Feb. 4, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today praised the 10 early cosponsors of the Consolidated Appropriations Amendments of 2016 offered by U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.):

“The surest, most effective way to stop Obama’s continued usurpation of congressional authority is to defund those overreaching regulations and executive actions using Congress’ power of the purse. Americans for Limited Government thanks Representatives Paul Gosar, Jeff Duncan, Mark Meadows, Glenn Grothman, Barry Loudermilk, Pete Sessions, Matt Salmon, Marlin Stutzman, Scott DesJarlais and Louie Gohmert for being early co-sponsors of Representative Ken Buck’s Article One bill which defunds some of President Obama’s most onerous executive overreaches.

“The Article One supplemental includes many provisions that have already been vetted by House appropriations committees and included in underlying appropriations bills, as well as those that have passed the House of Representatives on the floor. These riders were unfortunately left on the table during the omnibus negotiations, but 2016 provides a fresh opportunity to rein in the last 11 months of the Obama administration — before he does any more damage to the nation and the constitutional separation of powers which are fundamental to our freedoms.

“In addition, the bill would prevent President Obama from enacting any ‘midnight regulations’ as his Administration thankfully winds to an end.

“Rhetoric about Congress reasserting its Constitutional prerogatives has become a standard talking point for many in the House Conference, Representative Ken Buck and these ten early co-sponsors are demonstrating that tough talk is not enough, Congress must act. We strongly urge other Members to join the growing momentum in favor of real assertion of Article One authority by cosponsoring the Consolidated Appropriation Amendments of 2016.”

Attachments:

“Stand up for the Constitution and roll back executive power,” By U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Washington Examiner, Feb. 1, 2016 at http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/stand-up-for-the-constitution-and-roll-back-executive-power/article/2581734

Consolidated Appropriations Amendments of 2016 cosponsors:

Rep. Gosar, Paul A. [R-AZ-4]
Rep. Duncan, Jeff [R-SC-3]
Rep. Meadows, Mark [R-NC-11]
Rep. Grothman, Glenn [R-WI-6]
Rep. Loudermilk, Barry [R-GA-11]
Rep. Sessions, Pete [R-TX-32]
Rep. Salmon, Matt [R-AZ-5]
Rep. Stutzman, Marlin A. [R-IN-3]
Rep. DesJarlais, Scott [R-TN-4]
Rep. Gohmert, Louie [R-TX-1]

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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“What happened to John Cornyn?”

Jan. 29, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) endorsement of legislation that will result in the early release of thousands of federal prison inmates, telling the New York Times, “It doesn’t hurt to show that you actually care. This is a statement that is not just symbolic, but actually shows that you care about people. It doesn’t hurt to show some empathy.”:

“Senator John Cornyn, whose sense of empathy must have developed at Washington, D.C. cocktail parties, should prove he truly cares for people whose neighborhoods have been ravaged by drugs and violent crimes by moving to those one of those neighborhoods so he can see for himself the impact of releasing early thousands of hardened drug kingpins and violent criminals back on to the streets of America. Senator Cornyn’s ‘empathetic’ conscience needs to meet the reality of the street, where a 77 percent recidivism rate amongst released prisoners is the norm, with 25 percent of those crimes being violent and nature.

“This is something Cornyn would have been acutely aware of when he was a judge in Texas as well as the state’s Attorney General who once famously argued that Texas’ death penalty law should be the model for the nation.

“A truly empathetic response is to protect neighborhoods and not to release criminals en masse. And the best action that Congress can take is to reject any legislation that releases thousands of criminals early.

“What is truly remarkable is that while in the Senate minority, Cornyn argued vociferously against early criminal release in 2011 when the sentencing commission implemented retroactive sentencing reductions of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.

“And again in 2014 when the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2014 was proposed, the precursor of the current legislation, Cornyn objected citing the nation’s ‘historic heroin epidemic’ and warning of tens of thousands of ‘additional murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, and incidents of arson.’ If anything, the rise of the use of heroin has become more endemic since 2014, and the streets more dangerous. What’s more in that same letter, Cornyn wrote this about these same drug traffickers that he would release early today, ‘The notion that drug traffickers are non-violent is simply incorrect.’ Cornyn continued, ‘Among other factors disputes over money cannot be settled with a lawsuit. Violence and threats are the norm.’

