Many risky investment vehicles such as mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, credit default swaps grew out of this unsustainable situation. As the foreclosures began, the house of cards started to tumble. Too many people have confused the symptoms and the pain of the bust with the problematic policies that caused the bubble, which is really what needs to be treated.

First of all, just as the best cure for a hangover is not to drink so much, the best cure for a recession is a recession. It is time to sober up and return to free market sanity, risk and reward, supply and demand, without political intervention. Politicians are good at catering to the needs of special interests, but very bad at determining what needs to take place in the market. Government should stick to punishing fraud and enforcing contracts. When they use the tax code, bureaucratic departments and their manipulative rules and regulations to dictate social and economic behavior, we end up with distortions and malinvestments. Bailing out banks, continuing failed Fed policies and strapping the taxpayer with toxic debt will worsen the pain, and punish the innocent.

If Congress really wanted to do something helpful, it would cut taxes. Ideally, we would repeal the income tax altogether and get the IRS off the economy’s back, which would be a huge boon. We should also cut spending. Cut every unconstitutional department and program, every wasteful governmental encroachment on the people’s liberty and money, starting with our massive overseas empire. The cost of our empire is bringing us to our knees, just as the Soviets’ empire did to them. Congress should also abolish the Federal Reserve and take back its responsibilities to ensure sound money, safe from the manipulations of powerful banking interests.

These things would constitute real change, real economic stimulus. The plans being bandied about Washington are just more of the same. As long as no one seriously considers the cure, we are unfortunately destined to prolong the disease.

Posted by Ron Paul (02-02-2009, 02:27 PM) filed under Monetary Policy

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=freedom+to+fascism&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=freedom+to+fascism&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f&start=30

Please view this video clip from “Freedom to Fascism” with Rep. Ron Paul, and many other government workers interviewed about the Federal Reserve Bank origins and it’s impact on the U.S. economy and our Constitutional freedoms being taken away by a police state.

Constitutional Amendment Barring Appointment of Senators Sought

By Seth Stern, CQ Staff

A bipartisan group of House members joined Senator Russ Feingold Tuesday in endorsing a constitutional amendment barring governors from appointing senators.
John Conyers Jr. , the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, along with ranking member Lamar Smith , R-Texas, former Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., R-Wis., and David Dreier , R-Calif., all spoke in favor of requiring direct elections to filling vacancies in the Senate.

“These decisions should be in the voters’ hands,” said Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, at a House press conference.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003029854

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Executive Order: Establishment of the White House Office of Urban Affairs

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release February 19, 2009

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- – - – - – -

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF URBAN AFFAIRS

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to take a coordinated and comprehensive approach to developing and implementing an effective strategy concerning urban America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. About 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, and the economic health and social vitality of our urban communities are critically important to the prosperity and quality of life for Americans. Vibrant cities spawn innovation, economic growth, and cultural enrichment through the businesses, universities, and civic, cultural, religious, and nonprofit institutions they attract. Forward-looking policies that encourage wise investment and development in our urban areas will create employment and housing opportunities and make our country more competitive, prosperous, and strong. In the past, insufficient attention has been paid to the problems faced by urban areas and to coordinating the many Federal programs that affect our cities. A more comprehensive approach is needed, both to develop an effective strategy for urban America and to coordinate the actions of the many executive departments and agencies whose actions impact urban life.

Sec. 2. Establishment. There is established within the Executive Office of the President the White House Office of Urban Affairs (the “Office”).

Sec. 3. Functions. The principal functions of the Office are, to the extent permitted by law:

(a) to provide leadership for and coordinate the development of the policy agenda for urban America across executive departments and agencies;

(b) to coordinate all aspects of urban policy;

(c) to work with executive departments and agencies to ensure that appropriate consideration is given by such departments and agencies to the potential impact of their actions on urban areas;

(d) to work with executive departments and agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget, to ensure that Federal Government dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs; and

(e) to engage in outreach and work closely with State and local officials, with nonprofit organizations, and with the private sector, both in seeking input regarding the development of a comprehensive urban policy and in ensuring that the implementation of Federal programs advances the objectives of that policy.

Sec. 4. Coordination. In performing its functions, the Office shall work closely with all relevant executive departments and agencies, and offices and councils within the Executive Office of the President, including but not limited to:

(a) the Department of the Treasury;

(b) the Department of Justice;

(c) the Department of Commerce;

(d) the Department of Labor;

(e) the Department of Health and Human Services;

(f) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;

(g) the Department of Transportation;

(h) the Department of Energy;

(i) the Department of Education; and

(j) the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sec. 5. Administration. (a) The Office may work with established or ad hoc committees, task forces, and interagency groups.

(b) The Office shall have a staff headed by the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Urban Affairs (Director). The Director shall report jointly to the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison and to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. The Office shall have such staff and other assistance as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this order.

(c) All executive departments and agencies shall cooperate with the Office and provide such information, support, and assistance to the Office as the Director may request, to the extent permitted by law.

Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) authority granted by law to a department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 19, 2009.

DC VOTING RIGHTS

Citizens living in Washington, DC may vote in national and municipal elections, but they have no voting representation in Congress.

There have been several attempts to extend congressional representation to Washington, DC residents. In 1978, Congress passed the DC Voting Rights Amendment, which would have treated the District of Columbia as if it were a state. The amendment was not ratified, and expired in 1985. In 1992, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend full statehood to the District of Columbia, but this measure died in the Senate.

Argument for DC Voting Rights: Taxation Without Representation

Unlike members of other non-voting U.S. territories, residents of the District of Columbia pay U.S. taxes just like residents of other states. Because they are not granted representation in Congress, where decisions regarding these taxes are made, they are quite literally subject to taxation without representation–taxation without representation being one of the primary reasons for the American Revolution.

Critics charge that DC is too small to warrant congressional representation, but the District of Columbia, which is denied voting congressional representation, has a population of +/-580,000. Wyoming, which is represented in Congress by a voting U.S. House member and two voting U.S. senators, has a population of +/-515,000.

Argument Against DC Voting Rights: Constitutional Authority

Under Article I of the Constitution, only states are given the power to select representatives and senators. This ensures a stable democratic process. If Congress attempts to claim new power to determine who can and cannot vote, then voters will be enfranchised and disenfranchised every time Congress changes hands.

S 436 & HR 1076

INTERNET STOPPING ADULTS FACILITATING THE EXPLOITATION OF TODAY’S YOUTH ACT or INTERNET SAFETY ACT

Each contains the same language: “A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”
Don’t Miss

Translated, the Internet Safety Act applies not just to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and so on–but also to the tens of millions of homes with Wi-Fi access points or wired routers that use the standard method of dynamically assigning temporary addresses. (That method is called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP.)

The legal definition of electronic communication service is “any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications.” The U.S. Justice Department’s position is that any service “that provides others with means of communicating electronically” qualifies.
That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too.
Under the Internet Safety Act, all of those would have to keep logs for at least two years. It “covers every employer that uses DHCP for its network,” Gidari said. “It covers Aircell on airplanes– hose little pico cells will have to store a lot of data for those in-the-air Internet users.”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/20/internet.records.bill/index.html

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT Card Check

Wednesday, February 18th 2009
Labor Unions prepare to strip our right to privacy…

The “Employee Free Choice Act” would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA) to make it possible for workers to organize unions by signing cards designating representation, rather than by using the existing system of voting by secret ballot to recognize unions.

Congressional Democrats have sponsored the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act”. The proposed legislation is referred to as “card check,” and was perhaps the labor movement’s top priority in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections.

As a result, similar or identical legislation is expected to be rapidly approved by the new Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. The “card-check” system would expose workers to coercion and intimidation, and thus make it more likely that unions will be successfully organized.

Presently, the NLRA requires designation of unions through an election by secret ballot.

The proposed law would amend the NRLA to direct the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union if it finds that “a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative.”

One of the most fundamental rights in a democracy is the right to a secret ballot. Private and personal voting decisions are the foundation of our country and have been enshrined in every institution from class president to the nation’s president. Having respected this principle for almost a century, unions have now found it to be an obstacle that should be removed. Card check style union organization would remove the right of workers to privately vote for or against unionization.

Union organizers would be able to troll through workplaces looking for signatures on cards that become public record. Your boss, coworkers, and neighbors would all know how you voted. Unions were established to protect worker’s rights and offer them representation. But representation without private ballots is nothing more than coercion and control.

Unions seem intoxicated with the idea of card check because it allows them to see who is not yet onboard with unionizing a specific shop. Those who have not yet applied their signature to the card are often visited at all hours of the day and night. Organizers intent on obtaining signatures pressure employees both at work and at home.

Once a worker is pressured into signing, often without hearing both sides of the issue, there is no recourse for them to change their mind. Signatures cannot be removed and without a private ballot no voting measure can overturn the unionization. In some extreme cases injunctions have been brought against union organizers to limit their harassment of workers.

Contained within the language of card check legislation is a provision that triggers binding arbitration if contracts are not reached within 90 days of the union’s formation.

This would give unprecedented power to government officials to establish wage levels and working standards within an industry. The ruling made by the arbitrator extends for two years and prohibits companies from negotiating with unions or individual employees. Employers are prohibited from giving performance based wage increases; attractive benefits packages or other employee incentives as long as the arbitration is in place.

Arbitration also threatens free market competitiveness. As companies wait for drawn out hearings to determine what level of back pay they will be liable for, their capital is tied up and their business plans held hostage to the whim of an arbitrator. The free market will more equitably provide the answer to labor issues.

Unions and workers are free to organize and leverage their power in the market to ensure proper compensation. However, when an arbitrator removes this option from the employee/employer relationship, the market is distorted beyond repair.

http://www.afphq.org/021809-say-no-%E2%80%9Cemployee-no-choice-act%E2%80%9D

OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS ACT OF 2009 (HR 1105)

House plans to begin debate today – Feb. 25, 2009
This bill does not fund the government for a full year – only from March 2009 through Sept. 2009.

It contains many wasteful spending provisions and earmarks and certain government agencies and programs will be funded twice (under Stimulus bill and this one).

Omnibus Earmarks, Part 1
By
Jamie Dupree
@ February 24, 2009 12:00 AM

Here is just the first portion of the earmarks listed in the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill introduced by Democrats that I have been able to finally format for the internet.

These are a series of road and bridge projects. And let’s remember one thing – these aren’t just home state items for Democrats. There’s a lot of GOP turf in here as well.

That’s the dirty little secret about Washington, D.C. that both parties don’t really want you to know is that when you are in the minority, you still get some pork.

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/02/omnibus-earmarks-part-1.html

Rep. Ron Paul introduced a Bill to Audit the Federal Reserve Bank on February 28, 2009; with 11 co-sponsors, including 3 Democratic Congressmen.

http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-02-28/ron-paul-introduces-bill-to-audit-the-fed/

MEDICAL HOME MODEL

Autism Action Alert
from Generation Rescue and Autism Action Network
The bill has problems

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois is poised to introduce autism legislation, incorporating what public health lobbyists call the “Medical Home Model.” This legislation would grant treatment authority for children with autism to private organizations.
We know that Senator Durbin and others care deeply about the well-being of our children and the needs of our community. We thank Senator Durbin for his efforts. The proposed draft of his bill incorporating the “Medical Home Model” would restrict parents’ health care choices. The draft bill would interfere with getting appropriate medical care and treatment for our children while providing a financial windfall for special interest groups.

Objectionable Provisions of the Medical Home Model (MHM) Contained in the Draft Legislation:

• Parents do not have final say in their children’s care; the proposed legislation describes a “physician-directed” model.

•The Medical Home Model would create health care monopolies that would restrict or deny families the right to choose a medical provider most appropriate for their child(ren).

•The Medical Home Model places undue focus on mandatory vaccination protocols determined by the AAP as the main mode of preventative health, claiming that the benefits far outweigh the risks -see: http://tinyurl.com/bt8zzg.

•There is no evidence that the Medical Home Model provides a significant benefit for improving treatment for autism or increasing access to appropriate care.

•The Medical Home Model restricts access to the most promising treatments as reported by parents and their treating physicians.

