Tag Archive for: Senate

Kamala Harris Can’t Hide Record That Earned Her ‘Most Liberal’ Senator Label

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Kamala Harris’ legislative record is full of diversity initiatives, climate bills, social justice salvos and other left-wing priorities that eventually secured her the title of Congress’ “most liberal” senator of 2019.

GovTrack, a website that tracks legislation and votes in Congress, deleted the report card that gave Harris that ranking, however. Harris, who Californians first elected to the Senate in 2016, sponsored a slate of legislation that favored far-left projects during her four years in the Senate.

A bill Harris introduced early in her congressional term was the Environmental Justice Right to Know Act of 2018. The bill addressed “pesticide and cosmetics regulation with respect to environmental justice concerns.” It specifically established Spanish translation requirements for pesticide labels.

More recently, Harris sponsored the Climate Equity Act of 2020, a bill that established a “Climate and Environmental Equity Office” and an “Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability.”

Another bill she introduced in 2018 was the “Ensuring Diverse Leadership Act,” an affirmative action-style bill mandating the Federal Reserve to interview “at least one individual reflective of gender diversity and one reflective of racial or ethnic diversity.”

GovTrack stopped issuing single-year report cards for lawmakers sometime between 2019 and 2021, instead opting to rank them on congressional sessions, the website’s founder Joshua Tauberer said in a statement. Tauberer said the single-year report cards were “retracted,” but Harris’ 2019 report card appeared to remain live on their website until right around the time she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Her 2020 card, which ranks her as the “most politically left” Democratic senator, is still available.

“I was focused on more impactful aspects of our work several years ago and not on a page that no one was looking at,” Tauberer told the Daily Caller, explaining why the report card stayed on GovTrack for so long. “When I saw earlier this week that attention was being directed to a part of our site that I had warned in 2020 was not reliable, we took the single-calendar-year statistics off the site, but we retained other nearly identical statistics.”

In his statement, Tauberer also claimed he believed the original methodology was flawed. “I realized that the limited data available in a single year was not sufficient to create a reliable portrait of the activity of legislators, particularly given the ebbs and flows of the legislative calendar, and therefore it did not serve as a useful tool to our users and the American public.”

Tauberer also noted, however, that the distinction between the now-deleted single year report card and the still active multi-year versions are subtle.

“The difference, as I noted at the top, is whether we say Harris was the leftmost senator in 2019 or the leftmost Democrat in 2019-2020. It is the smallest of hills to die on.”

Harris now ranks as the fourth-most liberal senator on GovTrack’s updated report card, which compares her 2015-2020 legislative record to other senators’, according to Tauberer. The only lawmakers to her left on the updated report card are Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Harris’ policy focus on personal identity led to other bills, like the Census Equality Act, a bill she introduced in 2018 mandating the Census Bureau to collect information on Americans’ “sexual orientation and gender identity.”

In May of 2020, she introduced the COVID–19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020 that would “provide reports and recommendations related to racial and ethnic disparities in the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) response to Congress and relevant federal agencies.”

Two months later in July, she introduced the COVID–19 Bias and Anti-Racism Training Act of 2020, a bill that required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “award grants to health care providers, public health departments, tribal organizations, schools for social workers and health professionals, and other nonprofit entities for bias and anti-racism training to reduce disparities in COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) response efforts.”

Harris also introduced the 2018 Mental Health Professionals Workforce Shortage Loan Repayment Act, which required the Health Resources and Services Administration to “establish a loan repayment program for mental health professionals who work in designated workforce shortage areas.”

GovTrack claims they “never side for or against any policy, politician, or organization” and that they don’t accept grants from partisan operations.

Tauberer does have a history of working for and with left-wing politicians and organizations, though.

He worked for DemandProgress.Org, an advocacy group co-founded by liberal politician David Segal, according to their website. He also worked under Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser as a member of her Open Government Advisory Group and contracted for the Obama-era Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) helping to build HealthData.gov, according to his LinkedIn.

Harris‘ left-wing initiatives started long before the people of California chose her as their senator.

Harris, as District Attorney (DA) for San Francisco, expunged drug offenses from six illegal immigrants in 2009 as part of the state’s “Back On Track” job training program for nonviolent criminals, according to SFGate.

The previous year, prosecutors tightened guidelines for the program after learning one of the participants, Alexander Izaguirre, was an illegal immigrant who allegedly robbed and assaulted a woman, SFGate reported.

