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National Legislation
RED ALERT! HR 1207 is IN COMMITTEE!
Ron Paul's bill to Audit the Federal Reserve Bank, HR 1207, as of 8/13/09, has 282 co-sponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services. This is a major development. The bill will now be debated and voted upon in the Committee and will then either go to the House for a debate and vote or will be defeated.
BILLS DIE IN COMMITTEE FOR LACK OF SUPPORT. There is no way to know how long it will stay in Committee. That means up to ALL OF US to be sure it comes up for a vote.
Brown (R, SC 1), Wilson (R, SC-2), Barrett (R, SC-3), and Inglis (R, SC-4) are co-sponsors.
Clyburn (D, SC-6), and Spratt (D, SC-5) have NOT signed on.
In addition, the companion Senate Bill S. 604 has also been introduced. Currently, it has 23 co-sponsors, including Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham.
Call Representatives Clyburn and Spratt and tell them you expect them to support the bill to Audit the Fed!
The Congressional Switchboard number is:
1-877-851-6437.
Call and thank your Representative if he is a co-sponsor!
Information from World Net Daily http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100727 and the Campaign for Liberty.
UPDATE from the Campaign for Liberty's John Tate
July 6, 2009
Dear Friend of Liberty,
Earlier today, the first shot in our battle to pass Audit the Fed through the U.S. Senate was fired on the Senate floor by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
Senator DeMint, who has a well-deserved reputation for taking the battle to the other side in the Senate, once again proved why he is such a valuable ally in our fight to bring transparency and accountability to the Federal Reserve.
A little while ago, the Senate voted to pass HR 2918, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. This $3 billion bill contains, among many other things, provisions for GAO audits on certain agencies.
Seizing on a chance to take quick action to bring Audit the Fed up for a vote, and with the GAO provisions in mind, Senator DeMint attached the full text of S 604, the Senate version of Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill, to HR 2918 as Senate Amendment 1367 before it was considered for final passage.
However, Senate Democrats refused to even allow a vote on the amendment! That's right. The internationalist, Fed-loving elite in the Senate used a parliamentary tactic to shut down DeMint's amendment.
After Senator DeMint brought Audit the Fed to the floor, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska raised a "point of order" to prevent a vote, claiming that the amendment violated Senate Rule 16 by "legislating" on an appropriations bill. The Senate president agreed, and the amendment was shot down.
Senator DeMint did not back down, though, and directly challenged Senate leadership by pointing out the other GAO audits contained in the bill. As Senator DeMint listed them off, the Senate president was forced to agree with Senator DeMint that each one he described, all of which would be left in for final passage, also violated Senate Rule 16.
Which tells us at least one thing: the problem wasn't with "legislating" on the bill or violating Senate Rules (which is commonly done). Shooting down the amendment was about preventing a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in its history!
Senate leadership is hoping this issue will just fade away so they can get on to what they deem to be more "important" business, like dictating what kind of healthcare plan you and I can carry or passing destructive Cap-and-Tax legislation.
But the American people deserve answers on what the Fed has done with trillions of our tax dollars and what they are committing us and future generations to as part of their secret deals with foreign central banks and governments.
The leadership decided today to turn their backs on transparency, but our fight is just beginning.
As Senator DeMint made clear on the floor, the Audit the Fed bill has wide bipartisan support. He rightly warned the Senate that even if they delay today, they WILL have to deal with the issue on the floor.
It is up to you and me to back up Senator DeMint's words by making sure the momentum continues to build and the bill comes up for a final vote.
The rejection of the Audit amendment is just the first battle in our war. Now is the time to really put the pressure on the U.S. Senate to Audit the Fed!
Senator DeMint fired the opening salvo and showcased the hypocrisy of the Senate for allowing other GAO audits to be included in the bill while refusing to even allow a vote on Fed transparency.
Again, we're just getting started. Senator DeMint will keep fighting to pass Audit the Fed on its own or as an amendment, and we need to continue putting pressure on our senators to do everything in their power to achieve a floor vote!
