Biden Admin Hands Out $500 Million For Oil Drilling In Middle East

The Biden administration is providing financing for oil development in the Middle East after taking numerous steps to restrict domestic production, according to Bloomberg News.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank — a nominally independent government entity that aims to boost the American economy “by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services” —  approved a $500 million loan guarantee for oil and gas development in Bahrain on Thursday, according to Bloomberg News. The funding follows the Biden administration’s decisions to release the most restrictive offshore oil and gas leasing schedule in American history and cancel seven previously-issued oil and gas leases in Alaska, among other actions intended to rein in domestic oil production.

The Export-Import Bank’s loan guarantee will “increase the production of oil and the availability of gas to meet the future energy demands” of Bahrain, the institution told Bloomberg News. The $500 million of financing was about five times larger than what some lawmakers were anticipating.

Six Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, wrote a Tuesday letter to the Export-Import Bank in which they implored the agency to not move forward with $100 million of financing because of potential negative ramifications for the climate. After the $500 million loan guarantee was announced, Merkley proceeded to describe the Export-Import Bank as a “rogue agency,” according to Bloomberg News.

While the Export-Import Bank is a nominally independent part of the executive branch, President Joe Biden appointed or successfully nominated Chair Reta Jo Lewis, Vice Chair Judith Pryor and board members Owen Herrnstadt and Spencer Bacchus.

In addition to the restrictive offshore leasing schedule and lease cancellations in Alaska, the Biden administration has moved to take millions of acres of federal lands off the table for oil and gas activity after unsuccessfully attempting to halt drilling on all federal lands in 2021. While U.S. oil production did reach record levels at the end of 2023, energy sector experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that those production levels have been reached in spite of the Biden administration’s approach, rather than because of it.

The experts who spoke to the DCNF said this is because most of the growth in production has occurred on state and private lands, where Biden does not have the ability to directly shut down drilling. They added that the oil wells of today are the result of planning and financing decisions made several years in the past.

Neither the White House nor the Export-Import Bank responded immediately to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Talks Tough On Big Oil, But Gave Them Regular Access To Discuss Key Regulatory Change

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

How Biden’s 2025 Proposed Budget Impacts Values Issues

President Joe Biden released his proposed 2025 budget on Monday. “As the president is fond of saying, a budget is a reflection of our values,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) at Senate hearings on the multi-trillion-dollar proposal. But Biden’s proposed budget would:

  • Place transgender-identifying minors into the foster care facilities of the opposite sex, a policy that has led to sexual abuse and human trafficking;
  • Deny most Americans, especially Christians, the right to participate in foster care for certain children unless they agree to subject those minors to transgender medical interventions, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone injections;
  • Seek to expand abortion;
  • Overturn laws that punish prostitutes for knowingly infecting others with HIV/AIDS;
  • Eliminate abstinence-based sex education;
  • Spike funding for Title X, a program that encourages doctors to give contraception to underage minors without parental knowledge and conceal children’s sexual activity from their parents;
  • Entrust government-funded workers with raising children beginning at the age of three; and
  • Increase funding for controversial, United Nations population programs.

Below is an overview of the budget’s most controversial features in his 2025 budget, which would raise taxes by more than $5 trillion, spend more than $8.6 trillion, enact a constitutionally-dubious wealth tax, implement a global minimum tax, and add $16.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

Promoting Extreme Transgender Ideology

Joe Biden has repeatedly committed his administration to promoting the LGBTQ agenda. The Biden administration’s proposed 2025 budget intends to make the LGBTQ revolution permanent by placing children in sex-segregated group homes of the opposite sex, and by denying Christians the right to participate in aspects of foster care.

Buried in Table S-6, on page 153 of the budget (page 157 of the PDF), is a line item committing to “[p]revent and combat religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex discrimination in the child welfare system.”

That apparently refers to a proposed rule the Biden administration issued last September requiring the foster care system to place LGBTQ-identifying children with “safe and appropriate” homes — homes that agree to facilitate a child’s social and medical “gender transition.” The rule would “require specific steps before the placement of transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming children in sex-segregated child-care institutions (CCIs),” specifically that they place children and teens in foster care facilities according to their gender identity. That is, the Biden administration intends to place children who say they identify as transgender into sex-segregated foster care facilities of the opposite sex. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, pointed out this would open the beds and showers of female foster homes to teenage boys.

Such a policy has already led to tragic results. In Virginia, a 14-year-old girl named Sage began to identify as a boy. Police found the teen after she ran away and got sexually trafficked, but instead of returning her to her home, a judge accused her custodial grandparents of “emotional and physical abuse” by “misgendering” her. Sage was placed in the male section of a foster home, where she was beaten and given drugs. She then ran away again, where she was apprehended by a human trafficking ring in Texas, where she was “drugged, raped, beaten, and exploited.”

The definition of “safe and appropriate” also excludes anyone who expresses skepticism about exposing children to transgender procedures. Christians and anyone who shows “hostility” toward the LGBTQ agenda would be deemed unsafe to foster children who identify as transgender. Similar policies have already denied Christians the right to care for children in Oregon and Massachusetts. This issue stood at the heart of a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which ruled the city’s policy against contracting with Catholic Social Services because of their religious beliefs “violates the First Amendment,” specifically the Free Exercise Clause. The rule attempts to sidestep this concern by saying Christians can still care for foster children, just not those who identify as LGBTQ.

Multiple U.S. senators expressed concerns with the language of the rule at the time. “We are fighting back against the Biden Administration’s woke gender ideology and pronoun politics,” said Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) “Their new proposed rule aims to exclude faith-based foster care providers from helping children in need.” A coalition of 19 state attorneys general also raised alarms about the policy’s unconstitutional, and religiously discriminatory, language.

To justify these policies, the Biden rule falsely asserts, “when a LGBTQI+ child has their identity respected and supported by the caregivers in their life, their risks of attempted suicide decrease dramatically.” Yet a host of studies, from around the world over multiple decades, have found that transgender procedures do not help, and may harm, those who undergo them. A 2021 study in the Journal of Urology found, “The overall rates of suicide attempts doubled” among trans-identifying men “after vaginoplasty,” commonly referred to as “bottom surgery.” The budget indicates Biden is doubling down on this rule and its flawed methodology.

Abortion

In releasing the 2025 proposed budget, the “Biden-Harris [a]dministration has taken action to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, “in every way possible.”