“This is an innovative program that has actually been proven to work, except with this one issue, which we corrected when we learned about it,” Harris said at the time. “Once Izaguirre happened, bright lights flashed, it was crystal clear when that happened, and we fixed it.”

The program allowed six illegal immigrants to graduate, despite the fact that their illegal status would not allow them to hold jobs after the fact, according to SFGate.

“A few people got in who should not have,” Harris said at the time. “We graduated them out and we reformed the criteria.”

Current Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Debra Saunders criticized Harris in 2008 for not prosecuting 21-year-old immigrant Edwin Ramos. He had racked up a variety of charges under his belt, like assault and attempted robbery of a pregnant woman. Ramos, who Saunders said was eligible to be deported after the crimes, slipped between the cracks in the sanctuary city of San Francisco before a jury convicted him of murdering Tony Bologna and his two sons in San Francisco.

Harris continued her radical legislative streak, introducing bills like the Fair Chance at Housing Act of 2019, a bill that would force public housing agencies (PHAs) to disregard the criminal background of applicants if they were deemed to be nonviolent.

Overall, Harris’ voting and political record skew highly liberal, though Tauberer cautioned that the record doesn’t tell the whole story.

“Obviously our analysis is at odds with what other serious analysis of Harris’s career has found, and I think the short answer is that both things can be true: She can both be sponsoring/co-sponsoring left-leaning legislation, something with typically little risk, while also being pragmatic when push comes to shove on risky and impactful decisions …” Tauberer said in an email.

Harris’ campaign denied that she directly donated to a Minnesota bail fund that put multiple alleged violent criminals back on the street after former President Donald Trump scrutinized her for promoting it, Washington Free Beacon (WFB) reported.

The Harris team appears to still be involved in promoting the Minnesota Freedom Fund. An ActBlue fundraising page featuring an image of Harris with the title “Kamala Harris for the People” is still active.

Harris tweeted a link to the fund in 2020.

While Harris’ tweet claimed the fund was “to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota” during the George Floyd riots, only a small portion of the $41 million raised, $210,000, was used for that purpose, according to the WFB.

Instead, much of the fund was used to bail out violent criminals like Christopher Boswell. The Minnesota Freedom Fund paid $350,000 to bail out Boswell, a twice convicted rapist who was charged with kidnapping, assault and sexual assault in two separate cases, according to Fox 9.

Harris, who is running for president with no primary voter approval after Biden stepped down, still trails Trump in the polls nationally despite seeing improved numbers compared to the president’s, according to the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average. Trump also holds leads in a majority of the significant battleground states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia.

Republicans and Trump allies have hammered Harris on her Biden administration role overseeing the root causes of migrant overflow at the U.S. southern border. Members of the media colloquially dubbed her position as Biden’s “border czar,” a term that they have worked fervently to distance her from.

Since Biden and Harris took office, there have been more than 7.8 million encounters at the Southern Border as of May, according to the Homeland Security Committee Republicans.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with the correct amount the Minnesota Freedom Fund reportedly paid to bail out Boswell.

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

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

‘Dead On Arrival’: Mike Johnson Rips Reported Details Of Senate Border Deal

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House Speaker Mike Johnson sent a letter to all House Republicans on Friday indicating his opposition to reported details of a border security deal being negotiated in the Senate.

The Senate is currently considering proposals to increase border security and reform the immigrant parole process for asylum seekers, demanded by Republicans, in exchange for authorizing aid to Ukraine to be used in its war against Russia. After alleged details of the plan were reported in the press, Johnson indicated that he would not support the deal should they be included, according to the letter which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I wanted to provide a brief update regarding the supplemental and the border since the Senate appears unable to reach any agreement,” began Johnson in his letter. “If the rumors about the contents of the draft proposals are true, it would have been dead on arrival in the House anyway.”

Letter from Speaker Mike Johnson of Jan. 26, 2024 by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

The negotiations — currently being led by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have not yet been completed and a draft proposal has not been published. However, several media reports have alleged contents of the deal, which have spawned conservative opposition.

One alleged aspect of the deal, reported by The New York Times, concerns reform of “humanitarian parole,” a status granted by the Department of Homeland Security that temporarily permits some foreign nationals fleeing persecution to remain in the United States without obtaining a visa. The Biden administration has issued parole status to millions of foreign nationals from nations such as Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Republicans seek to significantly curtail parole issuance to foreign nationals seeking asylum, who either present themselves at a port of entry or cross the border illegally. The draft proposal in the Senate would reportedly add detention capacity for U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to preclude the issuance of parole to illegal entrants, which is often done due to a paucity of space, the Times reported.