Click here to sign our online petition. And visit our Audit the Fed action page for contact information to call, write, and fax your senators and urge them to support S 604 and to push for a final vote.
Together, we will finish this fight to Audit the Fed!
In Liberty,
John Tate
Oppose Federalization of All Waters of the U.S.
The John Birch Society (Alert@JBS.org)
UPDATED June 25, 2009: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787) by a vote of 12-7 on June 18, 2009. As described below, this bill would place virtually all the waters of the United States under federal control. U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) is a ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and has recently issued a warning against the passage of S. 787. The legislation is the "biggest bureaucratic power grab in a generation," Inhofe said. (To view Sen. Inhofe's remarks, click here.)
The committee vote was a strictly partisan vote as Democrats voted FOR the bill while Republicans voted AGAINST it. The list of names may be found by clicking here.
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced S. 787 on April 2, 2009. The bill, known as the Clean Water Restoration Act, would redefine the government’s control over water. The bill is currently in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and already carries 24 cosponsors.
Among other things, S. 787 would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (enacted in 1972) by striking the term “navigable waters” from the bill and replacing it with “waters of the United States.”
What does that mean to you? Simply put, it would federalize basically every water deposit within the United States and place restrictions on landowners.
“With its claim of authority over ‘all interstate and intrastate waters,’ this bill pushes the limits of federal power to an extreme not matched by any other law, probably in the history of this country. Neither an ornamental pond nor the proverbial kitchen sink are excluded,” says M. Reed Hopper, Principal Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation.
The bill lays the framework for unprecedented control over private property by the federal government. As the current law generally only affects navigable waters (one a boat can float on), its authority is largely constitutional under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Although federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers have often pushed the limits of their jurisdiction over water bodies, this amendment gives them free reign over all water, wherever it is located. The U.S. Supreme Court sought to clarify the extent of the jurisdiction of these federal agencies under the Clean Water Act in cases in 2001 and 2006. The courts ruled that for waters to be federally regulated, they must be relatively permanent or directly adjacent to a navigable waterway. But this amendment seeks to return and expand excessive jurisdictional leeway over water on private land to these agencies.
Since Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) moved to put a hold on S. 787, it cannot be voted on until at least 60 Senators vote to remove the hold. This adds an additional step to the process so the bill can't be rushed through. Hopefully this will force more Senators to read the bill and gain even more opposition to its passage.
Environmental Protection Agency Suppression Scandal Threatens Passage of Cap & Trade in the United States Senate
We have renewed hope for defeating Cap & Trade in the U.S. Senate.
Starting on June 24th, two days before passage of the Cap & Trade carbon tax bill H.R. 2454 by a vote of 219 to 212 in the House of Representatives, a scandal erupted over the EPA's aggressive suppression of a highly critical critique of the EPA's publicly stated position on climate change by a senior operation research analyst with 38 years experience. The critique was completed in March of 2009, but its release was squashed by the EPA. Had this analysis and opinion been released on a timely basis, it is very possible that H.R. 2454 would have been defeated on June 26.
Now the bill moves to the U.S. Senate and could be taken up sometime as early as when the Senate return from its recess on Monday, July 6. In the Senate, James Inhofe from Oklahoma has latched on to this report as something that confirms his repeated criticism since 1998 of the global warming hoax and the cap & trade money and power grab. Please watch the You Tube video below in which Senator Inhofe expresses his jubilation over finally having in his hands the smoking gun evidence that he believes will bring the cap & trade juggernaut to a grinding halt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL9FkkDhOwg
However, given the diabolical state of present day power politics, WE CAN'T ASSUME THAT THE MATTER IS SETTLED. It is unequivocally imperative that we pound away at the United States Senate just as hard as we did at the U.S. House last week. This time we have all the information on the video and the article below to direct at our feckless senators. Don't let up until Cap & Trade goes down in flames.
Call Now: 090702 U.S. Senate 2009 Phone Numbers
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