•The Medical Home Model grants inappropriate financial incentives to providers for reducing the cost of care. Such incentives operate to limit and reduce medically necessary care for persons with autism. The incentives will promote under-diagnosing of other medical conditions concomitant with autism. Current draft language and definitions are crafted to a psychiatric and education approach to autism only, and not a phsyiological understanding of a child’s condition and medical needs.

Additional Objectionable Language within ATAA:

• Autism is defined only as behavioral and learning disorder rather than as a neurobiological disorder involving the whole body, thereby limiting treatment options and necessities.

•No mention of necessary treatments, diagnostic tools, or research initiatives for the underlying conditions and multiple diagnoses prevalent in many individuals with autism.

CONGRESS CONSIDERS REGULATING TOBACCO PRODUCTS LIKE A DRUG

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will debate significant health care legislation, including the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which would give the Food and Drug Administration greater control over regulating tobacco products. Should Congress authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco products like a drug?

source: congress.org

Monsanto’s dream bill, HR 875

HR 875, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto.

The bill is monstrous on level after level – the power it would give to Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking, the prison terms and confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the stripping away of their property rights, the imposition by the filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international “industrial” standards to independent farms – the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means.

The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization, they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals. They want control over all seeds, animals, water, and land.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-s-dream-bill-HR-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090309-337.html

“The hope of the industry is that over time the market is so flooded [with GMOs] that there’s nothing you can do about it. You just sort of surrender.”

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

The bill would appear to even cover fishing boats and your downtown hot dog street vendors. In fact, the bill probably would also apply to your family garden since no exemption is apparent.

The bill would appear to even cover fishing boats and your downtown hot dog street vendors. In fact, the bill probably would also apply to your family garden since no exemption is apparent.

http://hoosieraccess.com/blog/2009/03/05/hr-875-would-essentially-outlaw-family-farms-in-the-united-states/

HR 875 and S 425.

Title: To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Rep DeLauro, Rosa L. [CT-3] (introduced 2/4/2009) Cosponsors (39)

Latest Major Action: 2/4/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

TOPIC: Media outreach
Here’s a good site to bookmark for prowls, etc., lets you look newspapers up state-by-state.

Newslink
http://www.newslink.org/topstate.html

S 2191 Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal

The potential costs to America from cap-and-trade are enormous. The Department of Energy estimates that S. 2191, the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal, will increase the cost of coal for power generation by between 161% and 413%. DOE estimates GDP losses (see chart) over the 21-year period they forecast, at between $444 billion and $1.308 trillion, with particular damage to the manufacturing sector. (This gives some hope that organized labor will, in a rare occurrence, oppose Democratic leaders on this issue.) Winegarden estimates that this bill could increase unemployment by 2.7% or about 4 million jobs. In fact, companies are already preparing to avoid increased level and volatility of American energy prices by setting up factories and partnerships in countries which won’t be subject to cap-and-trade restrictions…proving with real-world behavior of producers that no carbon-limiting regulation can succeed if it is not universal.

Source:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26621

Notes:
Heartache: Cap & Trade Markets Collapse in Europe
Set up to price pollution out of existence, carbon trading is pricing it back in. Europe’s carbon markets are in collapse.

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/012630.html

PARENTAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

The only solution to the attack on the child-parent relationship is the Parental Rights Amendment — securing the rights of parents to raise their children.

Only a constitutional amendment will ensure that the courts of our nation protect the fundamental right of parents to raise their children. And only a constitutional amendment will override international law that seeks to undermine the parental role. As the only complete solution to the danger confronting the child-parent relationship, the Parental Rights Amendment will place current Supreme Court doctrine protecting parental rights into the explicit text of the Constitution. Only the Parental Rights Amendment completely eliminates all threats to the child-parent relationship. It is the only comprehensive response to the attack on parental rights across our nation.
Below is the draft text for the Parental Rights Amendment.

DRAFT PARENTAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
FOR THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
SECTION 1
The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.
SECTION 2
Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.
SECTION 3
No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.

HOW AN AMENDMENT PROTECTS THE FAMILY FROM INTERNATIONAL LAW

As a legally binding international treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is capable of permanently altering the role of the parent within the American family. If ratified, the UNCRC becomes the law of the land, unable to be held in check by state or national legislation. The only way to protect the rights of parents from the destructive policies contained in the UNCRC is through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Presently, except in cases where a parent has been proven to be “unfit,” American law presumes that the parent is acting in the best interests of the child, and defers to that parent’s decision. The UNCRC, in contrast, supplants this traditional presumption in favor of parents with a new presumption in favor of the state.

http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B50657FB4-8A4A-4389-A3AD-1CFEE3DB5CE0%7D

Stop the encroachment of United Nations initiatives which dictate how children should be raised!

http://nheld.com/StopTheTreaty.htm

MANDATORY
Or what..jail if you say no higher taxes if you do not comply
a ward of the state to do as you are told you are must sevie what and who? fuck em!

HR 1388 GIVE ACT (SERVICE)

CJ 03.21.09 at 9:41 pm
I just received this:

to all members of Constitution Preservationists on America c2c- Coast 2 Coast!
This info just received in another group.

H.Amdt 49 to H.R. 1388 Prohibits Org.
From Influencing…
projectworldawareness.com

H.Amdt 49 to H.R. 1388 Prohibits Organizations From Influencing… Legislation, Protesting or Petitioning.
SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows: `SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
`(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
`(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
`(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
`(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.
`(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.
`(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office.
`(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed20legislation, or elected officials.
Visit Constitution Preservationists at:
http://www.americac2c.org/groups/group/show?id=2456870%3AGroup%3A11671
`(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
`(8) Providing a direct benefit to–
`(A) a business organized for profit;
`(B) a labor organization;
`(C) a partisan political organization;
`(D) a nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 except that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and
`(E) an organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities.
`(9) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.
(3rd and final section to Amendment 49 to H.R. 1388)
`(10) Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.
`(b) Ineligible Organizations- No assistance provided under this subtitle may be provided to the following types of organizations (including the participation of a participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle in activities conducted by such organiz ations) or to organizations that are co-located on the same premises as the following organizations:
`(1) Organizations that provide or promote abortion services, including referral for such services.
`(2) For-profit organizations, political parties, labor organizations, or organizations engaged in political or legislative advocacy.
`(3) Organizations that have been indicted for voter fraud.
`(c) Nondisplacement of Employed Workers or Other Volunteers- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not perform any services or duties or engage in activities which–
`(1) would otherwise be performed by an employed worker as part of his or her assigned duties as an employee or by another volunteer who is not a participant in an approved national service position; or
`(2) will supplant the hiring of employed workers or work of such other volunteers.’.

Visit Constitution Preservationists at:
http://www.americac2c.org/groups/group/show?id=2456870%3AGroup%3A11671

S.277 SERVE AMERICA Act (Senate version of HR 1388 GIVE ACT)

The Congressional Budget Office just released the cost estimates for S. 277 Serve America Act.(Senate’s version of HR 1388, Give Act)

CBO estimates S 277 would cost over $6.1 billion dollars over the 2010-2014 period.

Programs funded under National Community Service Act of 1990 (NCSA) and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (DVSA) received appropriations of $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, including $200 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 .

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10033/s277.pdf

Related Legislation

INCENTIVE TO SERVE TAX ACT (S.278) a companion bill to the Serve America Act, S.277, to provide tax incentives to companies that allow their employees to volunteer their services on company time.

1/16/2009–Introduced.
Incentive to Serve Tax Act – Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow employers a business tax credit for 25% of wages paid to employees while such employees are performing certain services (e.g., services advancing the improvement of education, health care access, energy conservation, economic opportunities for economically disadvantaged individuals, and disaster preparedness and response) for charitable organizations and community agencies. Limits the amount of wages eligible for such credit to $100,000 per employee.

Nilla 03.27.09 at 9:06 am

If anyone here has the desire to look at this travesty he doesn’t call it a budget it is named “A new Era of Responsibility, Renewing America’s Promise” which makes sense because that’s all most Obots will read of it.

The link is

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/A_New_Era_of_Responsibility2.pdf

Good luck to those who care to read it. I would however suggest if you attempt it, make sure you have an empty stomach.

GIVE ACT

The words “mandatory” appear in this House version on page 43 and on page285 .

http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1388_txt.pdf

SEC. 6104. DUTIES. b 6 (6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

Here is the full text of the 13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
————–
I think this is the second amendment that Congress has pissed on.

NEW AUTOMOBILE VOUCHER ACT OF 2009

Manzullo touts car vouchers

To U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill., the best way to jump-start the ailing auto industry is common sense – entice more people into buying cars.

Manzullo used the buzz surrounding President Obama’s tough talk and sweeping plans aimed at the Big Three automakers Monday to promote his bill to give Americans a $5,000 voucher toward the cost of a new car or truck.

“The problem is that the recovery the government is coming up with is not aimed at re-starting manufacturing,” Manzullo said. “It’s aimed at pouring money in from the top, and that doesn’t work.”

Manzullo on March 19 introduced the New Automobile Voucher Act of 2009, which if approved would give any American buying a car or truck a $5,000 discount at the moment of sale.

The dealership then would get reimbursed from the federal government, from $75 billion that the bill requests to fund the program. The bill was assigned to the House Transportation and the House Energy and Commerce committees.

The voucher, if approved, would apply to any automobile costing less than $50,000 sold in the United States. Even if the car is not manufactured in the U.S., Manzullo said, it contains parts built by American workers, and puts people to work shipping the cars to the dealerships.

U.S. auto manufacturers ended 2008 with the lowest yearly sales figures in 15 years, selling 13 million cars last year, compared to 16 million in 2007.

Manzullo concedes that the $75 billion price tag would further bloat a staggering national debt already inflated by federal economic stimulus initiatives. But he said the benefit – 1 million automobiles sold for every $5 billion in vouchers – would mean savings elsewhere.

“How much more money will be returned to the federal government in income taxes because people are returning to work, and how much less will it be paying in unemployment compensation?” Manzullo said.

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/03/30/r_r5hajnasszwdq0nextaywa/index.xml

H.R. 645:
111th Congress

2009-2010
National Emergency Centers Establishment Act

Introduced 1/22/09

Congressional Research Service Summary:

“National Emergency Centers Establishment Act – Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish at least six national emergency centers on military installations to use existing infrastructure to provide: (1) temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster; and (2) centralized locations for the training of first responders and the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.

Lists minimum requirements for sites for such centers, including that they be capable of:

(1) meeting for an extended period the housing, health, transportation, education, public works, humanitarian, and other transition needs of a large number of individuals affected;

(2) being scaled up or down to accommodate major disaster preparedness and response drills, operations, and procedures;

(3) housing existing permanent structures necessary to meet training and first responders coordination requirements during non-disaster periods; and

(4) hosting the infrastructure necessary to rapidly adjust to temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance needs.

Sets forth center location requirements, including requiring the Secretary to designate closed military installations as sites whenever possible and to designate portions of existing
military installations as centers otherwise.”

FULL TEXT OF THE BILL

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645

What are closed military installations?

H.R. 264:
111th Congress Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to comprehensively reform immigration law, and for other purposes.

1/7/2009–Introduced.
Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009 – Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to provide increased protections and eligibility for family-sponsored immigrants.

Directs the Secretary of State to establish a Board of Family-based Visa Appeals within the Department of State.

Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to deny a family-based immigration petition by a U.S. petitioner for an alien spouse or child if: (1) the petitioner is on the national sex offender registry for a conviction that resulted in more than one year’s imprisonment; (2) the petitioner has failed to rebut such information within 90 days; and (3) granting the petition would put a spouse or child beneficiary in danger of sexual abuse.

Directs the Secretary to establish the Task Force to Rescue Immigrant Victims of American Sex Offenders.

Authorizes the Secretary to adjust the status of aliens who would otherwise be inadmissible (due to unlawful presence, document fraud, or other specified grounds of inadmissibility) if such aliens have been in the United States for at least five years and meet other requirements.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-264&tab=summary

Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act of 2009.”