The deal also reportedly includes a reported threshold of migrant encounters per day that, if reached, would suspend parole and processing of foreign migrants. The threshold is reportedly 5,000 individuals per day, though that number is far below the current number of daily migrant encounters by Border Patrol, the Times reported.

“[T]here needs to be a hard cap on parole,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“[T]hey want this outcome and this outcome is terrible for the American people,” said Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Thursday during a press conference to oppose the deal, which he termed a “stinking pile of crap,” according to The Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell supports the deal, according to a report by Politico. “He’s fully behind the border bill, fully behind the support for Ukraine and is not going to let political considerations of any campaign stand in the way of his support,” said Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, regarding McConnell’s views on the matter.

In 2023, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, known as the “Secure the Border Act,” which has served as the body’s border security proposal in negotiations. The bill would appropriate funds to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, prohibit asylum status for persons who enter the country illegally and expand the authority of law enforcement to remove foreign nationals ordered deported.

Other Republicans, however, have attacked the alleged parole reform for not being strict enough. “What is currently being worked on in the Senate will be meaningless in terms of Border Security and Closure,” wrote former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the party’s presidential nomination, in a statement.

Democrats, by contrast, want to preserve parole authority and limit removals of aliens, who have long been settled in the country yet are ordered deported from the United States. “Expanded nationwide expedited removal is an incredibly dangerous tool,” said Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California to NBC.

“I am emphasizing again today that House Republicans will vigorously oppose any policy proposal from the White House or the Senate that would further incentivize illegal aliens to break our laws,” Johnson wrote.

AUTHOR

ARJUN SINGH

Contributor.

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POSTS ON X:

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.

‘F*cking Insanity’: Massive Congressional Spending Bill Says Border Patrol Can’t Spend Funds On Border Security

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The massive congressional spending bill released Tuesday would bar Customs and Border Protection (CBP) funding from going toward border security as the agency sees record numbers of illegal immigrants.

The bill states that the $1,563,143,000 in funds allocated to CBP for “Operations and Support” can’t be used “to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve Border Patrol processing.” The bill was introduced in the Senate Tuesday and needs to be passed in order to avert a government shutdown.

Former CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan called the funding restriction “fucking insanity,” in a statement to the DCNF.

“They finally put down in black and white what we’ve been saying for two years- they don’t care about securing our borders or stopping their deadly open border policies. Just throwing money at the crisis to get better and more effective at processing and releasing illegal aliens,” Morgan said.

The lack of funding for border security comes as illegal immigration, drug seizures and encounters of individuals on the terror watchlist are surging at the southern border.

CBP officers encountered a record of more than 2.3 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022. During that time, CBP also caught a record of 98 individuals on the terror watchlist and seized more than 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl.

Federal border authorities have also encountered a surge in illegal immigrants of “special interest,” who come from countries of particular national security concern and “possibly have a nexus to terrorism.”

“At this point, they might as well change the name of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to U.S. Customs and Border Processing. Seriously, all the Biden administration wants CBP to do is process migrants or watch them come across with a drone or camera,” Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Head of Government Relations and Communications RJ Hauman told the DCNF. “Every border security funding stream in a spending bill needs firm conditions to use the money properly, rather than enabling a system that functions as a lawless, greased up turnstile into the United States.”

CBP didn’t respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

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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.

EXCLUSIVE: Tara Reade Calls GOP-Majority House To Investigate Alleged Sexual Assault By Joe Biden

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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Reade regarding her work with RT

Former Senate aide Tara Reade called on House Republicans to launch an investigation into allegations that she was sexually assaulted by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1993, telling the Daily Caller that she would be willing to testify under oath.

“It would be a very different thing, if I could testify under oath,” Reade told the Caller, adding that she would “provide whatever information [Congress] needed and [Congress] could ask me whatever questions they wanted.”

“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade added, saying that House Republicans should launch an investigation while they have a majority.

Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a Senate corridor in 1993 by pinging her against a wall and reaching under her clothing before sexually violating her. She said she filed a police report in 2020 about the incident, and that no thorough investigation has ever taken place.

Interns and others that worked alongside Reade in Biden’s Senate office denied knowing that any sexual misconduct took place between Reade and Biden, the New York Times reported in 2020, citing interviews with the former staffers. She could also not remember some details about the incident, including the exact time, date and location, according to the outlet.

Biden’s staffers who worked with Reade at the time, including aide Dennis Toner, chief of staff Ted Kaufman and executive assistant Marianne Baker, all denied that Reade came forward to them about the alleged sexual assault.

