SIX MEASURES ADVANCE IN THE HOUSE 12/21/10

H.R. 6540, the Defense Level Playing Field Act has been received in the Senate after sailing through the House by a margin of 325 in favor to 23 opposed, on Roll Call vote number 658.

The KC-X Aerial Tanker

H.R. 6540 Requires the Secretary of Defense (DOD), in evaluating offers to award a contract for the KC-X aerial refueling aircraft program, to consider any unfair advantage that an offer or may possess. This bill directs the Secretary to: (1) report to the congressional defense committees on any such advantage; and (2) take into account the findings of such report in awarding a contract.

On a related front, H.R. 5136 §§824 and 848 speaks to the issue of the KC-X tanker. That bill, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, which is dead in the Senate requires the Secretary of DOD to submit an interim report on "any review of a covered subsidy initiated pursuant to subsection (a) of section 886 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417; 122 Stat. 4561) not later than 60 days after the date of the initiation of the review." Section 848 mandates, in subsection (a) the "Requirement to Consider Unfair Competitive Advantage- In awarding a contract for the KC-X aerial refueling aircraft program (or any successor to that program), the Secretary of Defense shall, in evaluating any offers submitted to the Department of Defense in response to a solicitation for offers for such program, consider any unfair competitive advantage that an offer or may possess."

H.R. 6523, the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, is the pared down version of the military spending bill for the next fiscal year. H.R. 6523 does not contain the language regarding the KC-X aerial tanker found in H.R. 6540 or H.R. 5136. H.R. 6523 is treading water waiting for Senate action in this Lame Duck session of the 111th Congress.

The KC-X program should see the production of 175 aircraft over a span of two decades costing in the neighborhood of $35 billion, and probably more. The current fleet of tankers is subject to uncertainty due to age and the potential for fatigue. Currently employed in the fleet are KC-135 tankers which were delivered in 1965 and KC-10 tankers delivered between 1979 and 1987.

The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, H.R. 5116 passed the House on Roll Call vote number 659 by a margin of 228 in favor to 130 opposed. This was on the vote to resolve differences with the Senate. This bill originally passed in the House on May 28th. The Senate passed the measure with an amendment on December 17th by Unanimous Consent.

H.R. 5116 makes an investment in innovation through research and development, to improve the competitiveness of the United States. H.R. 5116 authorizes appropriations for several agencies to support scientific research, industrial innovation, and certain educational activities. The legislation allows for the collection of fees to offset the administrative costs of a loan guarantee program directed toward small and medium sized businesses. The CBO estimates that there is no net budgetary impact in a single year by this bill.

H.R. 2142, the Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act of 2010 passed the House on Roll Call vote number 660 by a margin of 216 to 139. H.R. 2142 expresses the sense of Congress that each executive agency should consult with the committees with jurisdiction over the agency and other interested Members of Congress each fiscal year regarding the agency's performance plan and priorities. The bill mandates that each federal agency head identify near- and long-term high-priority goals for the purpose of improving agency performance and submit quarterly reports relating to those goals.

H.R. 2142 establishes a Performance Improvement Council in the executive branch to make recommendations concerning, and to monitor, performance management. Includes among the Council's duties to: (1) develop a website for federal agency performance information; (2) link program performance information to program spending information on the website www.USASpending.gov; and (3) report to Congress on the feasibility of creating a single web-based platform for all government spending information and all program performance information.

The Comptroller Generally is directed to periodically assess the implementation of this Act. Any savings or reductions in expenditures generated by this Act are to be used to offset the costs of its implementation and any additional savings to be used to offset the deficit. Agencies are required to fund this Act's reporting requirements out of existing budgets and authorizes agencies to make necessary reprogramming of funds.

H.R. 2751, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act passed in the House on Roll Call vote number 661. The margin on the motion to resolve differences with the Senate was 215 in favor and 144 opposed. This is a major overhaul of food safety laws. H.R. 2751 began as a bill to accelerate motor fuel savings nationwide and provide incentives to registered owners of high polluting automobiles to replace such automobiles with new fuel efficient and less polluting automobiles. It was amended in the Senate with the language of S. 510 the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act introduced by Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. Durbin's bill passed the Senate on a Record Vote number 257 by a margin of 73 in favor to 25 opposed. The problem with S. 510 is that one section contained a revenue measure. Bills containing revenue measures must originate in the House according to the Constitution. The language is in Article I § 7 "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."

H.R. 3082, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 is probably misnamed. This Continuing Resolution funds the government until March4, 2011. H.R. 3082 passed by a margin of 193 to 165 on Roll Call vote number 662.