DIFFERENT VIEWS

Mothers Act Fuels Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
Motherhood and the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Complex

Motherhood has fallen prey to the psycho-pharmaceutical complex. If new legislation known as the Mother’s Act becomes law, the drugging of infants through pregnant and nursing mothers will no doubt increase.

Congress has rightfully refused to pass this bill for eight years. The official title is currently the “Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act of 2009.”

“The Mothers Act has the net affect of reclassifying the natural process of pregnancy and birth as a mental disorder that requires the use of unproven and extremely dangerous psychotropic medications (which can also easily harm the child). The bill was obviously written by the Big Pharma lobby and its passage into law would be considered laughable except that it is actually happening.”

While mania, psychosis, agitation, hostility, anxiety, confusion, depression and suicidality are often cited as “symptoms” of mental illness, many of the same exact “symptoms” are listed as side effects on the warning labels for antidepressants, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants.

All of these drugs are now being prescribed to treat the “mood” and “anxiety” disorders that women will be screened for if the Act becomes law. In the case of pregnant women, no psychiatric drug has been FDA approved as safe for use.

The newly recruited customers will be stigmatized for life with labels of the most serious forms of mental illness simply because they are unlucky enough to become pregnant in the United States, where serious disorders lead to major profits from the prescribing of multiple classes of psychotropic drugs.
http://www.counterpunch.org/pringle04072009.html

MOTHERS Act To Drug America’s Moms for Fake Postpartum Depression
By Katherine Stone
April 6, 2009
Wake up, people who care about mental health. Wake up, people who work to prevent child abuse, people who work to prevent suicide, people who work to prevent preterm births, people who care about healthy families. Wake up, psychiatric professionals, nurses, gynecologists, pediatricians.

The emotional health of approximately 1 million American families each year depends on this.

Because honestly, if we can’t get this one bill passed, how are we going to tackle the much bigger task of helping every single woman with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder
who needs help in this country? How are we going to create funding for transportation and child care for women who can’t get to their doctors because they have no car and no babysitter? How are we going to develop a network of highly trained, effective health care providers who are willing to treat women with no insurance? How are we going to fund more research to find out the exact causes of these illnesses so we can develop better, more targeted treatments? How are we going to make sure there are support groups in every corner of this country, no matter how urban or how rural? How are we going to educate doctors on preventing these illnesses in the first place by conducting social histories of their patients before they get pregnant?

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/04/06/mothers-act-to-drug-americas-moms-for-fake-postpartum-depression/

Enumerated Powers Act (Introduced in House)
HR 450 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 450

To require Congress to specify the source of authority under the United States Constitution for the enactment of laws, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 9, 2009
Mr. SHADEGG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL
To require Congress to specify the source of authority under the United States Constitution for the enactment of laws, and for other purposes.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.450:

REPOST: ladyhawkke 04.24.09 at 10:56 am

Tell Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Act

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/711774951?z00m=19757805

H.R. 1200:
111th Congress

2009-2010

AMERICAN HEALTH SECURITY ACT OF 2009

2/25/2009–Introduced.

American Health Security Act of 2009 – Establishes the State-Based American Health Security Program to provide every U.S. resident who is a U.S. citizen, national, or lawful resident alien with health care services. Requires each participating state to establish a state health security program.

Eliminates benefits under: (1) titles XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), and XXI (State Children’s Health Insurance) (SCHIP) of the Social Security Act; (2) the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; and (3) the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS).

Requires each state health security program to prohibit the sale of health insurance in that state that duplicates benefits provided under the program.

Establishes the American Health Security Standards Board to: (1) develop policies, procedures, guidelines and requirements to carry out this Act; (2) establish uniform reporting requirements; (3) provide for an American Health Security Advisory Council and an Advisory Committee on Health Professional Education; and (4) establish a national health security budget specifying the total federal and state expenditures to be made for covered health care services.

Establishes the American Health Security Quality Council to: (1) review and evaluate practice guidelines, standards of quality, performance measures, and medical review criteria; and (2) develop minimum competence criteria.

Establishes the Office of Primary Care and Prevention Research within the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create the American Health Security Trust Fund and appropriates to the Fund specified tax liabilities and current health program receipts.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1200

Article against Single Payer

April 3, 2009
Single Payer: Why Government-Run Health Care Will Harm Both Patients and Doctors
by Robert A. Book

The key issue in the emerging national health care debate is the role of the federal government. While some Members of Congress favor a “single-payer” national health insurance system—”Medicare for all”—others, including President Obama, propose a new public plan, modeled after Medicare, to compete with private health plans in a national health insurance exchange.#[1]

Many independent experts expect a “crowd out” of existing private options and a rapid evolution toward a single payer system of national health insurance.#[2] In either case, the federal government would amass greater power over the financing and delivery of medical services; it would also determine the benefits and medical procedures that Americans would get and the prices providers are paid for them. This concentration of government power over health care would have a profound impact on all Americans, especially members of the medical profession.

Such government control would:

Result in substantially lower payments to physicians and other health care providers compared to a multiple-payer system;

Reduce the quality of care by limiting the ability of physicians to invest in advanced medical equipment that takes advantage of new technology;

Limit access to care in the near term, as current physicians and other professionals retire earlier or otherwise leave the profession;

Limit access to care even more substantially in the long term, as the prospect of lower lifetime earnings reduces the incentive for talented people to choose careers in health care; and

Reduce the rate of medical progress, because fewer talented people receiving medical training decreases the supply of talented medical researchers.

The establishment of a “single payer” health care system would inevitably result in lower payments for physician and other health care providers. The immediate effect of having a single (“stingy”) payer would be lower incomes for physicians and a reduction in the supply of active physicians, thereby impairing access to health care for all patients. However, the result of “single/stingy payer” health care will not only be lower incomes for physicians now but reduced access and lower quality health care for future generations as well.

More at:

http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/wm2381.cfm

UK Cancer Specialist Warned: NHS Might Refuse Cancer Treatment for Smokers and Obese

Posted By fatjim2 2 days, 22 hours ago in News

A leading UK Cancer Specialist warned that the National Health Service (NHS) is facing very difficult choices about which diseases to treat in the future. Professor John Smyth In
his talk, entitled “The Future of Cancer Treatment – can we afford it?”, he stressed on the fact that in the wake of limited public funding, very stringent decision can be made over the types of diagnosis and drugs to use in the future.

More at”

http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/04/24/uk-cancer-specialist-warned-nhs-might-refuse-cancer-treatment-for-smokers-and-obese/

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT HR 1913

April 30, 2009 – The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted 249-175 on April 29 to pass H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

18 House Republicans voted in favor of the hate crimes bill and 17 House Democrats voted against it.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R) have introduced their version of the hate crimes bill in the Senate, S.909. A vote on the Senate bill is expected to take place before Memorial Day.

CRAMDOWN BILL

Senate defeats ‘cramdown’ legislation

By Silla Brush
Posted: 04/30/09 04:01 PM [ET]

The Senate on Thursday shot down a controversial housing bill supported by the White House yet widely opposed by the financial industry.

The bill, known as cramdown in the financial industry, would have allowed homeowners to turn to bankruptcy judges to write down the principal and interest payments for their primary home mortgages.

Democrats fell 15 votes short of the 60 necessary to pass the bill, with 12 Democrats including Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) voting no.

The 45-51 vote was a stinging loss for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has tried and failed to pass the bankruptcy measure through the Senate for two years. Durbin spent weeks in negotiations with Senate staff and industry officials but could not produce a compromise that would pass the Senate.

It passed the House in March, but immediately ran into trouble in the Senate. Supporters argue that it is an important tool to force mortgage servicers to modify loans and reduce the mounting foreclosures that continue to dog the housing market.

More at:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/senate-defeats-cramdown-legislation-2009-04-30.html

SUPPORT FOR MILEAGE TAX

A Boost for the Mileage Tax

Why an idea the White House dismissed has promise

The commission argues, as this page has repeatedly, that it’s necessary to raise the gas tax in the short term. However, as drivers switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles, the tax will generate insufficient revenue to cover the country’s transportation infrastructure needs. That’s why, after examining numerous alternatives, the commission concluded that a mileage tax was the best way to raise the necessary revenue while reducing the impact drivers have on the environment.

In fact, a mileage tax could be much more effective at doing this than the gas tax. A mileage tax could be tailored so that Hummer drivers, for example, paid more per mile than Prius owners. The tax could also be levied at higher rates during rush hour or on congested highways, discouraging people from driving at times when they would spend the longest on the road. It’s no surprise, then, that groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund have praised the proposal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2009022801710.html

FLBarbara 05.03.09 at 11:37 am

Please sign the Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriages Ac of 2009.
Takes a Minute and CARE will generate the emails to all your representatives with your zip code.

Imagine a girl of 14 with her whole life ahead of her. She has dreams of an education, a career and, eventually, a happy family. Instead, she soon will be getting married — likely to a man more than twice her age or older.

Child marriage is a human rights violation that puts young girls at risk and keeps them mired in poverty. They need your protection.

Please ask your member of Congress to help prevent child marriage by co-sponsoring the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009. At this week’s CARE National Conference and Celebration in Washington, D.C., advocates from around the country will be making the same request of their members of Congress. Join them.

When a girl is forced to marry at a young age, it diminishes her chance at an education, endangers her health and has long-lasting and dire consequences not only to her, but to her family and community as well.

Young brides are:

More likely to become young mothers. Girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die of childbirth than women in their 20s.
• More likely to drop out of school and have limited economic opportunities in the future, which keeps them and their families locked in the cycle of poverty.
Twice as likely to suffer domestic violence and more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.
The cost of these marriages is too high to be ignored. I encourage you to ask your members of Congress to take immediate action.

The United States can use its leadership to prevent child marriage. This important legislation recognizes child marriage as a human rights violation and develops a comprehensive strategy to prevent these marriages and empower young girls.

CARE supports families and communities to reduce the prevalence of child marriage throughout the developing world. Won’t you join me in ensuring that no girl is forced into an early marriage? Ask your representatives to co-sponsor the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009.

Thank you for helping to empower young girls around the world.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

4
FLBarbara 05.03.09 at 11:41 am

Sorry here is the link
http://my.care.org/site/R?i=JxhZjLCezHRpdW0EAU8zxA

BillieJo 05.04.09 at 11:03 pm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek passage in coming weeks of $94.2 billion in emergency money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other programs, including $2 billion more to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5435OP20090504

Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act (Introduced in House)
HR 1966 IH

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1966:

Proposed congressional legislation would demand up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.”

Instead of prison, perhaps we should say gulag.

The proposal by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles, would never pass First Amendment muster, unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing. So Sanchez, and the 14 other lawmakers who signed on to the proposal, are grandstanding to show the public they care about children and are opposed to cyberbullying.

Sanchez’s bill goes way beyond cyberbullying and comes close to making it a federal offense to log onto the internet or use the telephone.

The methods of communication where hostile speech is banned include e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones and text messages.

We can’t say what we think of Sanchez’s proposal. Doing so would clearly get us two years in solitary confinement.

The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/prison-awaiting-hostile-bloggers/

CLEAN WATER RESTORATION ACT S 787
Or The Great Water Heist?

Feingold Bill Gives ALL
US Water To The Feds!

In April, 2009, Senator Feingold introduced (and gathered 24 co-sponsors already) legislation, S. 787, to fundamentally change the definition of “water” under control of the federal government:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqHaUadsapc

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-787

`(25) WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES- The term `waters of the United States’ means all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.’.

SINGLE PAYER – TWO VIEWS

Single Payer: Why Government-Run Health Care Will Harm Both Patients and Doctors
by Robert A. Book

http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/wm2381.cfm

Single-Payer FAQ from Physicians for a National Health Reform

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#income

Bill to include money for relocating Gitmo inmates

WASHINGTON (AP) – A war funding bill headed to the floor next week would provide the $50 million sought by the Pentagon to relocate prisoners from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Monday.

The administration would be denied the money until it came up with a detailed plan on how to close the Guantanamo detention facility and how to deal with the 240 or so detainees being held there, according to Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the architect of the funding measure and a supporter of the Pentagon request.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called the $50 million request merely a “plug in the budget” that was just “a hedge that would allow us to get started if some construction is needed to be able to accommodate those detainees.”