Toner and Kaufman told NPR in 2020 that they did not remember Reade and that she did not come to them about the allegations. Congressional records show that she worked for Biden for approximately nine months.

Baker issued a statement saying, “In all my years working for Senator Biden, I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager. These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades,” NPR reported.

If the Senate staff that served under Biden “had to go under oath, I think they would have to admit something very different,” Reade said.

“He would put his fingers underneath the back of my neck, underneath my hair, and then run his finger up and down,” Reade said. He would “massage my shoulders, and touch me. It was just weird,” she added, noting this happened before the incident in the hallway.

Spokespeople for Biden have repeatedly denied the allegations.

The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller at the time of publication about the allegations and whether Biden would be willing to testify under oath.

Reade claims her mother called into “Larry King Live” in August of 1993 and asked host Larry King what her daughter could do other than go to the press with “problems” she encountered after working for a “prominent Senator.”

Audio shows that a woman did call in to the show at the time, and Reade has claimed that the woman on the line is her mother.

“I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

King responded, “in other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?”

“That’s true,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.

Reade’s friend said that she told her about the alleged assault at the time, and another friend and Reade’s brother have said that Reade informed them of the alleged assault over the years, The New York Times reported.

Reade told the Caller she filed a sexual harassment report through the Senate in 1993, and that the report was filed on paper. If the paper still exists, it would be sealed with Biden’s papers at the University of Delaware, Reade added.

She continued that when she brought her complaints to her superiors, she was “threatened” and ultimately dismissed from her duties.

One of the press secretary’s staff at the time told Reade, “we’ll f***ing destroy you, if you go forward,” Reade told the Caller.

The intimidation and trauma led Reade to not come forward for years, she said.

“I was 28-years-old, it was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” Reade continued.

House Republicans have announced that they are launching an investigation into Biden, alleging that the president was “involved” in his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, did not provide comment on Reade’s request.

Biden supporters have used a 2020 probe into Reade allegedly providing a false statement under oath in an attempt to discredit her.

South Bay, California, defense attorneys investigated whether Reade had falsely described her education credentials under oath. A spokesperson for her undergraduate college provided a statement to CNN saying she never graduated, according to the Intercept.

The probe was concluded and no charges were filed, according to the Intercept, and Reade has sent letters to several publications demanding that their claims about her alleged false claims be clarified.

Reade’s critics have also accused her of working with the Russian government, citing her four op-eds published in the Russian government publication RT.
Reade told the Caller, “no Russians were there in 1993 when Joe Biden sexually assaulted me. No Russians were there when Biden team threatened me, used their power and resources to try to silence  me. My political opinions about Russia are simply not relevant to what happened.”
“I was proud of the handful of op-eds that were published. I tried to have one published in the New York Times but it was rejected. Bottom line, I was Joe Biden’s full time staffer in 1993 when he sexually harassed and assaulted me. Any other conversation about what I thought or even who I worked with now is irrelevant to the crime he committed in 1993 and as to why Biden has never even been investigated,” she added.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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

Herschel Walker And Raphael Warnock Head To Runoff In Georgia Senate Race

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Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock are heading to a runoff after neither candidate reached 50% of the vote in the initial election, according to CNN.

Walker received 48.7% of the vote and Warnock received 49.2% of the vote, with 96% reporting, according to CNN. The candidates will face off on Dec. 6 in a runoff election.

Walker, a first time politician and former 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, campaigned as a pro-life and pro-family advocate who promotes Georgia-based companies and jobs, investments in the U.S. military, police funding and protection for American values of freedom and faith. Warnock, who defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a run-off in 2020, campaigned largely on healthcare and abortion rights.

Throughout the race, each candidate sparred over abortion and government spending, while also becoming the center of separate controversies. Two separate women accused Walker of paying for their abortions, while the securities and charities division of the Georgia Secretary of State Office launched a probe into Warnock’s church, questioning him after his church allegedly evicted low income tenants.

Though the race was heavily contested, Walker became the frontrunner of the race during the last week of the election, passing Warnock by 3.2 points with support from 49.7% of respondents, according to a Trafalgar poll released Monday, and leading in the RealClearPolitics average.

During the Georgia senatorial debate in October, the candidates defended themselves against their respective controversies as Warnock claimed that the eviction reports stemmed from false attacks from the Walker campaign, and Walker called the abortion claims a “lie.”

“I’m running against a desperate candidate. Anytime a candidate would stoop to the level of trying to sully the name, he and his allies, to sully the name of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church, and John Lewis’ church, you know that’s a desperate candidate,” Warnock said.

