Category: Politics

Whether or not you agree with a COS, and whether or not you agree that with a large enough plurality of states with strong constitutional and law guarantees protecting rights, especially RKBA, the chances of a convention running amok over civil rights is small;  the one thing to remember is that the original states called a convention to only fix the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation, and wound up completely replacing it. If we do have another convention, it will take strong leadership and strongly led delegations to offset those who will undoubtedly attend with evil intent against our freedom and liberties.

An Article V Convention Becomes More Likely as Convention of States Action Hits the Halfway Mark

On Jan. 31, Convention of States Action (COSA) announced that Nebraska and Wisconsin passed resolutions officially calling for an Article V Convention. They join 15 other states bringing the total to 17. These resolutions mark the halfway point for the 34 required to convene a Convention.

South Dakota’s resolution also passed in the house and will head to the Senate shortly. COSA President Mark Meckler is looking forward to a year full of continued success with Iowa, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, and New Mexico. Like South Dakota, these states need passage in one more chamber………….

Where You Used to go Armed in New York

There is a bill in the New York Assembly that makes most destinations into “gun-free” zones. I call it the “Prohibited Places” bill and you need to know the back story for this to make any sense at all.. even for the politicians.

It never made sense for honest citizens.

First, there is an important case before the US Supreme Court called NYSRPA v Bruen. That case asserts that New York State required ordinary people to get a permit to carry a firearm in public, and then denied those permits to ordinary citizens. It sounds like New York Democrats are conceding that they infringed on the right of self-defense and will lose the Bruen case. Maybe a liberal justice on the Supreme Court already gave them the text of that decision.

That brings us to Bill A8684 before the New York Assembly which “Prohibits firearms in certain locations, including but not limited to all forms of public transportation, large gatherings, and food and drink establishments.”

Since New York Democrats will soon have to issue carry permits, they want to make everywhere a gun free zone for everyone.

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ANTI-GUNNERS IN THE GRASS

Something insidious is underfoot, a strategy so subtle it is likely going unnoticed in your own neighborhood, school district, small town, larger city and in your county.

If you don’t wake up and pay attention, you may instead wake up some morning to discover you slept through a takeover of your community. Now is the time to stop it.

Comrade Workman

For more than a year, I have been receiving emails from an organization calling itself the “National Democratic Training Committee” which seems to support every far-left item on the liberal agenda and every far-left politician. Buried down near the end of each of these messages is this ominous note: “Listen, there are 518,000 elected positions in this country. Imagine if Democrats fought for every race — no matter how small. Imagine a world where our values of compassion and dignity for all people are upheld on every school board, on every city council, and in every state legislature.”

Got your attention, yet? This group also includes a hard link to find out more about running for public office. Just click on “I want to run for office” and the Democratic Training Committee will start indoctrinating — oops, we mean “training” — you for what they hope will be a winning campaign.

To paraphrase their own message, “Imagine if puppets for this group won every race — no matter how small. Imagine a world where their values became law, overruling your values, from the level of school board up through the state legislature.”

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When you’re a demoncrap and still losing the WaPost…..

Joe Bye-Done: WaPo’s Article About Biden’s Struggles Sure Does Drive a Dagger Into His Presidency

Joe Biden’s presidency is one year old—and it’s a total nightmare. The nation is still divided. Omicron is sweeping the nation. Inflation is through the roof. The grocery store has bare shelves. The supply chain crisis is ongoing. The border crisis is out of control. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a nightmare. We might see another embassy evacuation in Ukraine. The jobs reports are trash. It’s not going well. The only person who thinks all is well is…Joe Biden. That doesn’t account for much since he’s dementia-ridden. He’s old. He’s slow. He’s stupid. Three things the president of the United States cannot be in this world. The scent of weakness is present for all to see, which is why Russia and China are flexing big league right now. As Russia prepares for a possible invasion of Ukraine, China is probably smiling looking at the Taiwan Strait.