Gates has testified that about 50 to 100 detainees would be shipped to the U.S.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9848AKO0&show_article=1

THE CREDIT CARDHOLDERS’ BILL OF RIGHTS ACT OF 2009 HR 627 passed in the House by a vote of 357 to 70.

The Senate is currently debating this bill which promotes more government intervention into the private market.

Senator David Vitter is planning to offer an amendment to HR 627 which will set a minimum standard that credit card issuers establish a consumer’s identity in order to prevent and deter illegal aliens and terrorists from obtaining credit.

The regulations would require financial institutions to verify the identity of any person seeking a credit card through one of the four acceptable forms of identification, which include a social security card, a driver’s license, a passport or a photo ID issued by the Dept. of Homeland Security.

In 2007, Bank of America and some other banks begun offering credit cards to customers without social security numbers, typically illegal aliens. According to the Wall Street Journal, they wanted to expand their Hispanic base.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/118741.html – about credit cards and illegal aliens

Wonder if this law violates the commerce clause of the US Constitution which does not give the federal government the authority to dictate how private businesses are structured or operated. But, the Constitution is so trampled now, I guess it doesn’t make any difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Clause

Scarlet,
Is this the intervention?:

While tapped out credit-card holders might welcome some relief, we invite them as well as their senators to think about the long-term effects of price controls. If barred from charging high interest rates, prudent credit-card issuers will try to cut their losses by denying credit to high-risk groups. The result? Fewer people will have access to consumer credit. As for the rest of us, expect credit card companies to boost interest rates up to the legal maximum.

Don’t blame greed. The credit-card issuers won’t have a choice. They too have investors looking for a fair return. Planning to lose money is not a good career move for any executive.

is this the intervention

War Supplemental Bill

By
Jamie Dupree
@ May 14, 2009 12:00 AM

The House begins work today on a bill that funds extra money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As usual though, there’s a lot of other things in this bill.

Here is the summary, as provided by the House Appropriations Committee. Go through it yourself and figure out what you would approve and what you would knock out.

All of the money spent in this bill will simply be added to the deficit.

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/05/war-supplemental-bill.html

Cyberbullying Bill Could Ensnare Free Speech Rights

But even if the bill makes it through Congress, most of the experts interviewed for this article were uncertain it would hold up in court.

But at least one blogger is calling the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act the “Censorship Act of 2009″

We have existing harassment statutes in all 50 states that already cover this problem,” says Parry Aftab, a lawyer and Internet security expert who’s at the forefront of the anti-cyberbullying movement. “We don’t need Linda Sanchez’s law.”

Even Sanchez’s attempt to define the term “cyberbullying” poses problems, said UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh.

“The bill defines it as ‘using electronic means to support severe, repeated and hostile behavior,’ but what does ’severe, hostile and repeated behavior’ mean?” he asked.

“I’ve written articles opposing the bill that have appeared online. That’s electronic and — because I’ve written a few of them — repeated. I was also severe and hostile in my criticisms. Under her law, I can now go to jail.”

And so could many political commentators and Web bloggers who earn their keep by being confrontational and inflammatory. A TV host like MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who’s been openly and repeatedly hostile to former Vice President Dick Cheney on his Web site, would not be safe from prosecution, the analysts say.

“Not only is Sanchez’s bill unconstitutional,” Volokh said, “but with our existing laws, criminal harassment (as opposed to sexual) is not a well defined term. Definitions vary from state to state, but generally it’s threatening, persistent communication. There are no anti-mind-game-harassment laws out there.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/cyberbullying-ensnare-free-speech-rights/

see post 149 for more information on this bill

U.S. Lawmakers Look to Label Satellite Providers Terrorists

Two U.S. congressmen have proposed legislation to label as terrorist organizations satellite providers of incendiary television stations — the latest attempt by lawmakers to prevent radical anti-American propaganda from hitting the airwaves, even abroad.

The bill, authored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., seeks to punish satellite companies that carry channels that are mouthpieces for known terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas — stations they say incite their audiences to commit acts of terrorism against the United States.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/lawmakers-look-label-satellite-providers-terrorists/

THE INDUSTRIAL HEMP FARMING ACT OF 2009 HR 1866

Texas Republican Ron Paul, along with ten co-sponsors, is once again seeking to allow for the commercial farming of industrial hemp.

House Bill 1866, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009, would exclude low potency varieties of marijuana from federal prohibition. If approved, this measure will grant state legislatures the authority to license and regulate the commercial production of hemp as an industrial and agricultural commodity.

Several states — including North Dakota, Montana, and Vermont — have enacted regulations to allow for the cultivation of hemp under state law. However, none of these laws can be implemented without federal approval. Passage of HR 1866 would remove existing federal barriers and allow states that wish to regulate commercial hemp production the authority to do so.

Upon introducing the bill in Congress, Rep. Paul said: “It is unfortunate that the federal government has stood in the way of American farmers, including many who are struggling to make ends meet, from competing in the global industrial hemp market.

Indeed, the founders of our nation, some of whom grew hemp, would surely find that federal restrictions on farmers growing a safe and profitable crop on their own land are inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of a limited, restrained federal government. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to stand up for American farmers and cosponsor the Industrial Hemp Farming Act.”

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1866

http://www.hemp.org/news/industrial-hemp-farming-act-2009

The bill requires public companies………….

Well there it is in a nut shell…they mean GOVERNMENT companies.

CLEAN UP ACT

The push by Congress and the Obama administration to dismantle the “A-76 program” — is designed to grow the federal workforce. And it could end up costing our country billions of dollars.

Exhibiting a cynical disregard for the country’s dire need to cut spending, Democrats in Congress are fighting to eliminate a competitive contracting procedure known as the A-76 program. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland has introduced the so-called “Clean Up Act,” which would eliminate outsourcing of government work to private contractors. Ironically, her bill calls for federal agencies to determine if they face looming employee shortages. According to her press release “It is estimated that 600,000 federal jobs – close to one-third of the government – will need to be filled in the next four years.”

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/18/peek_government_obama/

American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009

To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.

OpenCongress Summary:
This is the Waxman-Markley comprehensive energy bill, known for short as “ACES,” that includes a cap-and-trade global warming reduction plan designed to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020. Other provisions include new renewable requirements for utilities, studies and incentives regarding new carbon capture and sequestration technologies, energy efficiency incentives for homes and buildings, and grants for green jobs, among other things.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee began markup of the bill on May 18th and it will likely be on the full House floor in June. It is expected to be significantly weakened during the legislative process by Republicans and conservative Democrats in both the Senate and the House.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2454

American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009

An opinion:

To provide 1/6 th of our energy needs on wind, it would take a plot of land equal to the whole state of California. It would take a lifetime to build that many. Solar panels would take about 90 sq. ft. of solar panels PER PERSON to do another 1/6th.

Among all the energy-supply technologies, the three with the biggest potential today are solar power, wind power and nuclear power.

As a thought-experiment, let’s imagine that technology switches and lifestyle changes manage to halve American energy consumption to 125 kWh per day per person. How big would the solar, wind and nuclear facilities need to be to supply this halved consumption?

For simplicity, let’s imagine getting one-third of the energy supply from each.

To supply 42 kWh per day per person from solar power requires roughly 80 square meters per person of solar panels.
To deliver 42 kWh per day per person from wind for everyone in the United States would require wind farms with a total area roughly equal to the area of California, a 200-fold increase in United States wind power.
To get 42 kWh per day per person from nuclear power would require 525 one-gigawatt nuclear power stations, a roughly five-fold increase over today’s levels.

I hope these numbers convey the scale of action required to put in place a sustainable energy solution. What about tidal power? What about wave power? What about geothermal energy, biofuels or hydroelectricity? In a short article, I can’t discuss all the technology options.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/05/13/mackay.energy/index.html

Congress passes anti-foreclosure bill

The House voted 367-54 to pass the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. The Senate had voted 91-5 in favor of the bill and approved the final version by unanimous consent.

“In the last few weeks, we have cracked down on corporate and mortgage scams and helped more struggling homeowners keep their homes,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “And in the coming weeks, we will continue to protect people … who keep our economy moving, and we will restore their confidence.”

The bill would expand an existing $300 billion program that encourages lenders to write down an individual’s mortgage if the homeowner agrees to pay an insurance premium. The program, set to expire in 2011, would swap out a homeowner’s high-interest rate for a 30-year fixed loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

Because of strict eligibility requirements, only 50-some homeowners are refinancing through the program compared to the 400,000 people it was estimated to help.

In addition, the bill extends through 2013 an increase in deposit insurance by the FDIC from $100,000 to $250,000.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D989HA1G0&show_article=1&catnum=0

The 21st Century Cancer ALERT Act S. 717

This week, a Senate committee is taking a look at a proposal to change the way the federal government assists the fight against cancer.

The 21st Century Cancer ALERT Act (S. 717), co-sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), attempts to break down the barriers that impede cancer research and prevent people diagnosed with the disease from receiving the treatment they need. While there is no specific funding mechanism attached to the bill — the federal government already spends billions of dollars annually on cancer research and treatment programs — the sponsors believe it modernizes the fight against cancer by focusing on America’s aging population, environmental hazards and unhealthy behavior that keep cancer rates relatively high. The bill also encourages more collaboration among cancer researchers and better cooperation among health agencies.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.717.IS:

Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009 HR 2159

Anti-Gun Blacklist Bill Introduced in U.S. House

Rumor was enough to get you burned as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. It was enough to get you shot in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. It’s enough to get your head chopped off in parts of Iraq infested with madmen claiming to carry out Allah’s will.

And if U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has his way, it may be enough to prohibit you from acquiring a firearm or federal firearm license, especially if the Attorney General is as opposed to gun ownership as Janet Reno was during the Clinton Administration, and as Eric Holder is today.

Fresh on the heels of a disturbing paper from the Department of Homeland Security, characterizing gun owners as rightwing extremists, on April 29 King introduced H.R. 2159, which he calls the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4879

10th Amendment Resolution Introduced in Mass.

Posted on 27 May 2009
On Tuesday, 05-26-09, Massachusetts State Representative Jeffrey Davis Perry (R-Sandwich) filed a Resolution before the House of Representatives to protect the Founding Fathers’ intent and the Constitutional protections of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

“The purpose of this Resolution is to clearly affirm to Congress and the President our State’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and to demand that the federal government halt the practice of assuming powers and imposing mandates upon the states for purposes which are not enumerated by the Constitution of the United States of America” said Representative Perry from the State House.

http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/05/27/10th-amendment-resolution-introduced-in-mass/

Grassroots call for lawmakers to KILL loaded TxDOT sunset bill
Trans Texas Corridor to proceed despite repeal of corridor

(Austin, TX – May 28, 2009) The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sunset bill, HB 300, now over 1,500 pages long, has too much baggage for taxpayers to swallow. HB 300 ends the private toll moratorium (which hands our PUBLIC highways to PRIVATE, foreign toll operators), keeps the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) alive, opens a new loophole to toll existing freeways, allows counties a 10 cent gas tax hike, raids public employee pension funds to invest in risky private toll roads deals (Revolving Fund/Transportation Bank), reduces the number of elected officials on transportation boards, and more.

A heavy piece of “baggage” that put the grassroots over the edge was Amendment #1 by Senator Glenn Hegar that slipped the Trans Texas Corridor back into the bill after repeatedly assuring lawmakers during floor debate that the Trans Texas Corridor is “DEAD.”

http://www.texasturf.org/

Senate advances bill to regulate tobacco

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate took a step Tuesday toward giving the government some controls over the tobacco industry, bolstering the chances that a long-sought goal of anti-smoking advocates will finally be realized.

The 84-11 Senate vote to consider the bill came a month after the House overwhelmingly passed a similar measure giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98IKGPO0&show_article=1&catnum=0

The bill is H.R. 1256.