Walker denounced the abortion claims telling the debate audience, “That’s a lie.”

In the Georgia gubernatorial election, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp defeated Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams for the second consecutive time receiving 53.4% of the vote, with 96% reporting, according to NBC News. Kemp originally defeated Abrams in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, leading Abrams to file a lawsuit against Kemp alleging he had worked to suppress voters.

AUTHOR

BRONSON WINSLOW

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Blake Masters: ‘We’re Remaking the Republican Party’ Because the ‘Establishment’ is ‘Out Of Touch’

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Republican Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters said the GOP is out of touch with ordinary Americans and described how he’s breaking from some “establishment” norms in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Masters said Republicans, including himself, were in agreement about many key issues such as low taxes and low regulations, but that he’s more skeptical of foreign intervention and more vocal about crime and immigration than some of his counterparts. He spoke with the DCNF at the National Conservatism conference in Miami Sunday.

“I think I’m speaking more boldly about the southern border and issues of crime than a lot of establishment Republicans,” he told the DCNF. “I’m running on this America First agenda, that’s what I believe in, and I think we’re remaking the Republican Party to really implement that America first agenda. I think that the Republican party that Paul Ryan wants, that’s not the Republican party the American people want.”

Masters is running against Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is leading him by 47 to 45 percentage points roughly two months ahead of election day, according to a Sept. 9 Emerson College poll. The race has been labeled a “toss-up,” according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

The “America First” agenda, according to Masters, prioritizes the needs of ordinary Americans, and that means focusing more on domestic issues and less on foreign intervention. He also said establishment Republicans tend to grow disconnected from normal Americans during their time in office, which he said was driving growing support for populist strains of conservatism.

“Establishment Republicans tend to be a little bit too disconnected from the people. I see this especially in the Senate,” he said. “You stack a few six-year terms and suddenly you’re too disconnected from American life and what working class and middle class people are feeling. They live in a bubble, and the America first groundswell happened because establishment Republicans are out of touch.”

One key area were he’s distancing himself from the Republican establishment is foreign policy; he said he is a non-interventionist by default and believe the U.S. government should avoid military intervention when it’s not strictly necessary.

“I’ve been much more skeptical, for instance, about sending $40 billion to Ukraine,” he told the DCNF. “I would’ve voted no, I don’t think we should be doing that, and I think the Republican establishment is still more hawkish on that.”

The comments come amid an apparent rift between Masters and the GOP: the Senatorial Republican Super PAC, which is affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, pulled millions of dollars in ad buys for Masters in Arizona in August.

Masters didn’t directly comment on whether the funds were being withheld due to the perceived conflict between him and the Republican establishment, but said he was confident that necessary funds would come in from Washington, Silicon Valley and Arizona in apparent references to McConnell and tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

“This race is too close, it’s too crucial and it’s too winnable. I don’t know when the dam breaks but I think we’re gonna have all the resources we need,” he said.

McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social issues and culture reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Why I’m Endorsing Ray Pilon for the Florida Senate in District 23

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The Florida Senate District 23 race has been filled with mud slinging, vitriol and attacks between candidates. And that’s just the Republicans running for the open seat.

Big money, the media, big business and the establishment GOP have worked to put into the District 23 Senate seat anybody but Ray Pilon. Sound familiar?

Ray is not beholding to big donors and has not gotten into the mud slinging pig pen, like some other candidates. Ray Pilon is the only candidate who is talking about and focused on the issues impacting Floridians. That alone is reason enough to cast a vote for Pilon.

But there are other reasons that compel me to vote for Ray Pilon. The reasons fall into four categories: Illegal immigration, law and order, the Florida economy, public education.

IMMIGRATION

George Fuller, an expert on immigration issues, sent me the following in an email:

This afternoon I received a response from Ray Pilon posted below who is running for the [Florida District 23] state senate. I voted for him previously and will again.

Thanks George, if I make it to the Senate you won’t just hear rhetoric from me you will see legislation and a campaign to correct this [immigration] mess. What you have said all along is getting worse. It is a major priority for me and maybe my fellow legislators will finally wake up. I will seek your counsel as we move forward.

Ray [Pilon]

Illegals cost the state of Florida over $5 billion annually according to FAIR. This is a heavy burden on all Florida taxpayers. Andrea Billups from NewsMax reported:

An estimated 925,000 illegal immigrants lived in Florida in 2012, according to data from the Pew Research Center. They made up 4.8 percent of the state’s population.