The budget spreads misinformation while announcing the administration’s intention to expand abortion in all 50 states. “Twenty-seven million women of reproductive age — more than one in three — live in one of the 21 [s]tates with an abortion ban currently in effect. In the last year, women have been denied medical care needed to preserve their health and save their lives,” the budget asserts. In fact, no state bans abortion if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. Pro-life advocates say doctors may have been confused specifically because abortion industry lobbyists have repeatedly claimed “miscarriage care” is illegal.

After touting Biden’s actions on behalf of the abortion industry, the budget states, “The [a]dministration continues to call on the Congress to pass legislation restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade in [f]ederal law.” The Biden administration endorses the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act, which goes well beyond Roe.

In concrete terms, the budget proposes giving $390 million to the “family planning” services of Title X, a 36% hike. As this author exposed, training sessions funded by the Biden administration encourage Title X providers to talk about sex with minors behind parents’ backs, hide minor children’s sexual activity from parents both during live conversations and in medical records, and even to have vans roam neighborhoods giving minors federally funded contraceptives.

The budget also “provides $594 million, an increase of $37 million above the 2023 level, for USAID directed high-impact and lifesaving voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs and America’s voluntary contribution to the United Nations Population Fund,” the budget states. UNFPA was long complicit in forced abortions necessitated by China’s one-child policy and remains tied to controversial population control efforts worldwide.

The abortion lobby said the proposed budget proved the Democratic administration is enacting their values. “The Biden-Harris administration is fighting by our side,” said Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL). “[T]his budget is proof. We look forward to partnering with our allies in the White House and Congress to pass a budget where our values are reflected.” Planned Parenthood also greeted the budget as “an encouraging sign of their continued support for sexual and reproductive health care.”

Universal Pre-K

As he did in last year’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal, Joe Biden proposed offering “free” preschool to children beginning at age four and “charting a path” to expanding the program to three-year-olds. The program is a longstanding item on the Left’s wish list, constituting a part of Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, mentioned in Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address, and referenced in Obama’s 2010 report to the UN Human Rights Council. Yet children being raised by daycare are associated with a panoply of negative outcomes for children and, polls show, is unwanted by parents, especially mothers.

Fighting Laws against Spreading AIDS, Combatting ‘Hate Crimes’

The 2025 proposed budget continues President Joe Biden’s fixation on overturning state laws designed to prevent AIDS-infected prostitutes from spreading HIV. “The Budget further supports State and local efforts to promote equity and protect civil rights by including $10 million for a new initiative to modernize outdated criminal statutes with a discriminatory impact on HIV-positive individuals … and $50 million for programs to combat hate crimes.”

The Biden administration sued the state of Tennessee over its aggravated prostitution law (§ 39-13-516), which charges anyone who knowingly sells sex while HIV-positive with a felony. The lawsuit came as the administration is negotiating the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Agreement. In January, WHO Secretary-General Tedros Ghebreyesus instructed “[p]olitical leaders at all levels” to “counteract conservative opposition” and “enact progressive laws” championing “sexual rights.” Specifically, “Countries must repeal laws that criminalize homosexuality, sex work and HIV transmission.”

Ending Abstinence-Based Education

The Biden budget would end funding for the Sexual Risk Abstinence Education program. Instead, he would give $101 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, despite a 2015 survey which found 40% of teenagers said these classes made them feel pressured to have sex. The Department of Health and Human Services lists eight regional Planned Parenthood alliances among the current Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant recipients.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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Former Lance Armstrong Prosecutor Says Men in Girls’ Sports Offers 10 Times the Edge of Doping

Biden Giving Sanctuary New York City Over $100 Million in Aid for Migrants

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Trump Challenges ‘Cognitively-Impaired’ Biden to Debate

Former President Donald Trump has challenged incumbent Joe Biden to a debate. “It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!” The 45th president added, “The Debates can be run by the Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). I look forward to receiving a response.”

The Biden campaign did respond. Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler said in a Wednesday statement, “I know Donald Trump’s thirsty for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base — and that’s a conversation we’ll have at the appropriate time in this cycle.” He added, “But if he’s so desperate to see President Biden in prime time, he doesn’t have to wait! He can join the tens of millions of Americans who will tune in to watch the State of the Union tomorrow night.”

Trump had previously announced that he would be sharing his live “play-by-play” of Biden’s State of the Union address. Trump berated the Democratic President for arriving late (“VERY DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR COUNTRY!”) and corrected Biden’s comments on everything from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to January 6 to the ongoing border crisis. “He looks so angry when he’s talking, which is a trait of people who know they are ‘losing it,’” Trump commented. “The anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our Country back together!” The former president concluded, “That may be the Angriest, Least Compassionate, and Worst State of the Union Speech ever made. It was an Embarrassment to our Country!”

Trump’s debate challenge to Biden follows growing concerns among voters over the president’s age and cognitive capabilities. A recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll showed that over two thirds of voters (including 40% of Democrats) think that Biden is “too old to be President” and about 60% think that Biden is not “mentally fit” for office. An Emerson College/The Hill survey published last month found that almost 60% of Michigan voters harbor concerns over Biden’s age. That number leapt to over 60% when only voters under the age of 50 were polled. Even the typically-left-wing comedy show “Saturday Night Live” featured a recent sketch mocking Democratic Party leadership for claiming Biden isn’t too old. Media personalities and Democrats alike have been showing concern over Biden’s age for months now.

Just last month, Special Counsel Robert Hur determined that Biden did in fact commit crimes and jeopardize national security in his keeping and handling of classified documents from his time as U.S. senator and vice president, but refused to bring charges due to the president’s cognitive decline. Hur characterized Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” and explained that, due to his advanced age, “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him.”

Trump and Republicans have repeatedly noted Biden’s advanced age and dementia symptoms as cause for concern. In a recent interview, Trump said that Biden is “in bad shape,” continuing, “I think he’s cognitively impaired, and he’s certainly physically impaired. He can’t walk off a stage. He can’t walk up a flight of stairs, you know, three stairs. And he can never find his way. He can never find the stairs. He can’t put two sentences together…”

Pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again, Inc. released an ad ahead of Thursday night’s State of the Union address, featuring footage of Biden silently struggling to remember what he was going to say while hosting a press conference, followed by images of the president tripping and falling on stairs and wandering aimlessly off stage after a speech. The ad asks, “If Biden wins, can he even survive till 2029?” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) debuted a similar ad, listing Biden’s numerous failures and featuring footage of the 81-year-old Democrat eating ice cream, blinking and stammering during speeches, and tripping and falling on the stairs to Air Force One, emblazoned with the caption, “Three years of decline.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Democratic Rhetoric Takes A Perilous Turn For The Jews

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserve. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden Will Send 1,000 Troops to Bring Aid to Gazans, 0 to Retrieve American Hostages

And 0 to secure America’s own border.

