Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A Direct Assault on the Constitution, America and the Poor: H.R. 1: Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

This is the bill, H.R. 1: Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (GovTrack.us), that will cause a government shutdown. It is an outrageously contrived piece of legislation that increases Defense spending to a record level, does nothing to reduce the deficit and directly assaults programs for the poor, for safety and good health and vital services for good of all. It's as if the Republicans went down a list of everything that protects citizens, that saves lives, that limits the spread of disease, that insures safe conditions, clean air and water, and that provides for the poorest citizens in America to kill all of those programs by stopping the funding to them.

It is an astonishingly vindictive Bill against the citizens of America and blatantly pro-corporate.

You can vote against the bill here: https://www.popvox.com/

Here are the amendments in the bill that were approved by the Republican controlled House:

Amendment 170: To prevent funding for end-of-life counseling, the mislabeled "death panels."
Amendment 168: To prevent funding for the National Labor Relations Board to certify the results of a labor organization elections. This is a direct assault on labor unions, making their elections irrelevant.
Amendment 164: To prevent funds being used for management of the National Primary and Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standards in the Clean Air Act.
Amendment 163: To prevent the use of funds for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. (Ain't no place else to keep nuclear waste, people.)
Amendment 161: To prevent the use of funds to pay the salary of anyone officer or employee of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Amendment 159: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to carry out any of the activities described in section 6A of the Consumer Product Safety Act. (GOP considers this a hardship on corporations.)
Amendment 158: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds by EPA to develop, propose, finalize, implement, administer, or enforce any regulation that identifies or lists fossil fuel combustion waste as hazardous waste subject to regulation.
Amendment 157: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds used by the Administrator of the EPA to carry out section 404(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
Amendment 156: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in the decision of the Administrator of the EPA entitled "Partial Grant of Clean Air Act Waiver Application Submitted by Growth Energy to Increase the Allowable Ethanol Content of Gasoline to 15 percent". (An increase of Ethanol percentage in gasoline will directly cut big oil company profits and, of course, cut the quantity of imported oil. So, this amendment helps oil companies and keeps us dependent on oil imports.)
Amendment 154: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (In other words, no money for studying the effect of climate change.)
Amendment 153: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for the study of the Missouri River Projects authorized in section 108 of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009. (Stops the improvement along the Missouri River.)
Amendment 152: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, New England, or Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.
Amendment 151: An amendment to prohibit use of funds to the EPA, the Corps of Engineers, or the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement may be used to carry out, implement, administer, or enforce any policy or procedure set forth in the memorandum issued by the EPA. (There is no text that specifies which EPA memorandum this refers to or describes what the memorandum does.)
Amendment 148: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to implement, establish, or create a NOAA Climate Service as described in the "Draft NOAA Climate Service Strategic Vision and Framework" published at 75 Feb. Reg. 57739. (This cuts funding for continued work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's on developing its strategic plan for studying, monitoring and response to climate change.)
Amendment 145: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for the construction of an ethanol blender pump or an ethanol storage facility. (I believe this refers to strategic reserves, in case of a disaster or war, that stores ethanol for emergency use. Republicans like corn ethanol, that causes the cost of corn to sky rocket, but they don't want to use it wisely. What a contradiction!)
Amendment 144: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 for the design, renovation, construction, or rental of any headquarters for the United Nations in any location in the United States. (To not fund the rental of UN space may cause the U.S. UN diplomats huge problems participating in UN matters.)
Amendment 143: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 from being used to implement, administer, or enforce the rule entitled "Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Lakes and Flowing Waters" published in the Federal Register by the Environmental Protection Agency on December 6, 2010.
Amendment 138: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 from being used to pay the salary of any officer or employee of the the Department of Health and Human Services who develops or promulgates regulations or guidance with regard to Exchanges under subtitle D of title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Exchanges reduce insurance cost to citizens. Without the exchanges, insurance companies can continue to raise costs without competition.)
Amendment 136: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 from being used to develop, promulgate, evaluate, implement, provide oversight to, or backstop total maximum daily loads or watershed implementation plans for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. (This stops funding to continue the cleanup and management of the polluted Chesapeake Bay that millions use for fishing, crabbing and drinking.)