The annual costs to Florida’s taxpayers were estimated at more than $5.2 billion, according to data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. This deficit was calculated after state revenue from illegal immigrants totaling $261 million was counted.

FAIR reported the following costs associated with illegal immigration in Florida, broken down as such:

  • $3.34 billion went to education
  • $660 million to healthcare
  • $579 million to justice and law enforcement
  • $317 million to public assistance
  • $568 million to general government services

LAW AND ORDER

Ray Pilon was born in Pontiac, Michigan, and attended Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1968. After graduation, he moved to the state of Florida in 1979, where he began working as a police officer.

Perhaps the second most important issue facing Florida is the maintaining of law and order. With the recent killings in Orlando and Fort Myers it is clear that the terrorist and criminal elements are always waiting to strike.

Pilon was part of that thin blue line keeping Floridians safe. He understands that without law enforcement officers there is lawlessness.

THE FLORIDA ECONOMY

A healthy economy depends on low taxes, a skilled workforce, and a regulatory environment that encourages job creation and entrepreneurship. In the Florida legislature, Ray Pilon has worked to remove government-created obstacles to prosperity.

I am confident he will continue to work with Governor Scott to create jobs, cut regulations and increase the chances for entrepreneurs to flourish in the Sunshine state.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA) was working on both a comprehensive bill to restore local K-12 education control and a focused curriculum bill to fix the loopholes in SB 864, passed in 2014 as FS 1006.283.

FLCA in a press release stated:

We are very pleased to report that Senator Alan Hays and Representative Ray Pilon are championing companion bills to fix FS 1006.283 and its loopholes:  SB 1018 and HB 899.

The purpose/intent of the original SB 864 was to assign constitutional responsibility for all instructional materials to school boards, and require a transparent policy/process for school boards and parents to remove objectionable materials. Due to several loopholes in FS 1006.283, the spirit and intent of the original bill are currently being ignored by many school districts in Florida.

FLCA later asked its members, parents and concerned citizen to “send a ‘shout out’ to Senator Hays and Representative Pilon, thanking them for their leadership.”

Ray Pilon has been a champion of moving power to students, parents and teachers in Florida.

Not sure what else I can say other than I urge all voters in Florida Senate District 23 to vote for Ray Pilon.

To learn more about Ray Pilon please click here.

RELATED VIDEO: Candidate Forum – Florida Senate District 23 (Republican primary)

Can the States Stop Implementation of Iran Nuclear Deal?

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On the Sunday, September 20, 2015 Lisa Benson Show we interviewed, David B. Rivkin, Jr. a noted Constitutional  litigator, a partner in the Washington, DC office of the Baker Hostetler law firm. The topic was “Can the Senate Sue the President over his handling of the Iran Nuclear Deal?”  Rivkin is also   a Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).  He served in a variety of legal and policy positions in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush  Administrations, including stints at the White House Counsel’s office, Office of the Vice President and the Departments of Justice and Energy. While in the government, he handled a variety of national security and domestic issues, including environmental and energy policy, tax, trade and constitutional issues.  He is a much sought after as a media commentator on matters of constitutional and international law, as well as foreign and defense policy.

Rivkin recently won a landmark decision in the D.C. Federal District Court in the matter of House v. Burwell over the supremacy of Congressional appropriations authorities with regard to implementation of the Affordable Care Act that affirmed Congressional standing to bring such an action. He co-authored a September 6, 2015 Washington Post opinion article with Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) suggesting a possible suit by the Senate against the President for non–compliance with the language of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act requiring delivery of all requisite documents including the privileged IAEA side agreements.  A September 10, 2015 WSJ op ed by Rivkin and Elizabeth Price Foley discussed how the successful House v. Burwell suit gave standing to Congress to bring possible litigation against the President. Moreover, the suit in the ACA matter had survived a motion to dismiss by the Administration. We have published similar proposals by Sklaroff and Bender for Senate litigation over the JCPOA unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council on July 22, 2015.

The Sklaroff Bender proposal required the Senate to change Rule 22 to achieve cloture to cut off filibusters by Minority Democrats, before Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) might offer up a resolution to treating the Iran nuclear agreement as a treaty under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution requiring a two thirds vote under the advise and consent of the Senate.  However, to initiate that would have required McConnell to make changes in Rule 22 at the start of the 114th Congress in January 2015.  Currently, to cut off debate requires 60 votes. Congressional Research Service reports on this issue indicated previous proposals reducing the threshold down in steps to a simple majority vote. A number of prominent conservative activists and organizations advocated such a change at the start of the new Congress but McConnell pushed back, arguing that Democrats would use the new rules once they returned to the Majority to quash Republican concerns in the future.