There are people on social media who spend their time claiming that American soldiers will fight and die for Israel.

Anyone who knows anything about the Biden administration also recognizes that for the joke that it is.

There are 6 Americans still held hostage in Gaza. After the Oct 7 attack, the administration was asked if it would send in a rescue force to get any of the Americans who were held hostage out then. The answer was no.

But Biden finally is sending in the troops. Not to save the hostages from Hamas, but to build a nice pier to supply aid to Hamas supporters in Gaza.

floating pier and causeway that will be used to deliver critical humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza is expected to take at least one month or possibly as long as two for the US military to build and become fully operational, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Friday.

Ryder also said the construction of the pier and causeway will likely require as many as 1,000 US military personnel to complete.

Are any of those personnel going to be in danger?

Official word from the administration is that there will be no ‘boots on the ground’, just in the water. That’s borderline meaningless. And it’s not just Hamas there. The Houthis and Hezbollah have taken to lobbying rockets around and the presence of a sizable contingent of vulnerable U.S. personnel will draw them like flies.

Two months is a whole lot of time in which to plan and execute an attack.

Biden has sent 0 troops to rescue the hostages from Hamas, but he’s sending 1,000 into a war zone to provide aid to Hamas supporters.

He’s also refused to use the military to secure our border by ending the flow of migrant invaders across it.

But once again, Biden has found a way to use the military to aid our enemies. He won’t use the military to protect America, but he’ll use it to send aid to Hamas.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

My Favorite Part of Biden’s SOTU Speech Is Knowing It’s The Last One He’ll Give

Nothing was more evident than America is slipping away fast. EVERYONE must work on getting out the vote. That is our job. Thank you President Trump. Nothing is more important.

I can’t remember when I watched a speech so full of rage and hatred as the OBiden SOTU. Does OBiden need rage and yelling to be able to speak to an audience? Is there a drug for that? I don’t know about you but all I got from this speech was the Democrats want is to kill babies with abortion, remind blacks that they are to stupid to be able to get a photo ID to vote, castrate children with LGBTQ+ and go to war.  Then he yelled at us for not paying our fair share of taxes. Did he forget about his hidden cash that he never paid taxes on?

Watch Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt’s comments.

He also listed the problems America is facing but he had no solutions except to lay blame at something else. Boy is he out of touch.  High inflation is the fault of the business making the product., High interest rates is the fault of those granting credit.  Millions of people invading us on the border is the fault of congress who won’t give him enough money to process more people and shorten the time to become a citizen and vote. Lastly Climate Change, so give up your beef, stove, air conditioning, and guns. You won’t be comfortable, have energy or be able to protect yourself but that will fix the climate.  Do remember that the economy is doing great if you are an illegal. He lied about cutting the budget and the deficit and added 15 million new jobs and thousands of manufacturing jobs are on the way.  He couldn’t even say Laken Riley’s name correctly. He called her Lincoln. The Democrat/Globalists clapped like seals and I thought my head would explode. Too many lies for one day all at once.

Here is the problem as I see it. The American people are getting sharper. They are  beginning to reject this control and Globalism being pushed upon us. We are learning that their empty irrational words are meaningless and if we fight we win.  Every thing they are trying on us, every trick, every lie, every policy is failing.  Each week we will dissect a few so you can prepare with a plan. Let’s take Obamacare.

Obama’s Health Czar, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s Complete Lives System of Universal Healthcare is the blueprint for Obamacare. Complete Lives System of Universal Healthcare rations healthcare by limiting care for those under age (children under 12) and over age 55. We are the useless eaters. Ezekiel is the brother of Rahm, never let a crisis go to waste, Emanuel. Everything is connected.

This rationing is called the Obamacare death panels and was exposed by Betsy McCaughey, LT Gov of NY. The Government in collusion with Bankers and Major corporations determine the type of care through codes. The codes determine what doctors prescribe and get paid and what insurance will cover for your ailment.  This is one size fits all healthcare, Universal Care, no one wants.

When Sarah Palin tried to warn about the “death panels ” in Obamacare, she was vilified. Today we know she was right.

More and more doctors are discussing the truth about the vaccines and the goal of Covid to assist in depopulation.  Dr. Naomi Wolf and her team of 3000 doctors, scientists and researchers, are continuing to find the lies and cover ups of Big Pharma, NIH, Fauci, and FDA.

They have been testifying in front of the House and Senate committees.

Instead of investigating the Big Pharma lies and harm to humanity, Affirmative Action Graduate, DA Letitia James, is investigating the Beef industry because of climate change. The Dem/Globalists want us to eat crickets not beef.

Beef is an important protein necessary to provide energy. Do they want you lethargic?

If getting vaccinated is so crucial and a “national emergency” why is OBiden is flying unvaccinated people all over the country and dropping them off without protection?  Why are unvaxxed Americans the problem and unvaxxed illegals are not?

To add insult to injury OBiden has altered Medicaid which was supposed to be a state run healthcare program for low income Americans. It has now become Healthcare, Food Service, Rental assistance for illegals paid for by the American taxpayer.

The American taxpayer is also paying for LGBTQ surgery on minors promoting the LGBTQ lifestyle.

All of this and more you will find in the 625 earmarks as part of the CR’s continually passed by the RINO, House. These Affirmative Action Graduates RINO/Democrat/ Globalists will not be happy until America and the dollar are gone forever. That is the goal.  We are currently printing $1Trillion every 100 days. How much longer will that last?

In the second part of the show you will hear what started the awakening of America, the Tea Party.  The Tea Party sewed the seeds, the movement evolved and took root. Today the leaves, flowers and new plants are growing. They are spreading in new places and it is beautiful to see. Thank you President Trump for helping us pick out the weeds.

Instead of attacking the symptom, we will help you tackle the problem. Insane spending for one. In a few months I believe America will change forever. Who do you want as your leader :Obiden the lame or Trump the strong? Vet your candidates.

Remember: 

All Globalists want is Money Control and Power. They can only get Power if we give it to them. Don’t give them yours. Challenge them with the truth. Doing Nothing is affirmation. The Regime will not go quietly, Prepare.  Share with your 5.   So join me today.

©2024. Karen Schoen. All rights reserved.

