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The Looming Danger Of The Lame Duck - by Neil Siefring via The Daily Caller
The buzz around Capitol Hill these days is whether the House will
pass a budget, and if Congress will be able to pass individual spending
measures, known as appropriations bills. These discussions are
important, but as spring announces its arrival, it is already time to
think about the fall. That is because Republican congressional
leadership may be using the sunlight of springtime to plan for moving
bad spending bills in the darkness of winter. For after Election Day in
November, Congress will be able to hold a lame duck session. That is a
looming danger for our republic.
The origins of the phrase lame duck can be traced back to 1863. It refers to incumbent members of the House and Senate after a House or Senate election who remain in office until the end of that session of Congress. If either chamber meets after the election, these lawmakers are in a low accountability situation. They have either been defeated and are headed home, or have been re-elected and won’t face the voters again for some time. In a lame duck session, the House and the Senate, if they have the will, can act with virtual impunity. They can act quickly, with truncated debate, and little public input. Read more here...  FreedomWorks' President & CEO Adam Brandon Discusses Future of GOP with Neil Cavuto  FreedomWorks' Congressman of the Month: Rep. Jeb Hensarling - by Logan Albright Rep. Jeb Hensarling was first elected to Congress in 2002 to represent Texas’ 5th Congressional District. He holds a lifetime score of 91 percent on the FreedomWorks Congressional Scorecard, has won the annual FreedomFighter Award multiple times, and achieved a perfect score for three consecutive years. Hensarling is a student of economics who serves as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, where he has a reputation as a fiscal hawk. He coauthored a constitutional amendment to require government spending to grow no faster than the economy, has fought to reform the politically popular, but actuarially unsound, flood insurance program, and vigorously opposed the $700 billion stimulus package that Barack Obama pushed as a response to the housing crisis in 2009. He was also one of the loudest voices in opposition to reauthorizing the cronyist Export-Import Bank. Read more here... Senator Cotton, Stop the Fearmongering Over Justice Reform - by Jason Pye via Medium Congress is closer than ever to enacting sensible criminal justice reforms that would implement data-driven policies that will reduce recidivism and make our communities safer. The Senate and the House already moved similar bills out of committee. House Speaker Paul Ryan has made it clear he wants a bill to move this year, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is less decisive. McConnell’s hesitance to bring the Senate’s criminal justice reform bill, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, to the floor is largely a result of the incendiary rhetoric employed by a handful of Republican senators. Read more here... On the Budget, Republicans Need to Get Serious - by Adam Brandon via The Resurgent It’s a new era of Republican leadership in the House. Speaker Boehner is out, Speaker Ryan (R-WI-1) is in, and just in time for the budget process. Under the influence of the House Freedom Caucus, Republicans finally have a chance to do something about the outrageous spending that is rapidly bankrupting our country. It would all be terribly exciting… except that none of that is actually happening. To the dismay of conservatives, Speaker Paul Ryan, along with House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA-6), has indicated that the forthcoming budget resolution will likely preserve the discretionary spending levels of $1.07 trillion agreed to in a September compromise between then-Speaker John Boehner and President Obama. Anything more ambitious than that, we are told, is simply not realistic. Read more here...  
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the developed
world. This is not because Americans are more inclined to criminality
than other nationalities, but rather is the result of
overcriminalization, inflexible sentencing rules, and a lack of clear
limits on government authority. In the interests of appearing “tough on
crime,” too many politicians have enacted policies that make little
sense, and do more harm than good. Read more here...
House Acts to Save American Brick Industry
- by Curt Levey The House took a stand Thursday against an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that threatens the survival of the small companies that make up the bulk of the American brick industry. The EPA's Brick Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Brick MACT) rule will require brick plants to install costly new emission reduction equipment, after first tearing out the expensive equipment they installed to comply with a previous, less stringent version of the rule. The new equipment will cost about $2.2 million per kiln, yet will eliminate only a negligible amount of mercury emissions per year, far less than is in the teeth of the American population. The bill passed by the House Thursday, H.R. 4557, the Blocking Regulatory Interference from Closing Kilns (BRICK) Act, would delay enforcement of the onerous new EPA regulation until the courts can resolve legal challenges to the rule. That seems like common sense—don't force Americans to comply with a rule before it's determined to be lawful—yet 163 members of the House (all Democrats) voted against the bill. Read more here...
FreedomWorks’ conservative grassroots activists sent nearly 300,000
messages to Senate Republicans urging them to oppose any Supreme Court
nominee while President Barack Obama is in office. The messages were
sent in less than 24 hours, between Monday afternoon and Tuesday
morning.
“It doesn’t matter who the White House names to the Supreme Court, our community has made their position clear: No hearings, no votes while Obama is in office,” said FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon. “This president has already named two radical liberals to the Court. A third would turn the Court into a den of radicalism for years to come and would do irreparable harm to the Constitution and individual freedom.” “Senate Republicans who are even remotely considering betraying the conservative grassroots on this issue should think again. Now is not the time to, once again, cave to Obama and Democrats’ demands. Republicans should listen to the grassroots and fight to preserve Justice Scalia’s legacy,” he added. Read more here... FreedomWorks in Action    Sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update If you want an update like this newsletter twice a week, be sure to sign up for the FreedomWorks Morning Update! The Morning Update is your tool to keep up-to-date with all the threats to your freedom. Sign up here.  Make freedom work, Jason Pye Communications Director, FreedomWorks 
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