The Senate Republican majority failed in a last move to upend the Iran Nuclear deal. As reported by the AP, a Senate vote on a resolution requiring Iran to recognize Israel as a quid pro quo to lifting sanctions failed once again to reach the 60 vote’s threshold.  The vote was 53 to 45 before the deadline of September 17th under the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, in an AP report on the Administration’s start to implement the JCPOA, the deal “likely will be revisited by the next commander-in-chief.”  The AP reportedHouse Speaker John Boehner suggesting that possible litigation might be an option. Other Senators and Members of Congress have suggested renewal of the Iran Sanctions Act of 2006 before it sunsets in 2016.

Watch this mid-April 2015  Wall Street Journal interview with David B. Rivkin, Esq. He had presciently predicted the problems confronting  Congress  under the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act to pass resolutions rejecting the JCPOA.

During the Lisa Benson Show interview, Rivkin suggested that the President had violated Coker-Cardin by not delivering all of the requisite information, including the IAEA side agreements with Iran. As a result of this violation, the Congressional review period has never started and, consistent with the statutory language of Corker Cardin, the President’s authority to lift any sanctions against Iran or unblock any frozen Iranian funds has been vitiated. Rivkin expressed the view that, if the President were to indicate that he intends to lift sanctions, or unblock frozen assets, this decision can be challenged in court, either by the House or the Senate, or the States. Listen to the Rivkin interview on the Lisa Benson Show sound cloud, here.

Rivkin and colleague Lee Casey wrote about that possibility in a July 26, 2015, Wall Street Journal opinion article, “The Lawless Underpinnings in the Iran Nuclear Deal“. They argued:

The Obama end-run around the Constitution could yet be blocked if states exercise their own sanctions regimes …The administration faces another serious problem because the deal requires the removal of state and local Iran-related sanctions. That would have been all right if Mr. Obama had pursued a treaty with Iran, which would have bound the states, but his executive-agreement approach cannot pre-empt the authority of the states.

That leaves the states free to impose their own Iran-related sanctions, as they have done in the past against South Africa and Burma. The Constitution’s Commerce Clause prevents states from imposing sanctions as broadly as Congress can. Yet states can establish sanctions regimes—like banning state-controlled pension funds from investing in companies doing business with Iran—powerful enough to set off a legal clash over American domestic law and the country’s international obligations. The fallout could prompt the deal to unravel.

An explanation of the JCPOA State Sanctions impasse was outlined in a Steptoe International Compliance blog on August 15, 2015, “The JCPOA and State Sanctions” by Bibek Pandy:

The Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) does not say much about Iran sanctions imposed by US state governments. Almost two dozen states (including New York, California and Florida) have passed laws that in some form (i) ban the awarding of government contracts to companies tied to Iran, and/or (ii) prohibit public funds from investing in companies doing certain types of business in Iran. These state restrictions can be more extensive in scope than US federal sanctions. For example, some state restrictions (e.g. in Florida) attach automatically to the parent entity of the company who engages in certain Iran activities. Laws in many states provide for the lifting of Iran sanctions when the President removes Iran from the list of countries that support terrorism; but the JCPOA does not do that, and, as a result, Iran sanction laws in most states will remain intact.

[…]

Companies considering engaging in activity authorized under the JCPOA need to be still mindful of non-federal Iran sanctions. In particular, state government contractors with Iran links should review state procurement laws before engaging in activities permitted by the JCPOA. Furthermore, contractors can face civil penalties in many states for providing false certifications related to their Iran activities. The bar for Iran-related disqualification in some states is relatively low, and the JCPOA does not change that.

David B RivkinDavid B. Rivkin, Jr., Esq.

Following the Lisa Benson Show, David Rivkin and this writer held a conversation to explore the possibilities of a state level initiative. Florida Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi led a filing made in the 1st Federal District Court in Pensacola on behalf of Florida and more than two dozen other State AGs endeavoring to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Federal Judge Vincent heard oral arguments and ruled on the matter sending it ultimately to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.   Rivkin thinks that a similar action could be mounted by Florida and a few other states in the same legal venue, the 1st District Court.  The filing might be based on existing Florida sanction law passed under the federal 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) supplemented by an Executive Order.

