Bills

House Roll Call 584 (9-14-12) H.R. 6213 No More Solyndras Act.

Passed in House: 245 – 161, 23 not voting. Dead in Senate.

Bill Summary:  Prohibits the Secretary of Energy (DOE) from issuing any new loan guarantee of an innovative energy project under title XVII (Incentives for Innovative Technologies) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 for any application submitted to DOE after December 31, 2011. Imposes new requirements for the approval of any applications submitted before that date.

Analysis:  Here was a responsible piece of legislation going nowhere. The GOP capitalized on the Solyndra financing scandal to embarrass the Obama administration and to expose the weakness in the administration’s efforts to pick winners and losers in “politically correct” technology.

Solyndra was a manufacture of innovative, high-tech solar panels located in Fremont, California that received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the guarantees. At one point, President Obama and Vice President Obama touted Solyndra as a showpiece of successful government intervention in the marketplace to stimulate the economy. But then Solyndra went belly up, costing taxpayers more than $500 million.

Of course, there is no constitutional basis for increased government spending (and loan guarantees) to boost the economy out of a government-caused recession.

Supporting this legislation was easy for Republicans (we ignore the GOP votes). But we give credit to the 22 Democrats who elected to side with the GOP on this issue.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue: H.R. 6082 Congressional Replacement of President Obamas Energy-Restricting and Job-Limiting Offshore Drilling Plan.

Result: Passed in House, 253 to 170, 8 not voting. Died in Senate. Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  H.R. 6082 would replace President Obama’s Proposed Final Outer Continental Shelf Oil & Gas Leasing Program (2012-2017) with a leasing plan that incorporates all of the proposed 15 lease sales on an accelerated schedule, and adds an additional 14 lease sales in new areas of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, including in the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Analysis:  For several decades, the Establishment Insiders and their child — the environmental movement have sought to inhibit America’s domestic energy development and increase our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

However, in 2008 political pressure from escalating oil and gas prices caused the George W. Bush administration and Congress to overturn the two-decade long moratoria on new offshore drilling on most of the Outer Continental Shelf. It appeared that some relief was in sight.

However, the five-year leasing plan that the Secretary of the Interior was required to prepare under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act has been constantly trimmed and delayed.

Following a late submission by the Obama administration of a plan that did not include any new leasing areas, the House Committee on Natural Resources produced H.R. 6082 to correct the situation through legislative action.

Realistically, however, H.R. 6082 is pure posturing by the GOP as no one expected the measure to get by the Democrat-controlled Senate, let alone survive a presidential veto.   However, we score the House Democrats on their votes on H.R. 6082, giving credit to those 25 who stood against their party leadership.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue: H.R. 4402 National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012. 

Result: Passed in House, 256 to 160, 15 not voting. Died in Senate.  Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  H.R. 4402 seeks to streamline the permitting process for mining on federal land.   Declares the objective of the lead federal agency in the permitting process is to maximize mineral resource development while mitigating environmental impacts.

Analysis:  The Insider Establishment has been working for decades, principally through its child — the radical environmental movement, to lock up America’s mineral resources in single-use wilderness areas. As far back as 1990, T. S. Ary, director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, warned publicly that in a study of 21 proposed wilderness areas, 19 contain “identified resources of base metals, strategic or critical minerals.”

This campaign has forced America increasingly to go to foreign suppliers for strategic minerals upon which we depend for our high-tech economy and our national security.   The U.S. formerly led the world in the production of rare earth minerals, but now must depend on Communist China for many of these militarily strategic minerals.

Nevertheless, the GOP is not providing leadership for a serious rollback of subversive federal acts and regulations, but merely positioning itself as the champion of the conservative resistance. The GOP leadership knew full well that this measure would go nowhere.

Accordingly, we do not give credit to the Republicans for this easy posturing vote. But we applaud with blue checkmarks the 22 Democrats who voted against the bulk of their party, which earned red Xs.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue: H.R. 6079 To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act 2010.  Sponsor Eric Cantor (R–VA).

Result: Passed in House, 244 to 185, 2 not voting. Died in Senate. Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act.

This measure also repeals the parallel, but not so often mentioned, health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act’s enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act’s health care provisions.

Analysis:  It is good that the House GOP is keeping opposition to Obamacare alive. This was the second time in 18 months that the House voted on a total repeal (see Roll Call 14, 1-19-11). 31 other votes have been to defund or defang portions of the statute.

However, Americans need to recognize that the opposition of the GOP leadership to Obamacare is merely an attempt to maintain its image as the champions of conservatism in the face of powerful public concern over this federal power grab. The opposition of the leadership is not a serious attempt to repeal it.

In fact, following the 2012 reelection of President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner briefly sounded like the GOP might throw in the towel over the law. On November 8, 2012, John Boehner was interviewed on ABC News. When asked whether repealing ObamaCare was still his mission he replied:

“Well I think the election changes that.  It’s pretty clear that the President was re-elected, Obamacare is the law of the land.  I think there are parts of the health care law that are going to be very difficult to implement and very expensive and at a time when we’re trying to find a way to create a path toward a balanced budget, everything has to be on the table.”