What’s become clear is that one year into his presidency, Biden can’t do the job. That’s what jumps out in this Washington Post piece about Biden’s “slide” in the polls. The other thing that comes to mind is this question: how did this get published? It’s quite a searing piece, with even members of his own party slamming his performance. Even swing voters polled by Democratic pollsters see a bad word association brewing when it comes to Joe Biden, ones that are election killers. It’s why many Democrats probably cringed when Joe declared he was going to be active on the 2022 campaign trail for the midterms. Biden’s approvals are circling the drain, with numbers ranging from the 30s and 40s. He’s a cancer to his party, with its more centrist members probably hoping he just forgets where they are on the district map. Congressional Democratic leaders told their members to gamble on Build Back Better, with moderates voting for the lefty action items only to have Joe Manchin torpedo the bill. Now, their names are attached to this Bolshevik package. For progressives, Biden promised he could sway Manchin. That failed miserably. It was a disastrous push toward the end of the holiday season that pretty much captured the Biden administration as one of being incompetent and being outright blind to the political realities at hand. You can’t go hard left with a 50-50 Senate and a four-seat majority in the House.

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LOL! Beto Beat-Zero Doesn’t Want Biden Anywhere Near Texas During Campaign

Beto O’Rourke, who has nothing better to do than run another pointless statewide campaign in Texas, doesn’t want any help from Joe Biden or any other Democrat in Washington.“I’m not interested in any national politician — anyone outside of Texas — coming into this state to help decide the outcome of this,” O’Rourke told reporters on Friday. “I think we all want to make sure that we’re working with, listening to and voting with one another here in Texas.”

It’s cute the way Beto makes it out like he doesn’t want Texas outsiders to help his campaign instead of simply wanting the unpopular Joe Biden to not make his inevitable defeat any more embarrassing than it needs to be.

Beto previously ran for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz in 2018. Beto also ran for president in 2020, and that didn’t go any better.

“No one in Washington D.C. right now can help us with the challenges that we have,” Beto added. “This one is on all of us.”

The most recent Quinnipiac poll has incumbent Governor Greg Abbott (R-Tex.) up 15 points over Beto.

The Coming Dethronement of Joe Biden
Biden’s situation presents the unnamed committee who actually runs the presidency with a huge and delicate problem. It can’t last.

It’s not often that I agree with Joe Biden, but he said something in his nasty, brutish, and long press conference last week with which, if properly understood, I agree.

Don’t get me wrong. The press conference as a whole was a “total disaster.” Notwithstanding the sycophantic performance of the court eunuchs in the regime media, everybody understands this. (But speaking of “court eunuchs,” what’s the female equivalent? It was Jennifer Rubin, who actually gave Biden an “A-” for the presser, that prompts this vital question and I hope some enterprising savant will contribute the answer.)

At one point, a reporter, noting a few of the multifarious failures of Biden’s first year in office—runaway inflation; his failure to “shut down the virus”; the smoldering ruin of his legislative agenda; the sharp, persistent partisan divisions that he came to office promising to heal—given all that, the scribe suggested, perhaps Biden had “overpromised.”

No, no, Biden replied, “I didn’t overpromise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”

Delicious, isn’t it? Peel off and discard the first bit. Biden clearly overpromised. Just utter the word “normalcy” anywhere near the name “Biden” and watch the reaction. But many people jumped all over the second bit. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), for example, quoted the word “outperformed” and tweeted: “I’m not sure what planet he’s inhabiting but on planet earth his record is a record of failure.”

That is true. It’s a dismal record of failure, and we’ve only made it through one year. Biden’s even outdone his master, Barack Obama, who before Biden held the world record for worst president in the history of the United States. Biden is far worse, in part, granted, because he continues to follow the blueprint set forth by his clean, elegantly clad predecessor.

But I have to cavil with the idea that Biden has not “outperformed” expectations. He certainly outperformed mine. I didn’t think he would make it through his first year in the White House. But here it is, January 20-something, and the old guy is still in office. Amazing.

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“It’s only wrong to call elections illegitimate if you’re a Republican.”

Biden is hardly the first Democrat to try to delegitimize elections.

President Joe Biden joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and numerous other Democrats this week in a partisan attempt to preemptively delegitimize the 2022 election.

Twice the president was asked by reporters whether voters could trust the electoral system, and twice the president contended that a fair election was unlikely unless the Senate was blown up and the Democrats’ election power grab was passed — a maneuver that poses a far more serious and lasting threat to the constitutional order than anything Donald Trump is cooking up right now.