H.R. 6547, the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, was the last measure passed by the House on 12/21/10. This bill require each state receiving funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to have in effect policies and procedures that: (1) require criminal background checks for school employees, including searches of state criminal registries or repositories, state-based child abuse and neglect registries and databases, the National Crime Information Center of the Department of Justice, the National Sex Offender Registry, and the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and (2) prohibit the employment of school employees who refuse to consent to a criminal background check, make false statements in connection with one, or have been convicted of one of a list of felonies.

Local educational agencies (LEAs) or state educational agencies (SEAs) are required to report to local law enforcement any applicants for school employment who are discovered to be sexual predators.

Requires Periodic repetitions of such criminal background checks are required . Requires such states to provide for a timely process under which school employees may: (1) appeal the results of a criminal background check to challenge the accuracy or completeness of the information produced; and (2) seek appropriate relief for any final employment decision based on materially inaccurate or incomplete information produced. Requires this appeals process, however, to deny the individual employment as a school employee during the process.

H.R. 6547 moves on to the Senate.

THE CASE AGAINST LYNN JENKINS CHAPTER 15 - SHE WAS AGAINST FEDERAL WORKERS WATCHING PORN BEFORE SHE WAS FOR IT???

This is Lynn Jenkins, she does not represent us

The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act H.R. 5116 America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 - Establishes, revises, and extends specified science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM) programs, as well as engineering, research, and training programs. In this posting we look at the impact of amendments on the bill, including one insisted on by Lynn Jenkins, she gets the amendment, of course she votes against the bill. 

Here are the amendments.

H.Amdt.656, offered by Tennessee's Democratic Representative Bart Gordon. Introducing the Amendment he said on the floor of the house "The amendment makes a handful of technical and clarifying changes and a few substantive additions to the underlying bill. Most of the changes were the result of negotiations with our Republican colleagues following our full committee markup." Amendment 656 passed on roll call 262 by a vote of 417 to 6, Lynn Jenkins voted in the affirmative.

H.Amdt.658, offered by Texas' Republican Representative Ralph Moody Hall. Representative Hall used to be a Democrat. Hall represented Texas' 4th Congressional District for 24 years before switching to the Republican Party. When introducing his amendment, Hall's would "strike title V of this bill, which creates bigger government and calls for more spending in areas that go well beyond research and development and authorize potentially inappropriate and duplicative programs," he said. The Amendment failed on roll call 263 with Lynn Jenkins voting for the amendment.

H.Amdt.641, introduced by Massachusetts' Democratic Representative Edward Markey establishes a program to support the development and commercial application of clean energy technologies through a Clean Energy Consortium selected competitively by the Secretary of Energy.  This Amendment passed with Lynn Jenkins voting against it on roll call 264. Apparently her "all of the above" approach excludes Clean Energy!

H.Amdt.642, introduced by California's Democratic Representative George Miller requires public institutions of higher education, with respect to employees who are represented by labor organizations and who work on activities or programs supported by this Act, to maintain a policy to respond to union information requests, for information to which the union is legally entitled, on a timely basis in order to be eligible to receive facilities and administrative costs provided by any of the funding sources authorized by this Act. Failure to comply with such a policy results in suspension of payments to the institution for facilities and administrative costs until compliance is achieved. This Amendment passed the House on roll call 265. Lynn Jenkins voted against making universities comply with lawful request from labor unions. Lynn Jenkins does not represent working people.

H.Amdt.643, introduced by Texas' Democratic Representative Silvestre Reyes has two purposes according to Reyes. "First, it would require the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Coordinating Committee under the Office of Science and Technology policy to describe in their 5-year strategic plan the approaches that each STEM agency will take to conduct outreach designed to promote widespread public understanding of career opportunities in STEM fields.

Second, the amendment requires the establishment and the maintenance of a publicly accessible online database, or a STEM.gov, if you will, of all federally-sponsored STEM education programs. STEM.gov would be a one-stop shop where teachers, students, and researchers would be able to access information on all of the opportunities available in STEM fields. Currently, all STEM programs are listed in different places online with different programs, and this amendment would simply consolidate the information for easier access in one location. "

The Reyes Amendment passed on roll call 266, with Lynn Jenkins voting for the Amendment.

H.Amndt646, introduced by Ohio's Democratic Representative John Boccieri increases the authorization level for funding for Federal Loan Guarantees for Innovative Technologies in Manufacturing from $50 million to $100 million.

Credit is tight in this economy, American industries need help in gaining "access to capital, to help them move forward to retool their current manufacturing process with the newest technologies, to help make the high-quality components for the military, heavy truck, construction equipment and material handling equipment, industries that they are known for, and to help put them in a better position to be able to capture their share in the global economy," according to Michigan's Democratic Representative Mark SCHAUER.  This Amendment passed on roll call 267 with Lynn Jenkins voting against the ability of American businesses to have greater access to credit.