Of course, the speaker makes no mention of returning the federal government to its constitutional limits, only of creating a balanced budget (always years in the future).

Never discussed in the Establishment-controlled media are the origins and real objectives of the drive to put the federal government in charge of access to healthcare.   The forces behind this power grab got their first victory with King-Anderson (Medicare), successfully pushed through Congress as the result of the license given to President Johnson in the immediate wake of the Kennedy assassination.

Socialist forces, inside and outside of government had for decades been working toward total federal control. During the 1960s, Fabian Socialist Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers, dominated the Democratic Party and led much of the action. Revolutionary leaders knew that their power grab would have to be accomplished in stages. President Obama’s present to the plan’s Insider backers in 2010 was just one step.

It is naive to expect any major retreat from this victory of Establishment Insiders as long as they dominate the leadership of both parties and as long as voters depend on the Establishment-controlled media for information and analysis.

Politicians in general regularly deceive the American public by ignoring the agenda and forces driving our decline, refusing to highlight the scope of our problem, and by arguing that the solution lies in partisan politics and a balanced budget far in the future.

We do not score the GOP on this posturing roll call, but highlight the public supporters of Obamacare among the Democrats and the five who bucked their party’s leadership.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue: H.R. 4348 Latest title: Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act or MAP-21. (Combines Highway with Student Loan and Flood Insurance.)  

Result: Passed in House, 373 to 52, 7 not voting. Became Public Law 112–141 (signed by the President 7-6-12).  GOP and Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  Combines a 27-month highway bill with a one-year extension of the 3.4 percent subsidized student loan rate and a revamp of the federal flood insurance program for the next five years.

Analysis:  The House-Senate Conference Committee on H.R. 4348, a largely highway measure, tacked on unrelated appropriations for two controversial programs — the Flood Insurance Program and the Stafford Student Loan Interest Rate Expansion Program. The combination of unrelated measures, with tradeoffs, made it politically easier to win bipartisan support. However, the tactic was guaranteed to perpetuate spending for unconstitutional programs.

The highway bill contains massive, intrusive direction to the states in return for receiving financial aid. For example, the bill requires that 10% of amounts made available for federal-aid highways and public transportation programs be contracted to “small business concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”

The two other programs — flood insurance and Stafford student loans at subsidized rates — are unconstitutional, revamped or otherwise, and should be phased out.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Nays and (bad vote) to the Yeas. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue: H.AMDT 1351 to H.R. 5972 An amendment to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013. (Sponsor Paul Broun of Georgia.)

Result: Failed in House, 172 to 250, 10 not voting. Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  This amendment to a House appropriations bill sought to reduce funds for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation by $12.3 million and to apply the savings to the spending reduction account.

Analysis:  One of the few amendment roll calls highlighted in our scorecard on the 112th Congress, this amendment was a clear opportunity to vote for phasing out an unconstitutional overreach of the Federal Government.

In 1978, during the Jimmy Carter administration, Congress chartered the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation as a nonprofit organization to support community development throughout the United States. Currently doing business as NeighborWorks America, the reinvestment corporation provides grants and technical assistance to more than 240 community development organizations.

An immense organization with numerous programs, NeighorWorks America has a national headquarters and seven regional offices. NeighborWorks America illustrates how the federal government uses taxpayer money to build the federal monster, while implementing the socialist agenda of the Establishment and revolutionary Left.

It supports and trains representatives of many other nonprofits to carry out a variety of programs. And as its website proclaims: “Organizations must also lobby for the necessary resources to carry out these programs.” So in a vicious cycle, federally appropriated dollars are used to build a lobbying network for more federally appropriated dollars.

NeighborWorks America also helps implement the revolutionary left’s agenda in community development, low-income housing, and environmentalist orthodoxy. Its “Green Program” proclaims that “sustainability goes far beyond green construction.”

The NeighborWorks America website also lobbies the public with the green agenda. A list of “Energy-Saving Tips for Your Home and Family” includes this advice: “Let Mother Nature light your home. Sunlight is often brighter than bulbs, and it’s free.”

170 House GOP representatives found it easy to support this rollback of an obviously unconstitutional function of the federal government. Shame on the 65 GOP representatives who voted no and caused the amendment to fail.

However, we do not score the GOP on this roll call, only the Democrats. And only 2 Democrats, John Barrow (GA-12) and Jim Matheson (UT-2), stood against their big-government supporting party leaders and voted Aye.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue:  H.R. 4480 Strategic Energy Production Act of 2012.

Result: Passed in House, 248 to 163, 21 not voting. Died in Senate. Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  H.R. 4480 would increase the federal land available for energy production, streamline the drilling permit process, limit environmental review of exploration projects, curb lawsuits against energy companies and press for an opening of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

Analysis:  This sensible step attacks the decades-long federal restrictions on domestic fossil fuel extraction. These unconstitutional restrictions, imposed under the phony pretext of protecting the environment, have served to maintain America’s dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Nevertheless, this roll call merely contributes to the GOP campaign posture of striving to combat high gasoline prices and create jobs. It had no future in the Senate or on the president’s desk.

