Gone to Die?
The first session of the 115th Congress is
begun. Bills are filling the hopper of
the Clerk of the House so quickly that congress.gov cannot get the text of them
published because of a backlog at the Government Printing House, (GPO). This issue will not be problematic for long.
Bills often die in committee. I am suggesting that most, if not all, of the
following bills will suffer that fate.
Of course the Representative filing the bill still has fodder for the
campaign trail. Sometimes these bills
are a shell game.
In the Age of Trump; Fascism in America, there will no doubt
be a strong need for Whistleblowers and enhanced Whistleblower
Protections. So it appears the list
begins with reintroduction of a bill from the last Congress. This time it is called H.R. 69: “To
reauthorize the Office of Special Counsel, to amend title 5, United States
Code, to provide modifications to authorities relating to the Office of Special
Counsel, and for other purposes”. The short title is "Thoroughly Investigating Retaliation Against Whistleblowers
Act"
In the
114th Congress the bill was numbered H.R. 4639 introduced by Rep.
Rod Blum [R-IA-1] and cosponsored by Rep. Mark Meadows [R-NC-11], Rep. Gerald
E. Connolly [D-VA-11], and Rep Elijah Cummings
[D-MD-7].
Detailed information
about the bill as filed in the 114th Congress is available at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4639.
When this bill is published we can compare the new version with the old.
On a less happy note I offer you Representative Darrell E.
Issa [R-CA-49] and his reintroduction of the Midnight Rules Relief Act. This
year it is H.R. 21. Last year it was H.R. 5982.
It appears that Issa thinks the Congress has too much work to do. Too
much in fact to take any decent amount of time to consider the work it is does. After all in 2016 Congress met for 111
days. That’s great part time work for
the millionaires in power.
Anyway, when the Congress takes up dreaded
federal regulations it takes too much time to reject them one at a time. Issa wants to reject them speedily (so Republicans
can say “Yes that was a good Regulation. Unfortunately you have to keep all
those bad regulations to keep the one you like Mr. Ms. or Mrs. Constituent.” At least in the last year of a President’s
term.
When this bill gets out of the GPO it will appear on line
and get a proper review.
Make a note H.R. 5982 received five Roll Call votes and passed
the House on Roll number 585 on November 17th 2016. It did not in survive the Senate. Read more about the former version at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5982