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

AP source: Democrats strike tentative war funding deal that includes money for IMF

Jun 01, 2009 20:19 EST

Top House and Senate Democrats reached a tentative agreement on an almost $100 billion war funding bill Monday, including a generous new line of credit for the International Monetary Fund.
At the core of the measure is President Barack Obama’s war funding request, which included $76 billion for Pentagon operations. But the IMF funding is a top priority of Obama, who pledged the $100 billion line of credit at April’s G-20 summit in London to help developing countries deal with the troubled global economy.

The actual U.S. costs for the IMF contribution are far less — $5 billion is the Congressional Budget Office estimate — since the U.S. government is given interest-bearing assets in return.

The IMF funding is sure to whip up opposition from conservative House Republicans and introduces at least some doubt about the final vote in the House since about 50 liberal Democrats oppose the war funding measure.

http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/06/01/ap-source-tentative-deal-struck-for-funding-war/

invalidresponse 06.07.09 at 11:38 am

Wow how could I have missed this??? After 10 years of having to choose to give up my country… now they are going to “look” into perhaps doing something about it…. wow, guess I was wayyyyy before my time…. Hope this one gets through….

Hey Pumas, can you do me a favor and send a quick email to your congress person in support of this… Please!!

NCLR Statement on Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Uniting American Families Act

http://www.nclrights.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_UAFAstatement060209

Patients United Now (which is anti-nationalized healthcare group) has posted what it claims is a copy of the forthcoming Obama healthcare bill. It looks like an early draft, and the first note on there is that more work is needed.

http://patientsunitednow.com/external_link.php?u=http%3A//socializedhealth.blogspot.com/&t=undefined

http://patientsunitednow.com/index.php

AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009

Climate bill to pay hundreds of dollars in rebates
By DINA CAPPIELLO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON — A new analysis predicts that low-income families will receive hundreds of dollars a year to help pay higher energy bills if Congress enacts the first-ever limits on the gases blamed for global warming.

But it is unclear just how much more those families will have to pay for energy.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of global warming legislation estimates that low-income families could initially receive $161-$359 in the form of a credit or rebate, if the bill becomes law. That amount could rise to $282-$628 by 2019, depending on the family’s size.

The money would come from the government’s auction of pollution permits.

Studies have estimated that the average household could pay an extra $98 to $1,600 a year in energy costs because of the bill.
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_climate_bill_cost.html

CONTACTING YOUR LEGISLATORS:

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT

The bill promises to reduce U.S. carbon emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, through a national cap-and-trade system.

ACORN JOINS CLIMATE EQUITY ALLIANCE

The environmental community is responding with broadened coalitions that emphasize the public health, national security, economic, and environmental threats posed by global climate change.

Among the coalitions is the Climate Equity Alliance, formed in April to “promote policies both to help create quality ‘green jobs’ and to train low- and moderate-income workers to fill them.” Members include Green For All, ACORN, the NAACP, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Another example is the union between progressive organizations, known as the Unity ‘09 coalition. The groups, including Planned Parenthood, the online-based MoveOn, and the Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza, are meeting privately to support President Barack Obama’s agenda, especially the establishment of a national cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions and an overhaul of healthcare policies.

“There’s more cross-sectorial collaboration now in the progressive movement than there has been in a long time,” said Gillian Caldwell, campaign director of 1Sky, an alliance of 420 local and national organizations that support addressing climate change. “We’re bonding together to bring the force of our constituencies behind the president’s agenda.”

Brian Kettenring, ACORN’s deputy director of national operations, said his group – the largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate- income people in the United States – was inspired to join the Climate Equity Alliance and work with groups such as the Sierra Club after seeing the vulnerability of cities such as New Orleans to rising sea levels and more intense climatic events. The group, which lobbies for affordable housing and improved education in urban areas, is also encouraged by the hope of “green jobs,” environmentally sustainable employment opportunities.

U.S. television sets will flash commercials this summer that stress the need for climate legislation and jobs in renewable energy. The Al Gore-led Alliance for Climate Protection, the League of Conservation Voters, and the joint environmental-labor union Blue Green Alliance are producing some of the advertisements.

More at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6146

PAYGO

Obama Urges Congress to Tighten ‘Paygo’ Budget Rules

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said he will introduce the paygo legislation as early as next week. The plan likely will encounter more opposition in the Senate, where Democrats have balked at similar proposals.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, said he favors paygo legislation but opposed “waiving paygo for $3.5 trillion worth of items” that would be exempted from the spending rules in the president’s plan.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a5cfNoaMA.F4

TOBACCO BILL
Tobacco Bill’s Big Winner: Philip Morris?

The Senate today passed a bill giving the Food And Drug Administration power to regulate the sale, manufacture and marketing of tobacco products.

Lorillard, Reynolds American Inc. and other tobacco companies have an explanation for why Philip Morris is supporting a bill that would mean stronger regulations on its products: They say the legislation will pave the way for the company to cement its dominant position in the market, because the regulations will make it harder for companies to market smaller brands or introduce new products.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, Lorillard has gone so far as to call the legislation “the Marlboro Monopoly Act.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/11/business/econwatch/entry5081439.shtml

DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT

Gay Rights Groups Irate After Obama Administration Lauds Defense Of Marriage Act

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama claimed “we need to fully repeal the Defense of Marriage Act,” which says states are not required to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages.

That was then. This week, the Obama administration is facing the ire of gay rights groups after it filed a brief in California federal court defending the Defense of Marriage Act and calling it a “valid exercise of Congress’ power” that is saving taxpayers money.

The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. It doesn’t prohibit same-sex marriages; instead, it says that no state “shall be required” to honor same-sex marriages taking place elsewhere or any “right or claim arising from such relationship.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/12/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5084948.shtml

DOMA WATCH

http://www.domawatch.org/index.php

CAP AND TRADE TAX BURDEN

June 12, 2009
What’s Your Household’s Cap-and-Trade Tax Burden?

The study shows that a cap-and-trade system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent would place an annual burden of $144.8 billion on American households. The average annual household burden would be $1,218, which would be approximately 2% of the average household income.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24752.html

MONEY FOR WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

This week Democrats in Congress will try to approve extra money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that “war supplemental” is about a lot more than just military and diplomatic work in those countries.

The bill started off as an $83 billion proposal from the White House.

Now it tips the scales at $106 billion. That’s about a 22% increase by my math, which means lots of stuff got added on by negotiators.

As I was leafing through the final agreement hammered out last Thursday night – with at one point President Obama talking on his Chief of Staff’s cell phone to key negotiators – I was a bit surprised to see one provision in a new Title VIII of the bill.

“There is established in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a voluntary program to be known as the “Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Program.”

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/06/stuffed-in-the-supp.html

http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/Emergency_Supp_2009_Bill_Text.pdf

PRESERVING ACCESS TO TARGETED, INDIVIDUALIZED, AND EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS AND SERVICES (PATIENTS) ACT OF 2009

GOP Senator Offers Bill to Prohibit Health-Care Rationing Based on Obama’s ‘Comparative Effectiveness Research’

A group of Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) are introducing a bill that would prohibit any move by the federal government to ration health care based on results derived from federally funded comparative effectiveness research.

The Preserving Access to Targeted, Individualized, and Effective New Treatments and Services (PATIENTS) Act of 2009 adds a “necessary safeguard” to last year’s economic stimulus bill, which included $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research but did not specify that the research could not be used to ration health care.

“We feel it is necessary to introduce this bill to make it crystal clear that the government should not be funding research which is then going to be used in one way or another to ration health care for Americans, to decide what diagnostics or treatments or prescriptions or care can be allowed under any kind of federal program,” Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said at a briefing with reporters Monday.

“CER (comparative effectiveness research) cannot be used to deny coverage of an item or service under a federal health care program,” Kyl added. “That’s it. It’s very simple.”

Kyl outlined that neither insurance companies nor the federal government should interfere with the patient-doctor relationship.

“When the doctor says a patient needs ‘device A’ or ‘treatment B’ or ‘drug C,’ I don’t think anybody should get in between the patient and the doctor,” he said.

More at:
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49589

England’s cost effectiveness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_for_Health_and_Clinical_Excellence

CASH FOR CLUNKERS BILL

Autos “clunker” bill likely to face Senate obstacle

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE55F6XH20090616?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

House Narrowly Approves $106 Billion War Bill
Reps Who Voted in Favor Cite Loyalty, Insist Bill ‘Still Sucks’

Despite growing opposition, the House of Representatives today narrowly passed the $106 billion war funding bill today, 226-202. The vote capped weeks of major debate about the merits of several provisions of the bill, notably the guarantee of $108 billion in credit to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The bill now moves on to the Senate for final approval, which is expected to come later this week.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/16/house-narrowly-approves-106-billion-war-bill/

HR 2749 – The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009

It seems that all the worst of the “food safety” bills have been rolled into one Frankenstein version that Henry Waxman is promoting – HR 2749.

The bill if one looks closely, is fascist. And all the things that people were criticizing the other bills such as HR 875 for – all denied by DeLauro and FWW – turn out to be not only true but worse than the worse that was reported. (more info on HR 875 is at post 103 pumapac forum)

For those who want to see a bit of what Waxman will would do to this country, here are some of the provisions, which can be found at FOOD FREEDOM. http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/...

Alarming Provisions:

Some of the more alarming provisions in the bill are:
* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. [isn't this every home in the US, every garden?] Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

* HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers. [What is missing in pointing out this astounding control, is that it opens the door to CODEX and WTO "good farming practices" will include the elimination of organic farming by eliminating manure, mandating GMO animal feed, imposing animal drugs, and ordering applications of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, thus, will be locked not only into the industrialization of once normal and organic farms but into the forced purchase of industry's products. They will be slaves on the land, doing the work they are ordered to do - against their own best wisdom - and paying out to industry against their will. There will be no way to be frugal, to grow one's own grain to feed the animals, to raise healthy animals without GMO grains or drugs, to work with nature at all. Grassfed cattle and poultry and hogs will be finished. So, it needs to be made clear where control will take us. And weren't these the "rumors on the internet" that were dismissed but are clearly the case?]

More at:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/17/743564/-Henry-Waxmans-betrayal-of-our-existenceHR-2749

American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

White House will intensify energy push

The Obama administration will make an intense push to pass climate and energy legislation next week, according to key lawmakers, aides and lobbyists.

But roughly 50 House Democrats still remain undecided about the bill, according to estimates from several House Democrats. Waxman has been meeting almost daily with House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson, a leading critic of the legislation.
“Each member is going to have to make up their mind,” said Minnesota Democrat. Tim Walz, who remains undecided about the legislation. “I’m still convinced that the timeline is awful tight for a lot of us.”

Rural Democrats fear the cap and trade system included in the bill could raise costs for farmers and agribusiness. They’re pushing for greater oversight of the program by the Department of Agriculture and changes in how the bill allocates emissions credits to electricity companies.

Moderates worry about increased costs for consumers and businesses, particularly as gas prices continue to rise. And vulnerable Democrats from swing districts argue that the bill could open them up to Republican attacks that they are placing an “energy tax” on already-strapped consumers.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23862.html#ixzz0InCwbaSe&C

Legislators Framing Climate Bills Hold Energy Stock

As Congress moves ahead with climate-change legislation touching almost every corner of the energy industry, a number of lawmakers shaping the debate have investments in companies that would be affected by the results.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124519704993421187.html#mod=article-outset-box

More info on this Act on posts 194, 195, 173-175, and 194 on this forum

ZONE THE OCEANS

A White House memorandum released last Friday to the heads of federal departments and agencies because it appears the Obama Administration wants to zone the oceans.

The memo indicates that Obama is creating a task force that within 180 days will recommend “a framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning.” What’s called The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force will make recommendations to the president on protecting ocean and Great Lake resources as they experience “growing demands” from “renewable energy, shipping and aquaculture.” (renewable energy = wind turbines)

http://www.wgbh.org/cainan/article?item_id=4073905

White House memorandum

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:B8jn9PRoYOIJ:www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Oceans-Month-and-Memorandum-regarding-national-policy-for-the-oceans/+%22Interagency+Ocean+Policy+Task+Force%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

VTcat 06.21.09 at 10:07 am

S. 787 cleared committee on June 18.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-787
The bill basically gives the feds jurisdiction over the mud puddle in your driveway. JMHO

—————–
CLEAN WATER RESTORATION ACT S 787
Or The Great Water Heist?
See post 151 on this forum

CLEAN WATER RESTORATION ACT S 787
Or The Great Water Heist?