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Biden Regime Announcing U.S. Military To Build a Port in Gaza at State of the Union

In a dramatic move, President Biden is expected to announce in his State of the Union address that he has authorized the U.S. military to undertake an ’emergency mission’ to establish a temporary port in Gaza, creating a vital maritime route for humanitarian aid from Cyprus, according to U.S. officials.

Biden to order U.S. military to set up emergency floating PORT off Gaza to help get aid in: Thousands of American troops on ships with armed escorts could be sent to the Mediterranean Sea to build temporary pier

By Emily Goodin, Daily Mail, 7 March 2024

President Joe Biden will announce in his State of the Union address that he’s directing the military to build a port on the Gaza coast to bring relief to the population there.

His move comes as Democrats unhappy with his handling of humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli-Hamas war have been voting ‘uncommitted’ in Democratic primaries.

‘The President will announce that he’s directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water medicine, and temporary shelters,’ a senior administration official said on a briefing call with reporters on Thursday.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: WATCH: Pro-Terror Jew-Haters Block Biden’s Presidential Motorcade Enroute to US Capitol for State of the Union

RELATED VIDEO: AMERICA AT WAR – THE UNITED WEST IN ACTION

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Houses Passes ‘Laken Riley Act’ To Crack Down On Illegal Immigrant Criminals

The House passed a bill Thursday that would target illegal migrants in the U.S. who have committed certain crimes, naming the legislation in memory of the late nursing student Laken Hope Riley.

Riley, aged 22, was killed on Feb. 22 after being allegedly attacked while running in a forested area near the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, with the suspect arrested and charged with her murder, Jose Antonio Ibarra, being a Venezuelan national who allegedly entered the United States illegally and was released after being initially detained. The Laken Riley Act would require the federal government to detain foreign nationals who commit “burglary, theft, larceny, or [a] shoplifting offense” as well as grant states to sue the federal government for non-enforcement of certain aspects of immigration law, and passed the House by a vote of 251 yeas to 170 nays.

“It that should pass the Senate. That doesn’t mean it will or it would, but it should. This is common sense legislation. This is good legislation, and this can help our local law enforcement so I would hope that the Senate would look at it from that standpoint,” Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, the bill’s sponsor, who represents the district where Riley died, told the DCNF. “There’s nothing wrong with this bill. There’s nothing I could see that they could point at and say ‘That’s wrong,’ with this bill. And if we can pass this, we should pass it. It’s got a good chance of helping save a life.”

H.R. 7511, Laken Riley Act by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

“Laken Riley is not here with us anymore because of Biden’s failed policies. It’s about border security more than immigration. So, we need to look at what can we do if he is not going to secure the border,” Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia told the DCNF. “Her murderer was arrested in New York City weeks before and was released. Why shouldn’t he have been deported at that moment, by committing a crime?”

“Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old citizen of Venezuela, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Sept. 8, 2022, after unlawfully entering the United States near El Paso, Texas. He was paroled and released for further processing,” ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams told the DCNF. “On Aug. 31, 2023, Ibarra was arrested by the New York Police Department and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation. He was released by the NYPD before a detainer could be issued,” Williams added.

The bill was passed shortly before Biden visited the U.S. Capitol to deliver the annual State of the Union address.

“This is a young lady who was just…with everything that we’ve learned about her, [she] just had a great future, a wonderful young lady who was dedicating herself to being a nurse, to help people,” Republican Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter of Georgia told the DCNF. “Don’t think that this is the only incident there are other incidents, as well…Every city is a border city. Now, every state is a border state.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

ARJUN SINGH

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Georgia GOP Looks To Crack Down On Sheriffs, Jailers Who Shield Illegal Immigrants From ICE After Laken Riley Murder

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Are You Sick and Tired of Sending Your Tax Dollars to a Federal Government that Doesn’t Give Damn about You?

As we the tax paying citizens of America approach the 2024 tax season, we are witnessing a growing anger against the federal government.

Washington, D.C. doesn’t give a damn about you, they just want your money to spend on everything and anything that keeps them in power.

All three branches of government are wasting our money in different ways.

Big Government Writ Large

Let us look at a list of our top criticisms and recommendations of the Big Federal Government spending troika.

Truths and recommendations (a short list):

  1. They tax us more and more and then spend furiously on things that do nothing for the American citizen. BTW, when was the last time you saw a tax cut?
  2. The growing national debt, now reaching $34+ trillion. Printing money isn’t the answer, cutting government spending, except for mandatory items like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is.
  3. Spending more and more money to support illegal aliens, a.k.a. illegal migrants/drug cartel members/foreign terrorists/child traffickers/drug traffickers, who are coming across our borders by the thousand each and every week.
  4. Spending billions on foreign wars, with the exception of fully supporting the state of Israel. It’s time to defund foreign wars and use that money to build up our own prosperity.
  5. Buying foreign oil and natural gas when we have abundant amounts right under the ground and off the shores of America.
  6. Investing in private green companies that waste our tax dollars and then go broke.
  7. Bailing out students who took out federal government loans to go to college or university. What are we teaching our children about taking responsibility for their own debts? We need to return student loans back to the private sector.
  8. Using our tax dollars to fund foreign entities, e.g. the PLO, and even terrorists organizations, like Hamas, via our monetary support of the United Nations and U.N.R.W.A.
  9. Funding federal department that are unconstitutional, e.g. the Department of Education.
  10. Stop over paying our federal elected officials, their staff, appointed members of the various departments and their staffs and the growing numbers of federal employees, e.g. the IRS armed agents. Cut the pay at every level.
  11. Wasting our tax payer dollars to attack we the people, via a two-tiered and militarized justice system, that seeks to destroy our Constutional Republican form of government.
  12. Finally, making us taxpayer fund a bloated Executive Branch, Congressional and Supreme Court staff. Cut each branch in half and you will see half the damage done to we the people.

The Bottom Line

Many today are addicted to a bloated, corrupt, and wasteful big government.

It’s past time to cut government and with it government spending.

Time to implement the Fair Tax and get rid of the federal income tax.

We live in the free state of Florida. Florida gets its income from a state 6% sales tax. Florida has a multi-billion dollar surplus.

Get the idea?

Time to defund, defang and damn the federal government to hell.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: CBS POLL: More Than Half Of Americans Say Prices Will Keep Going Up If Biden Is Re-Elected

POST ON X: Here is how big government is working to stay in power.

Biden Campaign Co-Chair Suggests Deporting Illegal Immigrants Would Hurt The Economy

Democratic Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar on Friday suggested that deporting illegal immigrants would have adverse economic consequences.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both visited the border and delivered remarks on Thursday. Escobar, co-chair of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, criticized Trump’s rhetoric and underscored the economic importance of immigrants in the workforce, advocating against deporting them on “CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta.”

