This Week in Congress

The big event this week is the House vote on H.R. 8, the Nancy Pelosi-Pete King gun registration bill. The bill will be voted on Thursday, so Campaign for Liberty members should sign their No Gun Registration Directive, and send the link to the directive to your pro-2nd Amendment family and friends.

The House will also consider H.R. 1112, which imposes new background check requirements before a person with a federal firearms license can transfer firearms to people without a federal license. The bill also replaces the phrase “adjudicated as a mental defective” with “adjudicated with mental illness, severe developmental disability, or severe emotional instability.” The House will also consider H.J.Res 46, legislation voiding President Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency at the border. For more on that issue see Dr. Paul’s column here. The House will also consider S. 47, the legislation reauthorizing laws, programs, and federally-funded projects related to the use and acquisitions of natural resources on federal land. This legislation overwhelmingly passed the Senate even though some have expressed concerns that many of the programs and projects funded are more than federal land grabs. The House will also consider suspension bills including:

1. H.R. 583— Increases the penalties for “pirate” radio stations. Pirate stations operate without FEC licenses. Instead of this bill, Congress should abolish the FEC and allow the market to allocate the broadcast spectrum. For more on this, see here.

2. H.R. 501—Reauthorizes the Poison Control toll-free phone number program.

3. H.R. 525– Creates a new public-private partnership to fight health care fraud, waste, and abuse. This may seem like a good thing but will likely increase federal micro-management and harassment of medical professionals.

4. H.R. 539- Requires the National Science Foundation’s innovation corps, which focuses on commercializing the results of government’s unfunded research, to expand small business participation in the program and create a new training course to teach participants in the program how to establish a business, attract investors, and build a brand.

The Senate will be considering nominations, the most notable being Andrew Wheeler to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).