“I think it would easily be illegitimate,” said Biden. “The increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in proportion to not being able to get these reforms passed.” Vice President Kamala Harris, sent out on the morning shows Thursday, offered basically the same position.

For people lamenting the “Big Lie,” this is nothing new. Trump’s election-fraud conspiracy theories have been endlessly documented. Sometimes it sounds as if he has merely appropriated the language of Democrats, who’ve been playing this ugly game for years. And it’s not only the post-election evidence-free Stacey Abrams-style sore-loserism that we’re typically subjected to. It’s far more pervasive.

During Trump’s first impeachment — headier times, when we were still pretending to care about the fate of Ukraine rather than inviting Vladimir Putin to take a slice — Democrats argued that ousting Trump was a precondition to a fair election.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned colleagues that maintaining the position that elections should decide Trump’s fate was “dangerous” and “only adds to the urgency of our action, because the president is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.” Adam Schiff, one of the leading culprits in the Russia “collusion” swindle, concurred: “The president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won.”

Never once, incidentally, have any of these people offered a scintilla of evidence demonstrating that a single person’s vote was changed, altered or appropriated by Trump or Russians or anyone else. Yet at one point, a healthy majority of Democrats claimed to believe that Putin had altered vote tallies. How many Democrats still believe it?

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Twitter Locked Out Congressional Candidate Joe Kent Over Tweet Supporting Gun Rights

Twitter suspended the account of Joe Kent, a Republican congressional candidate from Washington state for tweeting in support of gun rights. He had to delete the tweet to recover his account.

“We will never give up our gun laws,” Kent tweeted. “Gun laws are infringements of our god given rights.WA state is back at it, a week ago we caught the board of health discussing forced quarantine, now the legislature going after our 2A. No 2A + forced quarantine = Australia.”

Kent, a retired Green Beret, is running for Congress in Washington state.

“Today I was suspended for defending 2A & calling out WA state’s COVID policies including the potential of forced quarantine,” Kent tweeted after he recovered his account.

He vowed to fight Big Tech if he is elected.

“I will NEVER stop defending our 2A & fighting COVID mandates. When I get elected to Congress I will help Break Up Big Tech,” Kent wrote.

Speaking to Breitbart, he said Twitter is targeting those challenging Biden’s foreign policy.

“Twitter’s suspension of me is without cause,” Kent said in a comment according to Breitbart. “In the past 24 hours I have tweeted my concerns about Biden recklessly escalating tensions with Russia over Ukraine. It is clear that Twitter is trying to silence credible voices that are questioning Biden’s disastrous foreign policy.”

He added: “This is big tech limiting my voice as an American and as a political candidate. It’s very telling that they focused on me over my take on an issue that has bipartisan establishment & mainstream media support; another war. The establishment is craving war and won’t tolerate dissent.”

The Tide Is Turning On Gun Control
After two consecutive years of record violence, some on the left may be rediscovering the importance of self-defense.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Second Amendment did not create a right to keep and bear arms. Rather, the Second Amendment acknowledges and seeks to protect the People’s natural right to self-defense and the tools required for the exercise of that right, which obviously include firearms. This is why the amendment speaks of “the right” to arms as something already in existence and not to be infringed—rather than as something newly conferred, a point recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court.

It should not be a polarized and partisan issue. Historically, the right of armed self-defense was understood and exercised by figures who were far from conservative or libertarian, from Eleanor Roosevelt and George Orwell to the Black Panthers and Malcolm X. In a dangerous world, they understood that one’s life should not be left to the mercy of an aggressor.

In light of 2021—a second consecutive year of record violence—are some on the left rediscovering the importance of self-defense? There’s reason to think so.

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Wisconsin Assembly OKs GOP-led gun rights bills

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Assembly approved a package of Republican-authored bills on Thursday that would dramatically expand gun rights in the state, moving forward with the proposals even though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will almost certainly veto them.

The proposals would allow people with concealed carry licenses to go armed on school grounds and in churches attached to private schools; lower the minimum age for obtaining a concealed carry license from 21 to 18; and allow anyone with a concealed carry license from any state to go armed in Wisconsin. Currently, only people with licenses from states that conduct background checks on applicants can carry concealed guns in Wisconsin.