S 787 Federal Water Theft
http://farmwars.info/?p=764

In comments, a poster from Australia said this:
We in aust have the same stupid rule, not enforced as yet, they can tax us for water on the calculated size of the roof and runoff.And tax us on the size and capacity of the dam on property.

S. 787, amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, by replacing the term “navigable waters” with the term “waters of the United States.”

http://www.klamathbasincrisis.org/billslaws/2009/S787CWRA_061609.htm

CLEAN WATER RESTORATION ACT S 787
Or The Great Water Heist?

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s787/show

An opinion from the American Farm Bureau Federation concerning S 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act.

6/22/2009 8:11:00 AM

AFBF Says Even Rainwater Would Be Regulated Under The CWRA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Farm Bureau Federation said S. 787, the Clean Water Restoration Act, leaves no water unregulated in the United States and could even impact standing water from rain in a dry area. The organization signed onto a letter on behalf of the Water Advocacy Coalition to Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) asking them to oppose the legislation.

“S. 787 would remove any bounds from the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction, so that the regulatory reach of the act would extend to all water — anywhere from farm ponds, to storm water retention basins, to roadside ditches, to desert washes, to streets and gutters, even to a puddle of rainwater,” stated the letter. “For the first time in the 36-year history of the act, activities that have no impact on actual rivers and lakes would be subject to full federal regulation.”

According to AFBF, by applying the Clean Water Act to “all interstate and intrastate waters,” farmers and ranchers would be significantly impacted due to the number of normal farming activities that would be subject to citizen-suit provisions of the Clean Water Act, which could lead to outright regulation. “Not only would many activities not previously regulated require federal permits, those permits would be subject to challenge in federal court, delaying or halting these activities to the detriment of our economy,” stated the letter.

AFBF also believes that by deleting the term “navigable” as a condition for regulation under the Clean Water Act, it would allow for an extraordinary expansion of federal jurisdiction, giving the federal government the right to exert inordinate control over private property, while opening the door for activists to sue landowners whose activities they don’t like.

The coalition letter signed by AFBF stated that the group supports the protection of U.S. navigable waters, as well as rivers and streams that flow to navigable waters. All of these are already protected under the Clean Water Act today.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=324555

ENERGY BILL – CAP AND TRADE

Late last night, Democrats submitted the revised Energy Bill to the House Rules Committee.

The 1201 page bill is posted here:

http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr2454_sub.pdf

Homeland Security Earmarks

Jamie Dupree
@ June 24, 2009 12:00 AM

As early as today, the U.S. House will consider a spending bill that funds Homeland Security operations for the next fiscal year, and true to form, it’s becoming a magnet for home state earmarks.

The bill funds $42.6 billion in homeland defense operations, about $2.6 billion more than the previous fiscal year.

And it is most certainly my favorite time of the year when it comes to ferreting out the fine print of what the Congress is doing.

The Homeland Security bill doesn’t have as much obvious “pork” in it as other bills. This one has 162 earmarks according to the House Appropriations Committee, as the Congress now makes these lists public, which is a gold mine of information.

So here is your list of earmarks. In most cases, it shows the name of the project, how much it is worth and the name of who asked for it.
http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/06/homeland-security-earmarks.html

Broadband Internet Fairness Act, H.R. 2902

Stop the Internet Rip-Off of 2009

Time Warner Cable is trying to restrict Internet use by shamelessly overcharging people who use the Web every day. Now other phone and cable giants like Comcast and AT&T are following suit — weighing schemes to hike prices, shut down the free-flowing Web and keep user innovation in check.

The Broadband Internet Fairness Act will prevent the monopolistic rate increases of broadband companies by promoting the interests of broadband customers. Specifically the bill:

• Requires internet service providers (ISPs) to submit plans to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in consultation with the FCC if they plan to move to a usage-based plan;
• Prohibits volume usage plans if the FTC determines that these plans are imposing rates, terms, and conditions that are unreasonable or discriminatory;
• Sets up public hearings for plans submitted to the FTC for public review and input;
• Only affects internet providers with 2 million or more subscribers;
• Imposes penalties for broadband ISPs that ignore these rules;

http://massa.house.gov/?sectionid=24&sectiontree=23,24&itemid=316

Don’t Mess with Grandma
By Phillip Dampier, June 23, 2009

AT&T’s pushback on Rep. Massa’s consumer protection legislation brought quite a reaction when the phone giant invoked a vision of “grandma” being forced to overpay for her broadband account.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/09/06/23/dont-mess-grandma

more at post 228

ENERGY BILL

SMART GRID LAWS in sections 141-146 of HR 2998

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.02998:

Developing Appliances to Meet the Smart Grid

Energy-intelligent appliances will help homeowners regulate their electricity use.

Such a future may be more likely and more cost-effective if existing appliances already in homes are retrofitted, rather than replaced with new demand-response appliances. Hamilton thinks the industry that grows up around the Smart Grid will develop a converter box for existing appliances that will allow them to interface with utilities. At the moment, however, no such device exists, so it will be up to appliance manufacturers like GE and Whirlpool to test the waters.

http://www.customhomeonline.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=209&articleID=984403

If the converter boxes for appliances work as well as the digital converter boxes for TV, some appliances will no longer be usable or getting them to work property will be so time consuming as it is for too many people with the digital converter box for TV.

In the near future, the smart grid system would let homeowners decide whether to pay a hefty premium to run their “smart” washers or air conditioners during peak power periods or allow their power companies to shut off their appliances automatically. You can turn off you’re A/C from 2 pm to 8 pm and not cook in those hours either. Gee, I think it would be fun to hang clothes on a clothesline to dry rather than use a dryer.

Possible negatives with smart meters: It is possible for advertising to be transmitted via smart meters and energy companies can gather information on the habits of individual households.

A smart grid, is, in essence, an attempt to require consumers to change their behavior around variable electric rates or to pay vastly increased rates for the privilege of reliable electrical service during high-demand conditions. PRIVILEGE OF RELIABLE ELECTRIC SERVICE?

This enables consumers to better control (or be controlled by) “smart appliances” and “intelligent equipment” in homes and businesses, interconnecting energy management systems in “smart buildings” and enabling consumers to better manage energy use and reduce energy costs.

ENERGY BILL, SMART GRID & MONEY

The GridWise Alliance is a consortium of 75 companies, academics and electricity providers advocating for power grid upgrades.

The Stimulus Package “means a lot of smart grid projects will move a lot faster,” said Katherine Hamilton, president of GridWise Alliance, in Feb of 2007. She must be giddy with joy with the passage of The Energy Bill.

The Stimulus Package gave $4.3 billion for projects that will upgrade the nation’s electric grid.

The Stimulus also includes $100 million for smart-grid related worker training. In addition, it provides $80 million for resource assessment and $10 million for the development of new interoperability standards for the grid.

GRIDWISE MEMBERS

http://www.gridwise.org/page06.html

Smart Meter Saves Big Bucks For Pa. Family
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103437607

The comments are interesting and informative, especially this one:

Matthew Sweeney wrote:
This idea to help people save energy is great, although we in the triad are feeling the financial burden of the water conservation from last year as the water company now has to rasie prices to compensate for the loss of income due to peoples saving water. Put this concept in play with the power company and you may see people saving energy in the long run but only to bring about higher costs. (end of comment)

If my husband bought me a storm door for my birthday that would be grounds for divorce or maybe death.

MANAGERS AMENDMENT OF ENERGY BILL

CJK 06.29.09 at 11:28 am

A sample re the ‘Managers Amendment’: “It moves these billions in new expenses into programs that govern every aspect of human life including, but not limited to, farming; fertilizers; animal husbandry and animal diets; feedstock; soil; land use (forested, cleared, wetlands, etc); “manure management”; and creates gigantic new government bureaucracies (unionized, of course) to regulate, monitor and control American citizens.”
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/06/green-gestapo.html

—————–
ENERGY BILL

A 300-page “Manager’s Amendment to the 1,000-page Energy Tax bill” was delivered Friday at 3:00 in the morning. Not a single person had read the amendment when it was voted upon later that same evening.

These tactics were necessary because if the American public had time to read and digest the bill, they would have marched on Washington with torches and pitchforks.

Consider some of the insane, Constitution-eradicating “features” of just the Waxman-Markey Energy Tax Manager’s Amendment, gleefully applauded by Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama upon its razor-thin passage Friday.

• It creates and regulates every building code in the country and will purposefully overrule any “city, county, parish, city and county authority, or city and parish authority having local authority to enforce building codes and regulations and to collect fees for building permits.”
• It reaches into every neighborhood by eradicating “any private covenant, contract provision, lease provision, homeowners’ association rule or bylaw, or similar restriction” to force localities to accept “green technologies” whether it fits in the neighborhood or not.
• It controls construction of all buildings, residential and non-residential alike, ensuring that every structure “complies with… energy efficiency requirements, standards, checklists or ratings systems…”
• It mandates “Energy audits” to ensure that a “Green Gestapo” checks to ensure that homeowners and businesses aren’t bypassing regulations.
• It creates new real estate appraisal processes, new training mandates for appraisers and, through an “Appraisal Subcommittee”, describes new standards for all real estate valuations based upon green considerations.
• It creates “Green Banking Centers”, which mandates federal financial agencies and regulatory bodies to provide “green housing information” to anyone seeking a mortgage, a home improvement loan, a home equity loan, or similar products. A new, federal job role called “energy rater” will exist; and will be used to provide guidance and ensure compliance around energy efficiency.
• It will spend $150,000,000 on an “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Fund”, which will involve the Secretaries of Education, Housing and Labor, and appears to be a funnel of money flowing directly to union bosses.
more mandates here:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/06/green-gestapo.html

So will all the new jobs this bill is suppose to create be green Gestapo jobs? Sounds like it.

Cap And Trade Grows
Jamie Dupree

NOW 1428 PAGES

Imagine the feds paying companies to produce super energy efficient washers, dryers and more

@ July 1, 2009 12:00 AM

The hard workers at the Government Printing Office have now added in the last minute extras that Democrats attached to the climate change/cap and trade bill, as it now tips the scales at 1,428 pages in all.

That’s right. Just 1428 pages of legislative language for you to peruse this Summer.
If you want to download it, then here is your link:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2454eh.txt.pdf

Oh yeah, other stuff caught my eye as well, like on page 473, “Bounties for Replacement, Retirement, and Recycling of Existing Low-Efficiency Products.”

You read that right – under this bill, the Secretary of Energy would pay money to retailers that get rid of older appliances and machines that use extra energy.

In the same section, the bill lays out “Premium Awards” that would be paid to the manufacturers of new energy efficient appliances.

From what I can make of the legislative gobbledygook on page 479 of the bill, it looks like the feds would pay the manufacturers of “Superefficient Best In Class Products” for each unit that they produce.

* $75 for each dishwasher
* $250 for each clothes washer
* $200 for each refrigerator or refrigerator-freezer
* $250 for each clothes dryer
* $200 for each cooking product
* $300 for each water heater

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/07/cap-and-trade-grows.html

Scarlet

Thanks again for all the great work you do for this thread.

As your knowledge of sources is so much better than mine can you tell me how we can read the two versions of health care reform mentioned in the article below?

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070104124.html

WASHINGTON -- Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers who do not offer coverage to their workers.

The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.

By contrast, an earlier, incomplete proposal carried a price tag of roughly $1 trillion and would have left millions uninsured, CBO analysts said in mid-June. ]

Am I correct in assuming that this info may be available to only a few, including the AP? Hints on where to search would be most appreciated. Thanks again.

Scarlet, hi!