The State cause of action, according to Rivkin, could be filed in a matter of weeks, potentially forestalling the release of sanctions before the implementation date under JCPOA, December 15, 2015. As indicated in a September 11, 2015 FDD memo by Dubowitz, Fixler, et.al. the subsequent release of upwards of $120 billion of sequestered funds in several Asian banks would take an additional six months. Thus the Rivkin state litigation proposal, if implemented promptly, might possibly stop the release of Iran nuclear sanctions.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Nora Patterson former Democrat and Planned Parenthood Board Member running for Florida Senate

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nora patterson at opening of pp facility in sarasota

Nora Patterson (sixth from the left) at ribbon cutting of largest Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Florida, located in the City of Sarasota.

Career politician Nora Patterson has filed to run for the Florida Senate in District 23. Patterson will be running against Florida State Representative Greg Steube and and former Florida State Representative Doug Holder in the Republican primary in Sarasota County, Florida.

Patterson is a long time supporter and former President of the Board of Directors of the largest Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Florida, located in Rosemary District, a minority area in North Sarasota County.

In 1998, when running for the Sarasota City Commission, Rod Thompson from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Patterson “has served as president of the board of directors for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Florida” … and she is “very much a supporter of Planned Parenthood.”

john and nora patterson

John and Nora Patterson at the March 2013 Planned Parenthood annual dinner. Source: Gulfshore Media, LLC.

In June, 2006 Patterson, with her husband John who is a partner with Shutt & Bowen, LLP law firm, attended a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. Sarasota Magazine reported on the Ruby Gala and wrote:

At the Ruby gala, big names were everywhere: Cornelia Matson in regal purple, Lee Peterson, Nancy Reinheimer, Betty Schoenbaum, Anita Holec, Caren Lobo, Flori Roberts,Leila Gompertz-too many to name. And husbands galore! Many politicos-Mayor Mary Ann Servian, former Mayor Mollie Cardamone, Commissioner Ken Shelin, School Board members John Lewis and Carol Todd, County Commissioner Nora Patterson and Betty Castor. Alex Sink, and other candidates for office were also there.

In 2007 Sarasota County voted for an $8 million bond to help fund a new Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

While a Sarasota County Commissioner Patterson was the only one to vote to continue using county taxes to continue funding for Planned Parenthood. Steven Ertlet from LifeNews.com in 2008 reported:

Sarasota County in Florida has cut the money it sends to a local Planned Parenthood abortion business. Officials, citing poor economic conditions and the need to better balance the city budget, removed the second $12,500 of the original $25,000 allocated for Planned Parenthood family planning programs.

[ … ]

Nora Patterson was the only member of the commission to vote to retain the Planned Parenthood funding. The county gave the abortion center a $30,000 grant in 2007 and $28,000 in 2006.

Zac Anderson from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports, “Patterson is viewed as a moderate on a number of issues. She is a former Democrat who supports abortion rights ‘up to a certain point in the pregnancy’ and once served as president of the board of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Florida, although she noted her board stint was before the local affiliate performed abortions.” [Emphasis added]

Patterson’s efforts to distance herself from Planned Parenthood is misrepresenting the fact that she has consistently supported abortions, and the funding thereof, using Sarasota tax dollars ever since she left as President of Southwest Florida Planned Parenthood.

Stephanie Armour from the Wall Street Journal reports:

Three Planned Parenthood Federation of America clinics in Florida were ordered to stop performing second-trimester abortions after an investigation found they didn’t have the proper licenses, the state Agency for Health Care Administration said Wednesday.

The investigation also found one clinic that wasn’t keeping proper logs relating to fetal remains, according to the agency. The state may take additional actions, including administrative sanctions, against the clinics.

“Licenses are in place to protect the patient from unscrupulous operators and the state of Florida will ensure every facility is held accountable for its actions,” the agency said in a news release.

[ … ]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott last month ordered an investigation of Planned Parenthood clinics in the state following an antiabortion group’s release of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the procurement of fetal tissue for research following abortions.

Perhaps Sarasota County voters should judge Nora Patterson on the company she keeps? That company being Planned Parenthood, and the industrial complex that makes a profit off of baby body parts.

Nora Patterson has been a loyal soldier in the war against the innocent and unborn.

RELATED ARTICLES:

4 Ways the Senate Could End Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood

What the New York Times Didn’t Tell You About the Planned Parenthood Video Analysis

Black Pastors Demand Smithsonian Remove Planned Parenthood Founder’s Bust

‘Planned Parenthood Is Flailing’: Bobby Jindal Fights Back After Louisiana Sued for Terminating Medicaid Contract

The Feminist War on Family Science

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