Assembly Democrats railed against the bills during a news conference before the floor session began, saying the measures would make the state more dangerous.

“Today we vote on bills that will bring guns to our school grounds, a bill that will allow high school seniors to carry concealed weapons and a bill permitting people from out of state who would normally fail a criminal-background check to carry guns in Wisconsin. As a parent, as a teacher and as a citizen, this is terrifying,” Rep. Deb Andraca, an elementary school teacher and a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, a group that works to reduce gun violence.

Republicans defended the proposals at their own pre-session news conference.

“Our Second Amendment rights, those are just critically important to everybody across Wisconsin,” said Rep. Shae Sortwell, who is the chief Assembly sponsor for the bill that would lower the concealed carry age. “(We want to) make sure that every adult American, whether they are visiting Wisconsin, whether they are living in Wisconsin, has the same rights under the law.”

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When you are so mentally gone, you are incapable of realizing that you’re actually making your opposition their campaign commercials for them…….

Second Amendment Preservation Act introduced in Iowa Senate

A bill in the state senate would establish a $50,000 fine for an Iowa city and law enforcement agency where an officer enforces federal gun regulations that are stricter than the state’s.

The bill is part of a campaign that has prompted county supervisors to designate 33 Iowa counties as “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” where federal gun laws wouldn’t be enforced by local officials if the Biden Administration or congress were to enact tougher regulations. Senator Zach Nunn of Bondurant, a Republican congressional candidate in Iowa’s third district, is the sponsor of the so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act.

“We want to protect our law enforcement officers on the front line who are serving the community, but not deputize them as agents of a department or agency to go in and infringe upon an Iowan’s Second Amendment constitutional rights,” Nunn said yesterday during a subcommittee hearing on the bill.

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‘Take Me to Your Leader’: Sen. John Kennedy Said it ‘Would be Embarrassing’ For Aliens Arriving in America to Meet Biden

WATCH:

 

Can the DC Project be the 2A counter to Moms Demand Action?

We’ve all become familiar with the gun control lobby’s group of red-shirted women demanding more infringements on our right to bear arms, but Moms Demand Action isn’t the only game in town when it comes to a female-centered movement dealing with gun ownership. Since 2016, the DC Project has been attracting a growing number of women who support the Second Amendment, and at this year’s SHOT Show, the group’s founder Dianna Mueller hosted a press event to help spread the word about the organization and its efforts around the country.

Mueller wants the organization to become a counter to Moms Demand Action, and one of the most visible ways the group is doing so is by adopting the color teal to serve as a visual sign of support for the Second Amendment, just as the red shirts of MDA are an easy way for lawmakers to see gun control activists in attendance at legislative hearings or in statehouse galleries. But Mueller and the other DC Project leaders aren’t just looking for ways to visually signal their pro-2A attitudes. They’re looking to have an impact on legislative policies around the nation. In fact, as Mueller told the audience at the DC Project presser on Tuesday, their goal is nothing less than to “save the country” through activism and education.

One of the things that’s most impressive about what the DC Project has been able to accomplish in just five years of existence is that the women have done this largely on their own. Sure, the group has some corporate and individual sponsors, but there’s no deep-pocketed billionaire bankrolling the organization as we’ve seen with Michael Bloomberg and Moms Demand Action. This is a true grassroots effort, and it’s so great to see how the organization has grown over the past five years.

In 2016, the DC Project’s first goal was to bring 50 women, one from every state, to Washington, D.C. to simply demonstrate to lawmakers that yes, pro-Second Amendment women weren’t mythical creatures. From there, the project has snowballed to the point that there are now more than 40 state-level directors for the DC Project leading the pushback against gun control legislation and pressing legislators to approve pro-2A bills, while DC Project members have been called to testify on Capitol Hill on an increasingly frequent basis.

Mueller pointed to the passage of Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, as well as the defeat of a bad bill in the Democrat-controlled legislature in Nevada last year as two examples of the state-level work that the DC Project is engaged in, and also discussed the legislative battles over multiple gun control bills that they’ll be engaged in this year in Washington State, where lawmakers are once again looking to ban so-called assault weapons and high capacity magazines while further eroding the state’s firearm preemption law and allowing localities and counties to impose their own restrictions on the right to carry during public meetings, permitted events, and in government-owned buildings.