“Democrats have been willing over the decades to not just address border security as a whole, but also to address our workforce needs and to make sure that we remain a country of immigrants. Immigration is good for us economically,” Escobar asserted. “Republicans have created the current situation and we need solutions. But what Trump is signaling is horrific. He really does want to take us back to an era where people feared being in their own country simply because they belong to a minority group.”

WATCH:

Illegal immigration has massively increased under Biden as millions of migrants from around the world cross the southern border. One of Biden’s first actions in office was to issue executive actions revoking Trump-era border policies, including the Muslim travel ban and the border wall project.

“He‘s willing to violate the Constitution, violate our civil rights, violate constitutional rights,” Escobar told Acosta. “And let me tell you, it is impossible to deport every undocumented person in this country. There simply are not the resources nor is it advantageous to us. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen the reports, Jim, that it has been immigrant labor, the immigrant workforce that has actually propped up our economy. The challenge we face is that Congress has not created legal pathways for them.”

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

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Illegal Immigrants Continue to Commit Violent Crimes as Sanctuary Cities Reassess Policies

Violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants continue to rise throughout the country, resulting in American citizens being attacked, raped, and murdered. Experts are noting that these are the same migrants who receive taxpayer-funded health care, housing, education, food, and more.

The most high-profile story making news is last week’s murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley. She was a young nursing student at Augusta University who never returned from her jog Thursday morning because she was brutally murdered by who police believe to be a man named Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is also an illegal immigrant.

Not only does Ibarra have a criminal record in the U.S. since arriving illegally, but his brother does as well. Ibarra has been charged with theft, child endangerment, and murder, among other crimes. And his brother, Diego Ibarra, along with stealing, was recently caught giving police a fake green card with two different birth dates on it. This happened after he was stopped by police for driving while drinking beer — which the migrant told the officer was his seventh since he’d been behind the wheel.

On Monday, police in Maryland charged Nilson Trejo-Granados, one of five suspects, for the first and second-degree murder of two-year-old Jeremy Poou Caceres. Before being arrested for murder, Trejo-Granados was charged with theft in March 2023.

On February 20, Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint, and on February 25, he repeatedly stabbed a man in the face and back, demanding the man give him his property. According to The Post Millennial, “He was arrested and booked on armed robbery, aggravated battery, first-degree rape, and aggravated assault and a federal ‘ICE’ detainer was also issued for him.”

In addition, last month a group of alleged illegal immigrants viciously attacked New York City police officers in Times Square. As crimes committed by illegal immigrants skyrocket, some sanctuary cities are starting to reassess their policies. In fact, it was this beating in NYC that caused Mayor Eric Adams (D) to say during a townhall meeting, “Those who are committing crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law. If you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you over to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE and have you deported.”

And the Big Apple isn’t the only city backtracking. According to The Daily Wire, “The city council of Aurora, which sits just east of Denver, approved a resolution in a 7-3 vote on Monday demanding that large groups of migrants not be transported there since it is unable to fund new services for migrants or homeless people.”

In addition to a call to “secure our nation’s border,” the resolution said: “The City Council affirms remaining a Non-Sanctuary City and asserts the City does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services related to this crisis and demands that other municipalities and entities do not systematically transport migrants or people experiencing homelessness to the City.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said on “Washington Watch” Wednesday that these harsh and dangerous circumstances only highlight “the damage inflicted by the Left’s public policy decisions [and] their open borders.” Congressman Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, agreed, noting that these policies have allowed “some nefarious people … across the border.”

McCormick pointed out that Venezuela currently has a record low crime rate. “Why do you think it is?” he asked. It’s because Venezuela is “getting rid of their criminals” by sending them to the U.S. through the open border, he said. “Bad people are crossing the border. … We have record numbers of deaths from fentanyl. We have record amount of child trafficking, rape, [and] murder. … I’ve been talking about it for years. This is a significant problem.”

He added, “If you’re coming to this country and committing crimes, and then you continue to commit crimes and have been released, what are we doing?” A major issue facing America, McCormick shared, is that these illegal immigrants and violent criminals are being released as if they’re “regular citizens.” But “they’re not,” he said. “They’re here illegally. … This should be an ICE issue,” because when an illegal immigrant gets arrested, “they get sent back to their country. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the law. Imagine following the law.”

Perkins noted that the Left is notorious for also making claims that we shouldn’t “politicize the murder of a 22-year-old student” like Laken Riley by connecting it to illegal immigration. But, he wondered, “How else do we look at this? This is their policies. This is the outcome that we’re seeing from their open border policies. How else can you look at it?”

“There’s so many ramifications for lawlessness that we’ve allowed to take place at our southern border,” Perkins stated. And that will only end, McCormick concluded, if we continue to “fight the good fight.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: President Donald J. Trump ‘We’re going to take care’ of the dangerous border!

President Donald J. Trump visited Eagle Pass, Texas,  ground zero and the epicenter for criminal illegal aliens crossing the border.

Eagle Pass, Texas has become a symbol of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.’s now clear policy to destroy America, its culture and it people by flooding our nation with millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic.

President Trump during his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas confirmed that he spoke with the parents of Laken Riley. Laken Riley was a student at the University of Georgia who was brutally murdered by an illegal alien from Venezuela.

While President Donald J. Trump visited Eagle Pass, Texas, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. visited Brownsville, Texas.

Here’s why Biden avoided Eagle Pass, Texas

President Donald J. Trump at the Eagle Pass, Texas border 

Here are a series of posts on X of President Donald J. Trump at Eagle Pass, Texas where he met with Governor Abbott, Franklin Graham, the Texas National Guard, and U.S. border patrol agents:

The Bottom Line

It is now clear that there are only two choices on the 2024 Presidential ballot.

  1. Voting for Biden who wants our borders to remain open and he wants to use American taxpayers dollars to financially support millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic.
  2. Voting for President Donald J. Trump who wants to close the border, build the wall, deport millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic,  in order to make Americans and America great again.

