This Week in Congress Wrap-up

Yesterday, after a special conference meeting on immigration, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced House leadership would begin drafting compromise legislation that would address both the concerns of “moderates” who want permanent legal status for “dreamers” (those brought to this country illegally by their parents when they were minors) and  those who oppose giving citizenship to anyone who entered the country illegally.

One thing you can be sure will be in Ryan’s “compromise” bill is a mandatory National ID Database, which is why it is important you sign your “No National ID” petition to Congress and forward it to as many of your friends and family as you can. You can sign your petition here.

On Monday, the Senate will be voting on cloture for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). At this point, it is still unknown what, if any, amendments will be offered. It is still a possibility that Senators Bob Corker and Tim Kaine will offer their Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) as an amendment to the NDAA. The Corker-Kane AUMF gives this and any future U.S. President the power to wage war anywhere in the world without a congressional declaration of war, and it even allows indefinite detention and other violations of civil liberties committed in the name of the war on terror.

Yesterday, the House passed the rescissions package by a vote of 210-206. You can see the vote here.

Here is the roll-call vote on the Project Safe Neighborhood bill, which provides federal grants for, among other things, enforcement of unconscionable gun laws. The following 13 representatives voted No on the bill:

Justin Amash (MI-03)

Andy Biggs (AZ-05)

Matt Goetz (FL-01)

Louie Gomert (TX-01)

Paul Goslar (AZ-04)

Walter Jones (NC-03)

Jim Jordan (OH-04)

Raul Labrador (Mn-01)

Thomas Massie (KY-04)

Tom McIntosh (CA-04)

Scott Perry (PA-04)

Mark Sanford (SC-01)

Here is the roll-call vote on the Water Resources Development Act. Only Representatives Amash and Jones voted against it.

Sadly, the Rules Committee failed to call to order an amendment by Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03) which would have blocked the Obama Administration’s Waters of the United States Act (WOTUS), which extended the Clean Water Act to almost everybody in the Eastern United States, in further violation of the act and court precedent.