The DC Project is still a pretty new endeavor, all things considered, but they’re already doing great work and have big plans for the immediate future. I’d encourage every woman who supports the Second Amendment to become a part of this organization and get involved in what the DC Project is doing. As their sign says, gun rights are women’s rights, and it’s critically important for more of us to be politically engaged if we want to see those rights safe and secure.

BLUF:
To Biden and Democrats, violent crime is a gun crime problem, but they ignore that 92% of violent crime has nothing to do with guns. And they ignore that defensive guns uses are four to five times more common than gun crimes.

The bottom line is that the media could do a much better job of asking politicians such as Biden tough questions on crime. If we want to save lives and protect people from violence, we need those questions asked.

What Reporters Should Ask Biden About Guns at His Promised Press Conference on Wednesday

President Biden’s remarks after the hostage situation at the synagogue in Texas leave more questions than answers.

What were the motivations for the attack occur? A full day after a Pakistani Muslim attacked a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath to gain the release of Aafia Siddiqui described as the “Lady of al Qaeda,” Biden doesn’t know. The synagogue was near where Siddiqui is held. But when asked why the attacker targeted that synagogue, Biden again responded that he didn’t know but promised more at a press conference on Wednesday.

Those answers are surely much better than the answers given by the FBI on Saturday, where they were not sure of the motive but ruled out the attack being “specifically related to the Jewish community.” The investigation should go forward, but it is troubling that the FBI’s immediately concluded no connection between a radical Pakistani Muslim trying to free a prominent al Qaeda member and an attack on a synagogue. The “massive backlash” forced the FBI to walk back its claim.

But there are other important problems with Biden’s comments. While he concedes that “you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street,” what he does know is that this type of attack occurs because “there’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous.”

His first suggested solution? Background checks. Presumably, he means background checks on the private transfer of guns – so-called “universal background checks.” The problem is that even if such a law had been in effect and perfectly enforced, it wouldn’t have stopped one mass public shooting this century.

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He never had any ‘credibility’. The stories are that everyone in Congress knew him as a blowhard, lying bigot from day one. The left knew it but they and their lackies in the media wanted to fool enough people to get Trump out.

The moment Joe Biden finally lost his credibility

If President Joe Biden’s disorderly and lethal Afghanistan withdrawal was the moment that fractured voters’ regard for him, then his vicious Atlanta speech last week may be the moment that defines his presidency.

Speaking Tuesday at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Biden uttered venomous, brutal accusations lacking factual basis. His shouting-in-the-wind delivery was inexplicable, and his decision to lash out at members of his own party — Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — appears to have only strengthened their resolve not to give in to his demands.

Biden called those who disagree with his political views on legislation “domestic enemies.” He compared them to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and former Alabama Democratic Party Committeeman and ardent, violent segregationist Bull Connor. In American politics, that is about as divisive as one can get — at least he didn’t mention Hitler.

Biden bears no resemblance today to the man who ran for president, pledging over and over again to unify the country and restore a sense of calm and normalcy to politics. From the day he was sworn in to office and signed executive orders putting thousands out of work in the energy industry, he ceased to be that guy from Scranton that people thought he was.

He has not been that guy since he invited, through ill-considered policy changes, untold numbers of illegal immigrants across our borders. He has not been that guy since he miserably failed the troops and the nation’s image during his catastrophic tail-between-his-legs retreat from Afghanistan.

Biden, despite having no mandate and only the barest legislative majority for his party, has turned divide-and-conquer politics into the solution for everything, including the pandemic.

You don’t warn a nation that a winter of “severe illness and death” is coming for the unvaccinated because your aim is to bring people together; those words are intended as a threat and a slight, just like his resurrection of George Wallace in last week’s speech to score cheap political points.

The scope of Biden’s fall from grace — from glib middle-class Pennsylvanian to venomous, lying politico who will say anything to please left-wing activists — has been staggering.

