This week in Congress: wrap-up

The big events of the week both took place off of the floor. First, on Tuesday, the Senate Rules Committee held a markup of S. 1, the Senate companion to H.R. 1, the Legalized Election Theft bill. This act codifies many of the most disturbing practices of the 2020 election. It also imposes new regulations on groups like Campaign for Liberty. These regulations are designed to stop us from informing you of where your elected representatives stand on key liberty issues so you and other pro-liberty Americans can pressure them to support liberty. The Senate mark-up lasted almost 9 hours. A few amendments making small technical changes passed, but most amendments were defeated on party line votes. The final vote was a 9-9 party line vote (since the Senate has equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, there are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the committee). This would normally mean the committee cannot move the bill to the Senate floor. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is determined to bring the bill to the Senate floor, and there are ways he can get around a committee’s refusal to pass a bill. It is important we keep the heat on the Senate. So please sign your petition to the Senate against H.R. 1/S. 1. You can find the link here. The big event in the House was a vote to remove Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her position as Chair of the House Republican Conference. Many Republicans supported her removal for her vote to impeach President Trump in January and her continuing attacks on him, which is considered divisive and a distraction from opposing President Biden’s agenda. Libertarians should cheer Cheney’s removal from GOP leadership. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney is truly a “chip off the old block” in that she never saw a war she did not like or a liberty she would not restrict in the name of the “war on terror.” Cheney, who has always been a promoter of the idea that the president has nearly unchecked authority in foreign affairs was one of the leading proponents of a provision in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) limiting the president’s ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. So, in Lynn Cheney’s bizzarro world, presidents can send troops around the world at will but need Congress’ approval to end war. Cheney also violated the (unspoken) rule against GOP incumbents openly supporting a primary challenge to a GOP incumbent when she supported a primary challenger to leading liberty champion Representative Thomas Massie. Cheney’s actions against Massie show how devoted she is to squashing any opposition to the neoconservative position that we must wage endless wars and sacrifice our liberties to be safe from terrorism. The January 6 incident was likely just an excuse to break with Trump and pose as the upholder of decency against the cult of the orange man. Now, Cheney is a media darling and can use her “martyrdom” to rally and mobilize pro-war, anti-liberty “Never Trumpers.” Unfortunately, Cheney’s replacement as conference chair, Elise Stefanik (NY-21), shares Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy views. Stefanik is also a proponent of unconstitutional government surveillance. She voted against the Massie-Lofgren amendment forbidding the use of taxpayer dollars to carry out warrantless wiretapping under Section 702 of the USA PATRIOT/FREEDOM Act. She also voted against the USA Rights Act, which would have rolled back the surveillance state. So, the war hawks and snoop state boosters will still have a prominent place in the leadership of the GOP. Campaign for Liberty will continue to mobilize pro-liberty Americans to roll back the surveillance state and obey the constitutional limits on government power in all areas—including foreign policy.