There is too much to do isn’t there? Cap and Trade, Healthcare Reform, Inspectors General, and all the other bills sneaking through Congress that you alert us too. Thanks again. Did you see my question to you at #245

See all the Last-Minute Changes to the Climate Change Bill

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1077-See-all-the-Last-Minute-Changes-to-the-Climate-Change-Bill

FREE SPEECH BILL HR 1966

Delle 07.09.09 at 11:53 am
Please, please everyone.
We’ve got to do everything we can to fight this bill:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/07/hr-1966-sec-881.html
—————–

Criminalizing Free Speech: HR 1966 Sec 881

Here it comes. Thought crime and hate crime legislation. No one can attest to the vile nature of internet harassment, threats and insults more than I can, but I would never silence my “critics”. This law is unconstitutional, a blatant violation of the First Amendment. It destroys the basic tenets of the Constitution. The left is ripping it to shreds. You can view the bill here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1966/text

This represents the end of political blogging and free speech on the world wide web.

If both bills are not opposed and thrown out then the First Amendment will become nothing more than a relic of a bygone age.

That this is even being proposed speaks volumes as to how far America has fallen. Here is the language in the bill:

a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

‘(b) As used in this section-

‘(1) the term ‘communication’ means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received;
‘(2) the term ‘electronic means’ means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.’.

What this means?

U.S. House of Representatives would make it a felony to offend someone online.

A felony.

Under this new law you would not just be slapped on the wrist and have to pay a fine.

You would go to big boy prison.

S. 1261, The PASS ID Act

S. 1261 would repeal title II of the REAL ID Act of 2005 and amend title II of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to better protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of personally identifiable information collected by States when issuing driver’s licenses and identification documents.

Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 6/15/2009: Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Does the PASS ID Act protect privacy? Links within the article to pros and cons of the Act.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/07/07/does-the-pass-id-act-protect-privacy/

The Politics of the REAL ID Revival Bill
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/06/18/the-politics-of-the-real-id-revival-bill/

HEALTH REFORM BILL – over one thousand pages

http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf

One of three House Committees will actually start work on the new House bill today, holding opening statements in the Education and Labor Committee.

I’m sure there won’t be too many members who will be able to claim that they read the whole bill.

On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee will vote on its slice of the health care bill, the hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes that are part of this measure.

HR 3200 – LONG TERM CARE AMENDMENT & MENU LABELING

Around midnight Monday night, the House Energy and Commerce Committee was debating an amendment on long term care. Originally, part of that amendment dealt with something much different.

On Page 65 of the amendment by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) you find a new subtitle on “Menu Labeling.” Here is your link to his amendment

http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090717/hr3200_pallone_1.pdf

The effort deals with nutrition labeling of standard menu items sold at “chain restaurants” and from “vending machines.”

What that means is that you would be told how many calories you are going to eat, how much fat, etc.

What’s interesting is that information would be required not only on the menu, but also on the drive-through menu board.

A”daily special” gets an exemption from the calorie count.

SEC. 2661. NUTRITION LABELING OF STANDARD MENU
ITEMS AT CHAIN RESTAURANTS AND OF ARTICLES OF FOOD SOLD FROM VENDING MACHINES….

NET NEUTRALITY
comment period on the national broadband plan closes next Tuesday, July 21

If You Love the Internet, Fight for It

By Megan Tady, July 20, 2009

I get a little chill when I think about the democratizing power of the Internet, how it allows us to bypass the corporate media for stories that truly reflect our interests and concerns, create and control our own content, connect with people around the world who we are taught to fear, organize for social change beyond the reach of pepper spray, build our own businesses beyond borders, and learn about anything (how to change my car oil; recipe for gluten-free pie; what happens when you put a laptop in the blender?).

Of course, all the reasons above scare the crap out of corporations that are used to controlling everything we watch, read, and hear. They don’t like this unbridled innovation or the fact that we’re spending more and more time watching user-generated content instead of the formulaic sitcoms they plop in front of us. They don’t like that we’ve traded online news for newspapers, in part, because the old guard wasn’t giving us the news we need. And they certainly don’t like that a singer can upload her songs to MySpace and build a following without corporate blessings.

Our Internet service providers – companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable – want that control back, or rather, to further entrench their control. They want to be able to block, throttle, discriminate against, slow down, and speed up content online – and make a killing doing it. And that’s why they’re doing their best to stifle Network Neutrality, the principle that prohibits ISPs from charging consumers and companies to make their content load faster than others.

As the Federal Communications Commission considers how to create a national broadband plan to get high-speed Internet to all Americans, big phone and cable companies are spending tens of millions of dollars on more than 400 Washington lobbyists to crowd out the public’s voice.

But you have the chance to counterattack by telling the FCC you want an open Internet before the comment period on the national broadband plan closes next Tuesday, July 21.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/09/07/20/if-you-love-internet-fight-it

Transportation-HUD appropriations

Thu Jul 23, 2009 at 09:10:59 AM PDT
On the floor today: H.R. 3288, the FY10 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill.

Summary of H.R. 3288 – Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2010
BILL TOTAL
2009 Enacted: $54.99 billion
President’s Request: $108.32 billion
Chairman’s Mark: $68.82 billion
SUMMARY: 2010 TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN
DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS

http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2009/7/23/111744/636

Scarlet
Thank you so much for all the work you do! I love visiting this forum to get current on the administrations shenanigans. 411 on 111 is a Godsend… and so are you! Thank you, again!

Thanks, Dances.

S. 703:
111th Congress
American Health Security Act of 2009

Senate version of Single Payor

Summary:

3/25/2009–Introduced.
American Health Security Act of 2009 – Establishes the State-Based American Health Security Program to provide every U.S. resident who is a U.S. citizen, national, or lawful resident alien with health care services. Requires each participating state to establish a state health security program.

Eliminates benefits under: (1) titles XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), and XXI (State Children’s Health Insurance) (SCHIP) of the Social Security Act; (2) the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; and (3) the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS).

Requires each state health security program to prohibit the sale of health insurance in that state that duplicates benefits provided under the program.

Establishes the American Health Security Standards Board to: (1) develop policies, procedures, guidelines and requirements to carry out this Act; (2) establish uniform reporting requirements; (3) provide for an American Health Security Advisory Council and an Advisory Committee on Health Professional Education; and (4) establish a national health security budget specifying the total federal and state expenditures to be made for covered health care services.

Establishes the American Health Security Quality Council to: (1) review and evaluate practice guidelines, standards of quality, performance measures, and medical review criteria; and (2) develop minimum competence criteria.

Establishes the Office of Primary Care and Prevention Research within the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create the American Health Security Trust Fund and appropriates to the Fund specified tax liabilities and current health program receipts.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-703

About the Senate Health Care Bill

How health care ‘reforms’ will mess with your coverage

Does the bill require you to have health insurance?
Yes. There is a lot of Washington double-talk in the bill – for example, it states, “No individual shall be compelled to enroll in a ‘qualified’ health plan” (sec. 3101).
But if you file a tax return and fail to attach proof of your qualifying health plan, the IRS, in coordination with the expanded federal office on electronic medical records and a new state bureaucracy called a Gateway, will find you, notify you of your default and fine you (sec. 59).

What is a “qualified” health plan?
The bill doesn’t detail what this term means, but the language suggests you will be limited to a managed-care-style plan. Patients will have their care coordinated in a “medical home” – this decade’s term for your primary care provider – and will not be allowed to see a specialist or get a test whenever they want to. Their care will be “coordinated.” Doctors will be paid with “incentives” or hit with penalties to encourage cost-effective care.

One such method is capitation, which means doctors get paid a flat fee per month per patient. With capitation, the fewer tests and referrals you’re allowed, the more your doctor makes (sec. 2707).

More here:
http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/kennedybilldailynews.html

HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EXPECTING CHILDREN – Sections 1904 and 440

I read an article about these sections, but they neglected to say that the program is voluntary. I am not sure if it is voluntary on the part of the families or on the part of the states to participate in this program, but I think it is voluntary on both.

Section 1904
http://www.amchp.org/Advocacy/Home-Visitation/Documents/Home%20visiting%20language%20House%20Tri-Comm%20Bill%20%20%207%2015.pdf

The bill offers funding to states to send government officials into private homes to teach moms and dads how to rear children according to state-approved criteria developed by “experts” and covering every imaginable aspect of parenting.

Home visits by state officials are, among other things, supposed to promote “activities designed to help parents become full partners in the education of their children.” (H. R. 3200, page 844)

The ultimate goal of the bill is for states to reach “as many families with young children and families expecting children as practicable…” (page 842), but the most vulnerable would be targeted first – low income families, non-English-speaking families.
(prejudicial stereotyping and generalization of low-income families and non-English speaking families?)

Once trapped in a system of government “help” and surveillance (required under the bill in order to monitor the effectiveness of the program), it would be very hard for families to break free, both psychologically and literally.

This section would provide a well-trained and competent staff to help parents with:
knowledge of realistic expectations of age-appropriate child behaviors;
knowledge of health and wellness issues for children and parents;
modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices; and
skills to recognize and seek help for issues related to health, developmental delays, and social, emotional, and behavioral skills…”

Within five years after the date of enactment of the section the Secretary shall submit to the Congress a final report on the evaluation conducted on this program. Then, maybe, Congress will mandate it for all families?

3 REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE BILLS

The three Republican bills total almost 400 pages and have been on the table since May and June.

In May, Republicans in the House and the Senate formed a bicameral coalition to produce the 130-page “Patients Choice Act of 2009.”
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=b8876db7-2be0-4c84-b833-3d77dc4afa83

In June, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced the “Health Care Freedom Plan,” a 41-page proposal.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1324

And in July, the Republican Study Committee, under the leadership of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), unveiled the “Empowering Patients First Act,” a 130-page plan.

H.R. 3226:
111th Congress

Czar Accountability and Reform (CZAR) Act of 2009

To provide that appropriated funds may not be used to pay for any salaries or expenses of any task force, council, or similar office which is established by or at the direction of the President and headed by an individual who has been inappropriately appointed to such position (on other than an interim basis), without the advice and consent of the Senate.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3226

HR 3226 – to cut off salaries of these czars which are estimated at $172,000 plus their staff of ten or more people.

OBAMA HAS 34 CZARS

Obama has appointed 34 czars: Afghanistan Czar, AIDS Czar, Border Czar, Car Czar, Climate Czar, Copyright Czar, Cyberspace Czar, Drug Czar, Economic Czar, Education Czar, Energy Czar, Executive Pay Czar, Faith-Based Czar, Great Lakes Czar, Green Jobs Czar, Guantanamo Closure Czar, Health Reform Czar, Infotech Czar, Intelligence Czar, Iran Czar, Middle East Peace Czar, Non-Proliferation Czar, Persian Gulf/SE Asia Czar, Regulatory Czar, Science Czar, Stimulus Accountability Czar, Sudan Czar, TARP Czar, Terrorism Czar, Urban Czar, War Czar, and WMD and Terrorism Czar.

Obama’s czars are accountable to no one except Obama. Are these czars substitutes for nearly half of Obama’s executive branch positions that are not yet filled? Do they have the authority to override those who are confirmed?

The czars’ salaries are paid for by taxpayers, but they are not confirmed by the Senate. Do these czars have access to sensitive security data?

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia (3rd in line for the presidency) wrote a letter to Obama saying that the czar appointments are a power grab by the executive branch and violate both the constitutional system of checks and balances and the constitutional separation of powers. In addition, he said they are an attempt to evade congressional oversight. The letter is here:

http://byrd.senate.gov/2009_02_25_pr.pdf

The President’s Plan for Health Reform

For All Americans,
the President’s Plan:

Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.
Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized.

Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.

Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.

Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.

Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.

MORE of the President’s plan here:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hcsignon/?district=IL6&returnlink=false

House Ethics Update

@ September 17, 2009

The House ethics committee picked a day that was filled with health care reform news to release updates on three different investigations that involve two Democrats and one Republican.
The case we know the most about already is Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL), and his involvement in the effort to fill Barack Obama’s seat in the Senate.

FBI wiretaps on former Gov. Rod Blagojevich uncovered evidence that Jackson was maneuvering to get himself considered for the seat.

The issue is whether Jackson “may have offered to raise” money for Blagojevich, with the assumption that it would help him gain a Senate appointment by the Illinois Governor.

The ethics panel announced it was placing the Jackson investigation on hold, because of a request by the Justice Department, which continues to investigate the Blago matter.
The other two lawmakers who are being investigated are Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

It wasn’t immediately clear why those two members were being investigated.