Amendment 131: An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to be used to develop, carry out, implement, or otherwise enforce proposed regulations published June 18, 2010 (75 Fed. Reg. 34,667) by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement of the Department of the Interior. (To prevent mining regulations, including safety.)
Amendment 128An amendment to prohibit the use of funds made available by division A of this Act for Department of Defense, Operation and Maintenance, Defense-wide may be used for official representation purposes, as defined by Department of Defense Instruction 7250.13(pdf), dated June 30, 2009.
Amendment 126An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to be used to require a person licensed under section 923 of title 18, United States Code, to report information to the Department of Justice regarding the sale of multiple rifles or shotguns to the same person. (This stops funding for the control of multiple gun sales, such as sold to Mexican gun-runners in U.S. gun stores. A person can then buy lots of guns in a single sale without it being reported.)
Amendment 123An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for the Secretary of Agriculture to implement or enforce Subpart B of the Travel Management Rule, relating to the designation of roads, trails, and areas for motor vehicle use, in any administrative unit of the National Forest System. (Without funds, all National forests are free from any regulation and any and all can use any part for any kind of motor vehicle, without any control at all.)
Amendment 121An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to implement the Klamath Dam Removal and Sedimentation Study. (A number of years ago, the pollution and dams in the Klamath River threatened the Chinook Salmon to the point of extinction. California had to stop salmon fishing on the West Coast and began cleaning up the river and restricting its use. Salmon fishing is back, but much reduced, and many salmon fishing companies went out of business. The amendment to stop funding puts us back to where we were before the California clean up.)
Amendment 120An amendment to prohibit the use of funds made available by division B of the Public Health Service Act to implement or enforce section 2718 of the Act. (If doctors makes mistakes that harms you, they don't have the money to report or monitor the mistakes so that insurance companies won't have to reimburse your costs for the mistakes. Section 2718 requires health insurance issuers to submit data on the proportion of premium revenues spent on clinical services and quality improvement, also known as the medical loss ratio (MLR), and payment of rebates to enrollees if this percentage does not meet minimum standards.  The new law also directs NAIC to establish uniform definitions and standardized methodologies for determining what services constitute clinical services, quality improvement, and other non-claims costs for carrying out this provision.)
Amendment 106An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 to be used by the Internal Revenue Service to implement or enforce section 5000A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, section 6055 of such Code, section 1502(c) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or any amendments made by section 1502(b) of such Act. (Apparently stops funding on the reporting of insurance coverage to the IRS.)
Amendment 105An amendment to prohibit funds in H.R. 1 to be used to pay the salary of any officer or employee of any Federal department or agency with respect to carrying out the provisions of Public Law 111-148 (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), Public Law 111-152 (Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010), or any amendment made by such either Public Law. (Stops all funding of Healthcare Reform laws.)
Amendment 104An amendment to prohibit the use of funds in H.R. 1 to be used to carry out the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, or any amendment made by either such Public Law. (Another amendment to stop all Healthcare Reform law funding. --they sure want to stop it--)
Amendment 102An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to pay any employee, officer, contractor, or grantee of any department or agency to implement the provisions of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or title I or subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. (Another one to stop Healthcare funding!!)
Amendment 101An amendment to prohibit use of funds by EPA to implement, administer, or enforce any statutory or regulatory requirement pertaining to emissions of greenhouse gases. (In other words, it's okay to gas us.)
Amendment 96An amendment to prohibit use of funds by the Environmental Appeals Board to consider, review, reject, remand, or otherwise invalidate any permit issued for Outer Continental Shelf sources located offshore of the States along the Arctic Coast under the Clean Air Act. (Prohibits the funds to regulate Alaska off-shore oil drilling of any kind.)
Amendment 95An amendment to prohibit the use of funds for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (Prohibits funding healthcare for the poorest women in America. Note: Only 2% of women who go to Planned Parenthood ask for information on abortion. The other 98% are there for all other women health matters. Note 2: I pulled my blog article on Planned Parenthood because it dawned on me that I might be putting the Planned Parenthood clinic that I wrote about in danger. I'll rewrite it without location and personal identification information later.)
Amendment 94An amendment to prohibit funds for the use of the "Program Integrity: Gainful Employment-New Programs" section of the bill. (Prohibits funds for New Jobs programs!! So much for Republican promises!! They don't keep their promises.)


All of this information can be obtained from, and you can be kept up to date on Congressional bills at, GovTrack. Keep informed of what you voted for!!


In summary, we will be able to go to war with the highest Defense funding in history, but we can't keep care of our citizens in any way at all.


Dave

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