America is the victim of a calculated, subversive plan by the Insider Establishment to limit America’s access to domestic energy supplies. Rather than take the offensive to expose that plan, its objectives, and the forces behind it, the GOP leadership engages in the politically “safe” but losing wrestling match over environmentalist objections and charges that the measure was a giveaway to the oil and gas industries.

We do not score the House GOP for their almost unanimous support of this measure (229 to 5). But we do score the Democrats and thus applaud the 19 who stood against the environmentalist inroads and the revolutionary agenda of their own party’s leadership.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Ayes and (bad vote) to the Noes. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue:  H.R. 2072 Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012.

Result: Passed in House 330 to 93, 8 not voting. Became Public Law 112-122 (signed by the President 5-30-11). GOP and Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  Reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank until September 30, 2014. Raises the Bank’s lending limit from $100 billion to $140 billion over that period.

Analysis:  The current charter for the bank, which ostensibly helps finance U.S. exports of goods and services, was set to expire May 31.

         In March of 2011, Washington observers were forecasting a looming “battle” in Congress over the Export-Import Bank.   The Bank was nearing its $100 billion lending limit, and the administration was pushing lawmakers to raise the cap and reauthorize the agency. That “battle” confirmed that political “leadership” won’t solve America’s problems.

A deeper look at the battle also puts the lie to many popular political images. According to a CQ [Congressional Quarterly] Today article:

“Senate Democrats are turning up the heat on Republicans to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor seeks to satisfy the credit financing agency’s business advocates and the more ideological, free-market elements in his caucus.”   — “Ex-Im Bank Puts House GOP in a Tight Spot,” CQ Today 3-14-12

But opposition to the Ex-Im Bank should be based on much more than its violation of free-market economics. Indeed, any principled program to enforce the Constitution, protect freedom, or create prosperity must call for the “Bank’s” abolition.

Since 1934 the Ex-Im Bank has played a significant part in internationalist plans to redistribute the world’s wealth and build up America’s enemies (see Read more, below). And since Council on Foreign Relation (CFR) Insiders have dominated every presidential administration since World War II, presidential support for the Bank has not been an option. The Obama administration’s claim that reauthorizing the Bank will ensure a level playing field for U.S. businesses, at no cost to American taxpayers, does not reflect historical experience.

The network of CFR influence on behalf of the Ex-Im Bank has not been limited to the presidency.   An overwhelmingly bi-partisan majority in both chambers of Congress approved the reauthorization.

Indeed, H.R. 2072 was introduced in the House by Republican Representative Gary Miller of California. Democrats supported the measure unanimously (with 7 not voting). In the Senate, Miller’s measure also received unanimous Democratic support (with the exception of 1 Democrat who did not vote).

We have assigned (good vote) to the Nays and (bad vote) to the Yeas. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

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Issue:  H.R. 2842 Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2012.

Result:  Passed in House, 265 to 154, 13 not voting. Died in Senate.  Democrats scored.

Bill Summary:  Exempts the small conduit hydropower development authorized by this Act from the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), except with respect to siting of associated transmission on federal lands.

Analysis:  H.R. 2842 takes issue with one small part of the federal government’s unconstitutional role in curbing America’s energy production, long established under the pretext of protecting the environment.

The vote on H.R. 2842 provides good political posturing for the GOP (which supported the measure unanimously). However, GOP leaders undoubtedly recognized that environmentalist objections in the Senate would doom H.R. 2842 to oblivion. So we do not score the GOP on this roll call, only the Democrats.

28 Democrats resisted the environmentalist clout and their own party leadership to support H.R. 2842.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Yeas and (bad vote) to the Nays. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)

Issue:  H.J. Res. 98 Disapprove raising Debt Ceiling.  Relating to the disapproval of the President’s exercise of authority to increase the debt limit, as submitted under section 3101A of title 31, United States Code, on January 12, 2012.

Result:  Passed in House: 239 – 176, 2 present, 16 not voting.

Bill Summary:  H.J. Res. 98, if enacted into law, would have prevented an increase in the national debt ceiling.

Analysis:  As part of the debt ceiling deal agreed to in August (see House Roll Call 690 (S.365) (8/1/11) Budget Control Act of 2011, the debt ceiling would be raised by $2.1 trillion or more in stages corresponding to agreed cuts in ten-year spending. This amount was expected to tide the federal appetite over until after the 2012 elections.

However, the agreement also included a disapproval process for the interim increases when the debt threatened to bump against the ceiling. The disapproval process had little teeth. Congress (i.e., both houses) would have to enact a joint resolution disapproving the increase to block it – an unlikely event with the Republicans controlling the House, the Democrats the Senate, and the White House able to veto the resolution.

So the almost unanimous vote by House Republicans to block the debt increase was mostly posturing. However, we give credit to the six House Democrats who bucked their party leadership and registered their disapproval of raising the limit.

We have assigned (good vote) to the Yeas and (bad vote) to the Nays. (P = voted present; ? = not voting; blank = not listed on roll call.)