Waters has had questions raised about the ties of her husband to a bank that took in federal bailout money.

The bank involved is OneUnited Bank in Massachusetts; Waters had insisted on a meeting between Treasury Department officials, officials of that bank and other minority owned financial institutions.

It’s not clear that this is what the ethics probe is about, but it seems to be the conventional wisdom in the halls of the Capitol.

As for Rep. Graves, he got his name wrapped up in this latest ethics update even though the panel issued a statement that said there was no “substantial reason to believe that there was a substantive violation” of House rules.

The dispute evidently has to do with Graves inviting friends to testify before Congress, without disclosing that his wife had an interest in their ethanol cooperative.

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/09/house-ethics-update.html

HR 1479 COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2009

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1479ih.txt.pdf

The purpose of the bill is to close the wealth gap in the U.S. by increasing home ownership and small business ownership for low and moderate income borrowers and persons of color. The CRA standards would be applied to minorities, regardless of income, going beyond earlier requirements that applied solely to the low and moderate income areas.

If the majority wants to expand CRA, the Republicans cannot stop it.

Yesterday, Barney Frank held a hearing on the “Community Reinvestment Modernization Act of 2009.

Congressman wants all ‘czars’ to testify

09/09/09 10:11 AM ET
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) on Wednesday called for President Obama’s “czars,” or appointed high-level advisers, to testify before Congress about their “authority and responsibilities” in the executive branch.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/ews/57849-congressman-wants-all-czars-to-testify

BAUCUS HEALTH REFORM BILL

564 AMENDMENTS HAVE BEEN FILED

They can be checked out here:
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm

The full Senate Finance Committee takes up health care legislation this week and there are already a slew of amendments that would significantly alter the proposal from the chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Unemployment Compensation Extension Act – H.R.3548

This bill would extend by 13 weeks unemployment benefits in states with jobless rates over 8.5%.

S.1687 – prohibit ACORN funding

Title: A bill to prohibit the Federal Government from awarding contracts, grants, or other agreements to, providing any other Federal funds to, or engaging in activities that promote the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Sponsor: Sen Johanns, Mike [NE] (introduced 9/17/2009) Cosponsors (21)
Latest Major Action: 9/21/2009 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 162.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:S1687:
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/b_three_sections_with_teasers/active_leg_page.htm

Senate Health Bill Reform Revisions

The Senate Finance Committee has released revisions to the health care reform bill introduced last week by Senator Max Baucus. Here are the basics from a press release sent to reporters.

MODIFICATIONS TO THE CHAIRMAN’S MARK OF THE AMERICA’S HEALTHY FUTURE ACT

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2009/09/senate-reform-revisions.html

H.R.3501 – Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years Act
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/1/111-h3501/show

Introduced by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, H.R. 3501—known as the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (“HAPPY”) Act—is a federal bill that would reward responsible pet parents by allowing them to keep more money in their pockets come tax time.

We all want to give our animal companions the best care we possibly can, but it seems that pet care costs are always on the rise—and these days, it’s harder than ever to stretch the family budget. That’s why the ASPCA supports H.R. 3501, which would amend U.S. tax code to allow qualifying pet care expenses, including veterinary care, to be tax-deductible.

This means that when you prepare your income taxes, money you spent on pet care that year would count as non-taxable income—and you can deduct up to $3,500 per year!
http://www2.aspca.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=63224.0

The Cap and Trade bill (“American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) passed in the House and now is in the Senate (Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

A lot has been said about the enormous tax hit and energy price hikes to every tax payer that will follow this bill, but not much has been leaked about the impact on your ability to sell and maintain your home. Read on…..

H.R. 2454, the “Cap & Trade” bill passed by the House of Representatives, if also passed by the Senate, will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced. The Congressional Budget Office (supposedly non-partisan) estimates that in just a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. No one is excluded. However, once the lower classes feel the pinch in their wallets, you can be sure these voters get a tax refund (even if they pay no taxes at all) to offset this new cost. Thus, you Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class America will have to pay even more since additional tax dollars will be needed to bail out everyone else.

But wait. This bill (that no one in Congress appears to have actually read) has many more surprises in it.

Probably the worst one is this: A year from now you won’t be able to sell your house. The caveat is (there always is a caveat) that if you have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes (“mobile homes”) are included.

In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator.

To get this permission, you will have to have the energy efficiency of your home measured. Then the government will tell you what your new energy efficiency requirement is and you will be forced to make modifications to your home under the retrofit provisions of this Act to comply with the new energy and water efficiency requirements. Then you will have to get your home measured again and get a license (called a “label” in the Act) that must be posted on your property to show what your efficiency rating is; sort of like the Energy Star efficiency rating label on your refrigerator or air conditioner. If you don’t get a high enough rating, you can’t sell. And, the EPA administrator is authorized to raise the standards every year, even above the automatic energy efficiency increases built into the Act.

The EPA administrator, appointed by the President, will run the Cap & Trade program (AKA the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009″) and is authorized to make any future changes to the regulations and standards he alone determines to be in the government’s best interest. Requirements are set low initially so the bill will pass Congress; then the Administrator can set much tougher new standards every year. The Act itself contains annual required increases in energy efficiency for private and commercial residences and buildings. However, the EPA administrator can set higher standards at any time.

Sect. 202 Building Retrofit Program mandates a national retrofit program to increase the energy efficiency of all existing homes across America .Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Act, you won’t be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. You had better sell soon, because the standards will be raised each year and will be really hard (i.e, ex$pen$ive) to meet in a few years. The Act allows the government to give you a grant of several thousand dollars to comply with the retrofit program requirements if you meet certain energy efficiency levels.
But, wait, the State can set additional requirements on who qualifies to receive the grants. You should expect requirements such as “can’t have an income of more than $50K per year”, “home selling price can’t be more than $125K”, or anything else to target the upper middle class (and that’s YOU) and prevent them from qualifying for the grants. Most of us won’t get a dime and will have to pay the entire cost of the retrofit out of our own pockets. More transfer of wealth, more “change you can believe in.”

Sect. 204 Building Energy Performance Labeling Program establishes a labeling program that for each individual residence will identify the achieved energy efficiency performance for “at least 90 percent of the residential market within 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.” This means that within 5 years 90% of all residential homes in the U.S. must be measured and labeled. The EPA administrator will get $50M each year to enforce the labeling program. The Secretary of the Department of Energy will get an additional $20M each year to help enforce the labeling program. Some of this money will, of course, be spent on coming up with tougher standards each year. Oh, the label will be like a license for your car. You will be required to post the label in a conspicuous location in your home and will not be allowed to sell your home without having this label.

And, just like your car license, you will probably be required to get a new label every so often – maybe every year. But, the government estimates the cost of measuring the energy efficiency of your home should only cost about $200 each time. Remember what they said about the auto smog inspections when they first started: that in California it would only cost $15. That was when the program started. Now the cost is about $50 for the inspection and certificate; a 333% increase. Expect the same from the home labeling program.

Sect. 304 Greater Energy Efficiency in Building Codes establishes new energy efficiency guidelines for the National Building Code and mandates at 304(d) that 1 year after enactment of this Act, all state and local jurisdictions must adopt the National Building Code energy efficiency provisions or must obtain a certification from the federal government that their state and/or local codes have been brought into full compliance with the National Building Code energy efficiency standards.

Here is the link for the bill
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2454pcs.txt.pdf

Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!!!
Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Act, you won’t be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act.
Doing all of this busywork is what will create jobs. That might be one of the reasons they are trying to pass it. Think of all of the work you will need to have done before you are able to sell your own house. Forget the idea that your house is your nest egg.

Smokers, Overweight People to Face Fine Under Health Bill

The Senate Finance Committee approved an amendment to the healthcare bill Wednesday that would allow employers to charge workers with unhealthy lifestyles more for their insurance coverage.

The amendment would permits employers to adjust premiums as much as 50 percent according to the level of workers’ health habits, up from 20 percent now.

“Weight gain and unhealthy lifestyles that focus on smoking and lack of exercise have skyrocketed our healthcare costs,” Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said in a statement cited by Politico news service.

Ensign, who sponsored the amendment along with and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said, “These costs could be lowered by focusing on what makes us healthy — through weight loss programs, smoking cessation and preventive care. Voluntary employee participation in these areas should naturally be reflected in lower healthcare costs.”

Opponents, including the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, counter that the new rule may spur insurers and companies to keep basing coverage decisions on pre-existing conditions, even though the bill itself prohibits that.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/lifestyles_health_bill_/2009/10/01/267241.html

Cost of Treating Obesity Soars

The obese spend 42% more than normal people on medical costs.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204563304574314794089897258.html

S.891
Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009 (Introduced in Senate)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.891.IS:

A pair of senators, Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, have teamed up to introduce S 891 , a bill they hope will force U.S. electronics makers to demand better records on the mining of these so-called conflict minerals. The House is working on similar legislation.

Phones: The new ‘blood diamonds’?
Your favorite tech gadget may be fueling a civil war.
By Scott Montgomery

Should Leonardo DiCaprio’s next movie be “Blood Cell Phones”?

A few years ago, activists around the world focused attention on the role of brutal African militias in the diamond business, highlighted in the Oscar-nominated movie “Blood Diamond.”

Now some are warning about similar problems with the minerals that are in your cell phone, according to our sister publication CQ Weekly ($).

Some of the world’s most popular electronic devices, including cell phones, GPS systems, music players and computers are made using tantalum, tin and tungsten, minerals that are relatively rare in the world but can be found in abundance in the Democratic Republic of Congo , an African nation gripped by a ghastly civil war.
http://www.congress.org/news/2009/09/17/phones_the_new_blood_diamonds

AMENDMENTS INTRODUCED TO HEALTH CARE BILL

There were over 500 amendments considered and it is not clear what is in or out of the health care bill. Here is a link to 564 amendments – what was proposed and by whom.

http://www.silentmajorityspeaks.org/Baucus%20Americas%20Healthy%20Future%20Act%20Amendments.pdf

The Clean Air Act
http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/

Chokehold Sought on EPA Over Carbon Rules
January 2010

N.D. Rep’s Bill Would Reverse Supreme Court Ruling, Remove Authority From EPA to Regulate Greenhouse Gases

CBS) U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy believes lawmakers suffering “buyer’s remorse” over the House’s approval of carbon dioxide limits will support his legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from writing its own greenhouse gas restrictions.

Any regulation of carbon dioxide should be Congress’ job, the North Dakota Democrat said Friday at the Mandan headquarters of the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, whose members are worried about the impact of possible carbon rules on electric rates.

“It affects us all, especially right down to every consumer,” said Robert Grant, of Berthold, who is president of the rural electric group’s board of directors. “The things that could happen with EPA regulation – our costs could skyrocket.”

Pomeroy said his legislation would effectively reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling by declaring that the federal clean-air laws used to decide the case were not meant to apply to greenhouse gases.

“Comprehensive regulations to address global climate change must only be enacted at the direction of Congress, and if Congress specifically intends such regulations to be implemented,” part of the bill reads.

Last June, the U.S. House voted 219-212 to approve “cap-and-trade” legislation, which establishes a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and gives companies a method to trade emission credits among themselves. The measure has languished in the Senate.

Pomeroy voted against the bill, and said Friday at the Mandan news conference that there was “a lot of buyer’s remorse” among its supporters.

“Some of the people who voted for this bill are darn sorry they did,” Pomeroy said. “They might look very eagerly for a chance to get well on this issue.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/09/politics/main6075619.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

New Jobs Bill Text

Here is the text of the new jobs plan from Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

http://wsbradio.com/blogs/jamie_dupree/2010/02/new-jobs-bill-text.html

This is a barebones package that would cost $15 billion, down from the original $85 billion price tag.

There are four basic items in this:

* A new tax credit for hiring workers
* Extra money for highway projects
* Small Business tax breaks
* Build America Bonds

You will also notice an extensive legislative section in this bill with regards to the federal highway program and other transportation items, such as:

“$2,500,000 shall be available in the period beginning October 1, 2010, and ending December 31, 2010, for ferry boats or ferry terminal facilities.”