This has not gone unnoticed by voters. Last week’s Quinnipiac poll showed that a plurality of voters (49%) now believe Biden is doing more to divide the country than to unite it.

Biden’s approval rating among adults was at an abysmal 33% points; independents gave him 24%; Hispanics a bit more at 28%. His approval rating within his own party has fallen 12 points since November.

The media tried to write off his fall as temporary last August, when a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed the public disapproving of his incompetent performance in Afghanistan by a 2-1 ratio. At the time, this event marked the first time in his presidency his approval rating was net negative.

But in the time since, Biden has only kept losing support.

This moment and the associated loss of credibility that Biden is suffering will have lingering effects in the American psyche. They might not remember all of the words, but they will remember Biden’s vicious, nasty, bad-faith accusations, his flagrant falsehoods, and his petulant tone.

As with Afghanistan, the media and the people who surround Biden will dismiss the public reaction, and Biden will be worse off for it.

Washington state forges ahead with three of the most extreme gun control bills in the nation

The Washington State Senate is considering passing three of the most extreme gun control bills in the country.

Assault Weapons Ban/Ban on Most Semi-Automatic Rifles

SB 5217 would establish a traditional Assault Weapons Ban, which includes modern sporting rifles, such as the AR-15.

What makes this bill even more extreme is it bans most semi-automatic rifles.

According to the bill, all “assault weapons” and their “copycats” are banned. Notice

“‘Copycat weapon’ means a semiautomatic, centerfire firearm that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine” as well as one other feature, such as a suppressor, threaded barrel, muzzle brake, or grenade launcher.

“High-capacity” Magazine Ban

SB 5078 would create a “high-capacity” magazine ban. To skirt the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Duncan v. Becerra, which struck down California’s “high-capacity” magazine ban, Washington State would grandfather in those that already own these magazines.

“The legislature does not intend to create a blanket ban, but only to limit the prospective sale of large capacity magazines, allowing existing legal owners to retain large capacity magazines for the purposes of defending themselves and their homes and using those large capacity magazines in other authorized locations,” the bill reads.

Interestingly enough, the bill also redefines what constitutes as a “high-capacity” magazine. Traditionally, anti-gunners consider magazines that hold 10 rounds or less as “normal” and 11+ rounds as “high-capacity.” SB 5078 changes the definition to 12+ rounds.

“Ghost Gun” and Bump Stock Ban

HB 1705 is rather redundant to federal legislation. It bans new “ghost guns” from being built. Those that own these firearms must have serial numbers before selling to an FFL, which is already federal law.

The bill also outlaws bump stocks, which are deemed a “machinegun” under the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act. The ATF changed the bump stock designation after the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas.

With this as further confirmation, if you haven’t figured out by now that demoncraps are in any sense American, I can’t help you anymore.

NASA leasing bill transformed into “voting rights” legislation.

WASHINGTON — NASA’s ability to lease property at its facilities to companies or other organizations remains in limbo after a bill meant to reauthorize it was transformed in the House into voting rights legislation.

H.R. 5746 was introduced in October by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), chair of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee. The bill extended NASA’s authorization to enter into what are known as enhanced use leases, or EULs, of agency property to companies, government agencies, or educational institutions, for 10 years. The House passed the bill by a voice vote Dec. 8.

The Senate amended the bill, extending the EUL authorization by only three months instead of 10 years, and passed it by unanimous consent, sending it back to the House.

The Democratic leadership of the House, in an unusual move, then took the Senate-amended bill and stripped out the NASA provisions, replacing it with the text of two voting rights bills and now called the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.” They did so because H.R. 5746 had already passed the House and Senate, so the amended version could go directly to the Senate floor without the threat of a filibuster from Senate Republicans, who oppose the voting rights legislation.

The move effectively sacrificed the NASA portions of the bill, something that Beyer said he accepted. “Though I did not expect this outcome when I first introduced the NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act, if my legislation will help overcome the filibuster, the Senate can finally have the long-overdue debate on voting rights this country deserves,” he said in a Jan. 13 statement. “I would be honored to make this unexpected contribution to the cause of protecting our democracy.”

The House passed the bill Jan. 13 220 to 203 on strict party lines, with Democrats voting in favor of the bill and Republicans against it.