This post on X says it best:

Choose wisely on November 5th, 2024.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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U.S. Must Stop Funding ‘Corrupt, Anti-Semitic, Terror-Complicit’ U.N.R.W.A. Agency: Congressman

The Biden administration’s rhetoric has condemned the October 7 terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, but its deeds have made the U.S. one of the top contributors to terrorist incitement, according to a senior congressmen seeking to cut all financial ties to a terror-tied U.N. organization.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established after 700,000 Palestinians were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel. Today, UNRWA reports 1.7 million refugees, only 200,000 of them the original refugees, as the great-grandchildren of the 1948 population have joined the list. International intelligence found 12 members of UNRWA took part in the October 7 terrorist attack — which included numerous kidnappings, rape as a tool of torture, and murdering of Israeli civilians. But they say that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

UNRWA has “spawned this cycle of hate,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), senior member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and co-chair of the House Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Monday.

The United States has become complicit, because “we are the biggest donor by far,” Smith told Perkins. The U.S. funded UNRWA to the tune of $6 billion between 1950 and 2018. Donald “Trump, to his credit, ended all funding for UNRWA when he was president. Then came Joe Biden, and he’s given them over $1 billion U.S. tax dollars, without any condition.” The Biden administration transferred as many taxpayer dollars to UNRWA in three years as previous administrations gave in more than a decade.

“UNRWA is a corrupt, anti-Semitic, and terror-complicit agency,” said Smith earlier that day at an international conference in Geneva. “UNRWA radicalizes Palestinian children with seething anti-Semitic hate — it is a child soldier factory. It is child abuse.”

Although President Joe Biden and 18 nations “paused” aid to UNRWA after last fall’s hostilities, this constitutes “only a pause pending outcome of an ‘investigation’ that appears to be woefully and unnecessarily limited in scope,” Smith told the “International Summit for a Future Beyond UNRWA,” hosted by UN Watch. “I remain deeply concerned that they too will not go beyond a look at the 12 UNRWA employees alleged to have participated in the October 7 atrocities.”

Israeli intelligence documents furnished to CBS News reportedly document the dozen UNRWA workers’ participation in the uprising, including taking part in kidnapping Israeli civilians.

But Israeli intelligence states 10% of all UNRWA’s 12,000 employees (or 1,200 people) have some kind of affiliation with Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Authority.

They say 236 UNRWA workers have ties to the militant/terrorist wings of Palestinian groups, including 185 affiliated with Hamas and 51 with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly found Israeli allegations about UNRWA’s participation in the October 7 atrocities credible but cannot verify the exact number of employees affiliated with the terrorist groups.

On February 10, Israeli intelligence said it discovered a tunnel beneath a UNRWA facility in Gaza City, nearly half-a-mile long and 59 feet deep, that leads to a Hamas intelligence hub. “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has been knowingly providing material support for Hamas terrorists who committed unspeakable atrocities against over a thousand Israelis and dozens of Americans,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “That support included salaries and facilities. Foreigners who knowingly funded UNRWA should be subject to sanctions and Americans who knowingly fund-raised for them should be investigated for criminal material support.”

A former investigator for the U.N.’s investigative body, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), said the OIOS cannot impose a greater disciplinary measure than dismissal: Of the 12 in question, two have been reported dead, and the other 10 have already been fired. “I can confidently say that its investigation will amount to nothing,” wrote Peter Anthony Gallo in The Wall Street Journal.

Cutting off funding to the terror-linked U.N. agency enjoys bipartisan support. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Tenn.), the liberal co-chair of the House Israel Allies Caucus, said he would “applaud President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend UNRWA funding,” before tracing the previous seven years of troubling UNRWA activity.

“In 2017, UNRWA acknowledged the falsehood of its previous denials and fired its Gaza union head after he was revealed as part of Hamas leadership. A month prior, an UNRWA staffer was discovered to be [in the] Hamas politburo,” said Sherman. “In 2023, dozens of UNRWA teachers and staff were revealed to regularly praise Hamas and Hitler on social media. Yet UNRWA claims these staff are not teaching a pro-terror curriculum.”

Sherman has a 10.5% rating on FRC Action’s Scorecard.

Yet most of the Democratic Party base has aligned with the Palestinian cause. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a Palestinian-American, urged her state’s sizable Arab community to vote “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s Democratic primary as a protest against Biden’s rhetorical support for Israel. Although Biden won handily, “uncommitted” racked up 13% of the vote, more than 101,000 votes as of this writing — far beyond its sponsors’ goals.

Smith, who is Sherman’s pro-life counterpart on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a veteran pro-life congressman who has long tried to reform the U.N. Palestinian relief organization. In 2003, he passed an amendment through the House of Representatives stating the UNRWA has “funded schools that promote anti-Semitism, allowed its facilities to be used as warehouses for weapons, bomb-making factories, terrorist training,” and based its actions on “anti-Semitic textbooks.” But the amendment never became law.

Two decades later, the body has “deep and widespread ties with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” Perkins pointed out on Monday. Although the U.S. designates Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as terrorist organizations, the United Nations — and UNRWA — do not.

Smith introduced the Stop Support for UNRWA Act of 2024 (H.R. 7122) to defund UNRWA. The one-page bill states simply, “The United States may not make any voluntary or involuntary contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (referred to in this Act as ‘UNRWA’), to any successor or related entity, or to the regular budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a successor entity.” It passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 6, 30-19. He offered an amendment saying the bill does not prohibit U.S. foreign aid to the region but believes it should be administered only by organizations the U.S. has vetted and found not to “promote violence, terrorism, or anti-Semitism” nor to employ those who “promote, espouse, or affiliate with such entities or individuals.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) has also introduced the Uncovering UNRWA’s Terrorist Crimes Act (H.R. 7202), which would account for UNRWA funding during the Biden administration and end all U.S. funding to UNRWA “directly or indirectly.”

Critics like Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) say, “UNRWA is beyond redemption. Disbanding the organization is the only solution.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

States Put Billions Toward Illegal Immigrants at Taxpayer Expense: Expert

As of June 2023, some immigration experts estimated that roughly 17 million illegal immigrants resided in the U.S., with at least 16% of the population arriving under the Biden administration. While migrants from all over the world cite many reasons for coming, one of the biggest is that illegal immigrants are getting several benefits when they arrive. Many have argued that the well-being of those who are here illegally seems to be prioritized over those who are here legally.

Several sanctuary cities offer migrants free housing, food, schooling, and medical care. States such as California have gone as far as to provide free gender transition procedures for illegal immigrants. Other states that are running out of space have asked residents to open up their own homes to undocumented individuals and families. Several airports, schools, and hotels that American citizens use as part of their daily lives have even been transformed into shelters.

Some have argued it’s hard to ignore the rise in crimes such as robbery, murder, and threats of terrorism that the wide open border welcomes. Among Christians, this crisis has sparked a conversation as to how to go about this chaos in a loving manner. But while all of these concerns are worth addressing, there is another group facing the consequences of Biden’s lack of border control ?” namely, U.S. taxpayers.

Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, shared on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Tuesday that there’s an estimated $150.7 billion burden on taxpayers, which is directly tied to the illegal immigration. As a result of Democratic policies, Mehlman said the illegals showing up in the sanctuary cities are “entitled” to the services, which “costs a lot of money.” He added that the money needed to take care of the migrants is “money that the [states don’t] have to begin with.”

Mehlman highlighted that cities like New York chose to cut down on education and police budgets in order to spend money on the migrants. NYC budgeted $12 billion “between now and the end of 2025,” he explained. “New York is now spending more on care of the migrants than they are spending on police, fire, and sanitation combined.”

Additionally, Mehlman noted that one of the ways taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick is through the health care system. “Under the Affordable Care Act, illegal aliens were not eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance programs. And that was deliberate,” he said. “Now, you have states like California … deciding that they are going to use state taxpayer money in order to subsidize health care for illegal aliens.”

Mehlman described a lot of what’s happening as “self-induced crises.” But the states facing the consequences of their own policies then “turn around and ask everybody else to bail them out.” And the issue with that, he said, is that “whether the money is coming out of state … local coffers, or … from the federal government, it’s still the people’s money. It’s our hard earned dollars.”

Ultimately, taxes are “supposed to be providing services for us,” he urged. “Instead, they’re taking this money and creating new magnets for people to come here and abuse the system.”

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, pointed out that amid this financial fiasco, the Biden administration still wants to send “$60 billion over to Ukraine.” He concluded, “Let’s shut off the border [and] we might have a little extra money to work with.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

POSTS ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden administration’s $4.2 billion bloody blackmail of Ukraine and Congress

The Biden administration has once again confirmed that it has the authority to transfer $4.2 billion of military aid for Ukraine, but is not delivering this vital aid to Ukraine.

Despite this admission, the administration has accelerated its months-long attacks on House Republicans, who have nothing to do with the fate of the $4.2 billion, for not passing supplemental security bill.

On February 20, three high-level administration’s officials almost simultaneously sent around seemingly logical but essentially fundamentally flawed message. Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby and President’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have mounted their attack on the Congress consisting of two key elements.

First, they not only admitted, but purposefully underscored recent Ukraine’s heavy losses on the battlefield, especially the painful retreat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from the fortified city Avdiivka, due to lack of military supplies.

MS. SINGH: Well, Avdiivka unfortunately — it was a strategic withdrawal that Ukraine made in order to conserve their own artillery and ammunition.

MR. KIRBY: Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from the city of Avdiivka in the eastern part of Ukraine — and that happened on Saturday; I think you all know that — because they practically ran out of supplies, including artillery ammunition.

MR. SULLIVAN: Over the weekend, as you all have seen, Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine where they’d been battling Russia for many months, handing Putin his first notable battlefield victory in a year. This happened in large part because Ukraine is running out of weapons due to congressional inaction.  And Ukrainian troops didn’t have the supplies and ammunition they needed to stop the Russian advance.

Second, they blame the House for holding up support for Ukraine.

MS. SINGH: So, we are going to continue to urge Congress to pass this urgent supplemental request so that we can deliver Ukraine the air defenses, artillery and ammunition they need to defend themselves.  And as the vice president said in Munich last weekend, the failure to not pass a supplemental would be a gift to Vladimir Putin… we need the House to urgently pass and act — and work to pass this bipartisan supplemental agreement that passed last week in the Senate.

MR. KIRBY: Let’s be clear about this: Ukraine’s decision to withdraw from Avdiivka wasn’t because … we can’t get the supplemental funding and get the kinds of arms and ammunition into the hands of Ukrainian soldiers as soon as possible…

MR. SULLIVAN: …I think that individual House members have a responsibility to speak out and call for a vote, call for their Speaker, their elected leader, to put this bill on the floor for an up or down vote.  Because if it gets an up or down vote, it will pass overwhelmingly, on a bipartisan basis.

But resources for this purpose are available to the Biden administration not tomorrow, but today and even yesterday. Since December 27, 2023, the funds at the White House’ disposal has remained $4.2 billion. High-level officials confirmed that the administration has this legal authority given to the administration by Congress.

Q:  The Pentagon, I think still has $4 billion of authority…

MS. SINGH:  That’s right.

Officials insist that Congress must replenish stocks before they can provide military assistance to Ukraine, because otherwise the administration does not feel “comfortable”.

MR. KIRBY:  The replenishment authority is important.  Because we have provided so much, we’ve got to be mindful of our own stocks for our own national security purposes… …to your other question about the existing PDA and the importance of it — yes, there’s existing authority left, but without the replenishment authority, as I said, it’s not cost-free in terms of our own national security needs.

Q:  … to draw down but you don’t have any replacement money.  So why can’t an $800 billion institution just risk drawing down $4 billion of inventory on the assumption at some point you’re going to get it from Congress? Is that being discussed at all in the building?

MS. SINGH: …It’s an absolute risk for us to incur.  We don’t have the replenishment funds needed to resupply our own stocks.  So if we can’t do that, then we’re not able or we don’t feel comfortable enough to draw down or to give another PDA until we have those replenishment funds.

This explanation is problematic. Congress set a ceiling for military aid to Ukraine via the PDA channel at $25.5 billion, while also appropriating $25.9 billion for replenishment of those stocks. As of today, the Pentagon used all $25.9 billion for replenishment of stocks, but delivered only $19.7 billion to Ukraine via PDA. Therefore, military aid has been underused by $6.2 billion.

Additionally, the administration admits that they will get replenishment  funding eventually, but it still does not change the administration’s attitude towards comfort.

Q:  You manage risk here, but we’re talking like one-five-five shells, and a lot of weapons that wouldn’t be used in a fight against China.  Has there been discussion that why don’t we just put out $4 billion of PDAs on the assumption we’re — we’re going to get funding eventually if not soon?

MS. SINGH: Well again, we can say that we’re going to get funding eventually, but we’ve been ringing the alarm bell since October.  And so we’re already into February, the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is coming up at the end of the week.  We don’t know when we’re going to get the funding.

It appears the only real reason the administration refuses to provide the available military aid to Ukraine is that they want supplemental bill to be passed by the House.

MS. SINGH: And we’re going to continue — the discussions that we are having right now at the Secretary’s level, across the interagency, as we need Congress to give us a supplemental.