H.Amdt.648, introduced by Illinois' Democratic Representative Debbie Halvorson. She describes this as a simple amendment which would " help expand career opportunities in science and engineering for veterans of our armed services. As the only Member from my State that serves on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I am proud to stand up for the brave men and women who have served our country and our military. It is important for us to stand up for them not only when they are on Active Duty, but also when they return home."  This Amendment passed on roll call 268 with Lynn Jenkins voting for the amendment.

H.Amdt.650, introduced by Arizona's Republican Representative Jeff Flake was not controversial in nature and only added a "sense of the Congress" effect to the bill. The purpose of the Amendment is that Congress wants those educated in American colleges and universities in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to stay working here in America. Flake said: " According to the National Science Foundation, foreign students receive about half of all doctorates in engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, physics, and economics that are awarded in the United States. Unfortunately, growing backlogs in processing applications hamper the flexibility of U.S. employers to hire foreign-born talent with advanced degrees from American universities. These hurdles affect even doctoral graduates in STEM fields trained at U.S. universities, who either return home or seek employment in a country with a more welcoming immigration system. The loss of Ph.D. talent, trained at U.S. institutions and due to immigration red tape, to our competitors makes little sense, and it harms our economy".  This Amendment passed on roll call 269, with Lynn Jenkins voting for the amendment,

There were eight amendments presented to the House on this bill. Lynn Jenkins voted with the majority of the House four times and with the losing side four times. You'd have to argue that she got half of what she wanted in the presented amendments.

Roll 270 was a Motion to Recommit with Instructions, it is usually a way to kill a bill.  Not this time. Here the Congress was upset with federal employees wasting government time and money watching porn on-line via their government computers.

Lynn Jenkins took to the floor, she said: " If you're a government employee, and you are disciplined for viewing, downloading, or e-mailing pornography, including child pornography, on government computers or during work hours, you will no longer be paid. You will be fired. If you think a couple of days of suspension, a reprimand, a transfer is the right response when someone uses government computers to spread pornography, then vote against this motion. But if you think spreading pornography with a government computer is an act that should lead to dismissal, then vote for this motion."  The motion to recommit with instructions passed and the bill went back to committee.

When the House resumed consideration of H.R. 5116 another series of amendments were proposed. House Amendment 678 was divided into votes on its pertinent parts.

First came a proposed striking of section 228 from the bill. Section 228 permits awarding innovation inducement cash prizes in any area of research which give priority to high-risk, high-reward research challenges solving problems whose solution could improve the economic competitiveness of the United States.  This Amendment failed on roll call 326. Lynn Jenkins thought it was a bad idea to incentivize creative solutions to our lack of technological and economic competitiveness. She voted to strike section 228 on roll call 326..

The next amendment sought to strike§§ 406(b) and (c). Section 406 (b) gives authority for an innovative services initiative to assist small and medium sized manufacturers reduce their energy usage and environmental waste to improve profitability and accelerate the domestic commercialization of new product technologies, including components for renewable energy systems.

So this Amendment wants to prohibit assisting small and medium sized manufacturers and seeks to not speed up commercialization of new products in the field of renewable energy. Who'd vote for that? Lynn Jenkins on roll call 327. The Amendment failed.

The third part of this amending procedure sought to amend §702 of the bill adding language. Section 702 deals with persons with disabilities and disabled veterans. The amendment instructed agencies receiving funds under this section. This part of the amendment failed on roll call 328. Lynn Jenkins vote for amending §702.

Roll call 329 deals with that question of pornography which propelled Lynn Jenkins to the House floor. A new section, was added that said there would be no salaries for viewing pornography. This passed by a vote of 409 to 0.

Roll call 330 proposed adding a section that would make ineligible those institutions of higher education that violate §983 of title 10, United States Code. That section is applies if the college or university prevents ROTC access or military recruiting on campus and denies grants and contracts to such institutions. This amendment appears duplicative. The measure passed on a vote of 348 to 68. Lynn Jenkins voted for this amendment .

Roll call 331 sought to impose alternative funding authorizations. This failed on a vote of 181 to 234. Lynn Jenkins voted in the affirmative to trim the money for this bill.

Remember that on the first set of amendments Lynn Jenkins got half of what she wanted. On the several votes on House Amendment 678 she was with the winning side 3 out of 7 times. She got exactly what she wanted with roll call 329.

On Passage Lynn Jenkins voted no. That was roll call 332. When Lynn Jenkins says Republicans are blocked out of presenting their ideas by the Democrats, she is full of hot air. Lynn Jenkins does not want to help small and medium sized businesses, efforts at green energy, or America's efforts with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Lynn Jenkins does not represent us.  So, is she still against pornography?