Republican members, including some who co-sponsored the original H.R. 5746, strongly criticized the decision to turn the NASA bill into a vehicle for voting rights legislation. “The majority has taken a practical, bipartisan bill and gutted it, inserting 735 pages of unrelated legislation and forcing the House to vote on it barely 12 hours after the text was released,” Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member of the House Science Committee, said in a statement. “What’s more, by stripping this NASA bill and replacing it with an attempt to impose federal control of elections, they have killed our only vehicle to extend NASA’s authority to lease out underutilized property and save taxpayer money.”

NASA’s EUL authority lapsed Dec. 31, meaning that the agency cannot enter into new leases until that authority is renewed. NASA had signed leases for 65 properties as of 2019, which provided the agency with nearly $11 million in revenue that went to support other facility improvements.

It’s unclear what the next step is for restoring NASA’s EUL authority. A Senate bill introduced in December proposed a two-year extension, but that bill remains in the Senate Commerce Committee.

“We hope and expect to pass an EUL extension in future legislation,” Aaron Fritschner, spokesman for Rep. Beyer, told SpaceNews Jan. 13 after the House vote, but details on how to do so were still being worked out.

 

Sinema Kills Biden’s Election Power-Grab Scheme Just as He Arrives on Capitol Hill to Push It

Despite all of President Biden’s blustering fire-and-brimstone doomsday talk about evil Republicans — who are simply operating within the Senate’s established rules — it was a Democrat Senator who on Thursday delivered a mortal blow to the White House’s latest attempt to secure a legislative victory on so-called “voting rights.”

Arizona Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema took to the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon to once again explain why the 60-vote threshold to stop a legislative filibuster is both necessary and not worth upending for a temporary wish.

Demonstrating more foresight than the late Harry Reid or current Senate Majority Chuck Schumer demonstrated, Sinema declared that “eliminating the 60-vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy from threats in the years to come.” Ending the legislative filibuster in order to force through Democrats’ radical federal takeover of elections is something Sinema said would “worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country.”

“The debate over the Senate’s 60-vote threshold shines a light on our broader challenges,” Sinema continued in her floor speech. “There’s no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There’s no need for me to restate its role protecting our country from wild reversals in federal policy.”

As Vespa covered earlier in January, Sinema’s opposition to getting rid of the legislative filibuster as a tool to ensure broad support for new federal policies has been made clear. And despite Senator Sinema’s detractors who allege she’s being bought off or somewhat manipulated into opposing an overhaul of the process for passing legislative through the Senate, she made clear on Thursday that her support for the legislative filibuster is longstanding, even while she was in the House.

“It is a view I’ve held during my years serving in both the U.S. House and the Senate, and it is the view that I continue to hold,” Sinema explained. “It is the belief that I have shared many times in public settings, and in private settings. Senators of both parties have offered ideas — including some that would earn my support — to make this body more productive, more deliberative, more responsive to Americans’ needs, and a place of genuine debate about our country’s pressing issues,” Sinema said reiterating her point that she’s not opposed to certain changes in how the Senate operates. But when it comes to the legislative filibuster, it’s a non-starter for Sinema.

“A discussion of rules falls short of what is required,” she explained of the current attempt by Schumer to shatter Senate norms. “American politics are cyclical, and the granting of power in Washington, D.C. is exchanged regularly by voters from one party to another. The shift of power back and forth means the Senate’s 60-vote threshold has proved maddening to members of both political parties in recent years,” she reminded.

“Used either as a weapon of obstruction or as a safety net to save the country from radical policies, depending on whether you serve in the majority or the minority,” Sinema said. “What is the legislative filibuster other than a tool that requires new federal policy to be broadly supported by senators representing a broader cross section of Americans — a guardrail.”

With her floor speech, Senator Sinema effectively ended Schumer’s hopes of changing the rules to allow President Biden’s latest legislative priority to pass. It also proved that Biden’s speech on his election overhaul priority was a total fail.

It turns out that Biden’s hollering about anyone who opposes passing the federal election takeover being equal to the president of the confederacy does not in fact change minds. In making her consistent stance clear on the Senate floor, Sinema has likely handed the White House and congressional Democrat leadership another defeat as the new year begins.