MR. KIRBY:  …We need the supplemental funding.  We absolutely have to have the supplemental funding to be able to continue to support Ukraine.

MR. SULLIVAN: …we need Congress to… take urgent action on this National Security Supplemental bill…

The White House’s determination to get the supplemental bill passed is apparent in the exchange between a journalist and Jake Sullivan.

Q:  …could you also address consideration for a loan to Ukraine absent congressional action?  Is that something that the White House is talking about?

MR. SULLIVAN: With respect to a loan to Ukraine, as I’ve said before, what we have requested and what the Senate passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis last week is both military assistance and economic assistance.  That economic assistance is in the form of grants, because asking Ukraine to take on and shoulder a substantial amount of debt right now, as it’s fighting for its life, we don’t regard that as the best way forward.  We think that the package we put together and that Democratic and Republican senators voted for last week is the right package. So, as far as I’m concerned, what we need to see from the House is that they move forward and pass this legislation, rather than have the United States negotiate against itself.

Finally, despite Ukraine’s heavy losses on the battlefield, the Biden administration is ready to continue to blackmail against both Ukraine and House.

Q:  … Can you tell us what other cities may be at risk of falling in Ukraine after Avdiivka?  Cause last week, the Pentagon was saying that the situation remains critical across (inaudible).

MS. SINGH:  …Look, if we don’t get more — if we don’t get the supplemental — I outlined that at the very top — but if we don’t get the funding needed from the Senate — or sorry, from the House to pass the Senate supplemental, we will not be able to provide these critical PDA packages and Ukraine will have to make choices and decisions on what cities, what towns they can hold with what they have and what partners can — can continue to supply them.

Thus, Biden administration high level officials confirmed:

  1. The Biden administration stopped delivery of military aid to Ukraine after December 27, 2023. As of now, it has not transferred it to Ukraine for two months.
  2. The aid deliveries stopped despite the fact that the White House has the authority to transfer military aid to Ukraine through the PDA channel in the amount of $4.2 billion.
  3. The Biden administration had underused, not overused, military aid to Ukraine via PDA. It spent $25.9 billion for replenishment of stocks, or $6.2 billion more than it sent military aid to Ukraine ($19.7 billion).
  4. The Biden administration also has funds at its disposal in the amount of $7.9 billion via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) channel, which are intended to be placed as orders for the production of military items for Ukraine, but for the last year and half have not been placed yet.
  5. Therefore, over two years of war, the White House has not used at least $12.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which is a quarter of the $47.8 billion appropriated by Congress for these purposes.
  6. Biden administration refused to use a loan mechanism and did not initiate Ukraine Democracy Lend-Lease Act overwhelmingly supported by Congress to send supplies to munitions-hungry Ukraine fighting for its survival.
  7. The Biden administration cites “not feeling comfortable enough” as the reason for blocking the transfer of military assistance to Ukraine. This term is absent in U.S. legislation, and such justification for non-compliance with U.S. laws by the executive branch is, to put it mildly, an innovation.
  8. The White House agrees that the supplemental bill passed by the Senate will ultimately be passed by the House, allowing funds to replenish military supplies. Despite this, the administration’s is still blocking military aid to Ukraine.
  9. The Biden administration admitted that the price of blocking military assistance to Ukraine was Avdiivka, a strategic fortified position for Ukrainian armed forces, falling to Russian forces, accompanied by significant losses of Ukrainian troops.
  10. The Biden administration predicts that its continued lack of military assistance to Ukraine might force Ukrainian forces to abandon other Ukrainian cities and towns.

As it is known, the supplemental funding bill approved in the Senate and currently sent to the House, does not contain measures to stop millions of illegal immigrants at the southern border, but does contain multi-billion dollars funding for the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority in dire violation of the Taylor Force Act.

In addition, this bill does not specify the exact amounts of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine must be delivered to the victim of the Russian aggression in either fiscal year 2024 or 2025.

Even if the House passes this bill, the Biden administration may take exactly the same position it takes now regarding the existing unused funds. In other words, the delivery of military assistance to Ukraine through the PDA channel may be stopped by the administration at any time because it might “not feel comfortable enough,” while funds to order weapons and military equipment through the USAI channel may not be placed among manufacturers without any justification. Then the administration would again try to blame its own failure on its political opponents, using it as a way to support some other items in its political agenda.

The Biden administration’s treatment of Congress and Ukraine, which is fighting for its very survival, cannot be called anything other than cynical bloody blackmail. The price is the lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians today and the destruction of the United States tomorrow.

AUTHOR

Andrei Illarionov

Senior Analyst for Russian and European Affairs.

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Federal Court Rules Major Biden Spending Bill Was Passed Unconstitutionally

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a $1.7 trillion spending bill was unconstitutionally passed in December 2022 due to the lack of a quorum, blocking enforcement of a law about pregnant women in the workplace.

United States District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas said that the House of Representatives improperly passed the spending package because a quorum of members was not physically present. The then-Democrat-controlled body allowed proxy voting for the measure, which 215 Democrats and nine Republicans supported.

“Although the Court finds that the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act violated the Constitution, Texas does not seek an injunction of—and the Court does not enjoin—the entire Act,” Hendrix wrote in the 120-page opinion. “Rather, the Court enjoins only the application of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act against Texas. The relief granted here is limited to abating the injury that Texas has proven will occur.”

“Based on the Quorum Clause’s text, original public meaning, and historical practice, the Court concludes that the Quorum Clause bars the creation of a quorum by including non-present members participating by proxy,” Hendrix added. “Supreme Court precedent has long held that the Quorum Clause requires presence, and the Clause’s text distinguishes those absent members from the quorum and provides a mechanism for obtaining a physical quorum by compelling absent members to attend. This power to compel attendance makes little sense divorced from physical presence.”

Paxton sued President Joe Biden in February 2023 for signing the measure, arguing in court documents that congressional power to force absent members to attend “would make little sense if the Constitution did not require physical attendance.”

“Congress acted egregiously by passing the largest spending bill in U.S. history with fewer than half the members of the House bothering to do their jobs, show up, and vote in person,” Paxton said in a Tuesday afternoon release. “Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi abused proxy voting under the pretext of COVID-19 to pass this law, then Biden signed it, knowing they violated the Constitution. This was a stunning violation of the rule of law. I am relieved the Court upheld the Constitution.”

The Supreme Court ruled against Republican efforts to challenge the proxy voting rule put in place during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in January 2022.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: DCNF Reporter Details Dem Rep.’s Proxy Voting-Enabled High Life

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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