“It is impossible to reconcile Senator Cornyn’s new-found empathy for hardened criminals with the clear facts of his 2010 and 2014 letters where he took exactly the opposite stance against early criminal release. An enterprising reporter might ask about his newfound faith in the good will of violent drug kingpins who he apparently now thinks should be put back on the streets of America. When did John Cornyn’s empathy switch from the victims of the destruction of families, friends and communities to the the purveyors of death resting safely in federal prison?

“What happened to John Cornyn?”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 27, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging rejection of Senate legislation, the so-called “Energy Policy Modernization Act”:

“Americans for Limited Government urges the Senate to reject the Energy Policy Modernization of 2015. There is no excuse for the Senate to move forward with legislation that continues the practice of picking energy winners and losers, expands federal government authority and fails to turn control of federal lands back to the states. Rather than creating a Working Group on Energy Markets that will be abused by a future President intent on conducting a future war on energy, the Senate should focus on policies that strip the federal government’s control over energy producers.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 14, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Senate to reject the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota nominee Wilhelmina Marie Wright in light of the fact that she wrote in the UCLA Law Review in 1990, “The failure of today’s racial discourse is its reliance on the notion that property is neutral, that the deed to a suburban home is ‘property’ while the opportunity to move out of a slum is not”:

“Confirming President Obama’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Wilhelmina Marie Wright is nothing less than giving assent to a judicial attack on private property rights.  Yet, that is exactly what the Senate appears poised to do.  It makes one question what Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is doing allowing radical nominees like Wright to even reach the floor.

“In the UCLA Law Review in 1990, Wright argued that, ‘The failure of today’s racial discourse is its reliance on the notion that property is neutral, that the deed to a suburban home is ‘property’ while the opportunity to move out of a slum is not.’

“The GOP only maintains one functional Constitutional power in its purported effort to rein in President Obama’s executive overreach, the responsibility to confirm or reject his nominees.  There simply is no excuse for the Senate GOP to allow any more of Obama’s extremist jurists onto the bench where they can use their radical views to thwart future Administration efforts to roll back this President’s excesses.”

Attachments:

“GOP to Confirm ‘Property Rights are White and Racist’ Judge,” By Daniel Horowitz, Conservative Review, Jan. 14, 2016 at https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/01/gop-to-confirm-property-rights-are-white-and-racist-judge

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 14, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Congress to reject any more bills providing early release for federal prisoners in light of the brutal Columbus, Ohio triple murder allegedly committed by a crack dealer who was released from federal prison early thanks to the so-called 2010 Fair Sentencing Act:

“The brutal Columbus, Ohio murder of Erveena Hammonds and her 7 and 10 year-old daughters, whose throats were slit by an early-released felon, is exhibit A of why Congress should reject legislation designed to let thousands more convicted drug criminals out of federal prison prematurely. If Congress had not enacted the so-called 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, Wendell Callahan would still be in jail and Erveena Hammonds and her two daughters, Breya and Anaesia, would still be alive.

“The tragedy of a felon who got almost four years knocked off his sentence re-entering the life of his former girlfriend and violently ending it was sadly predictable. A multi-year 30 state study on the recidivism of more than 400,000 felons released in 2005 showed that unfortunately 75 percent of those released re-entered the criminal justice system and 25 percent of the crimes were violent.

“Now President Obama and Congress are moving ahead with more legislation that will provide early release to some of our nation’s largest drug dealers all under the guise of compassion. President Obama is already in the process of unilaterally letting 46,000 federal felons go early, a move that will exacerbate the already tense situations in cities like Baltimore, Maryland and Chicago, Illinois which suffered through record numbers of homicides in the past year. It is time for Congress to start exhibiting some compassion for the people who these major drug dealers destroyed through their illegal trade, and the neighborhoods and communities which were decimated due to their pervasive influence.

“The last thing that is needed is for Congress to throw fuel on the fire by adding some of the worst drug traffickers to the mix, some of whom were also convicted for having a gun in their possession while committing their crimes. Simply stated, if Congress passes the mass criminal release bill that is being considered under the auspices of ‘reform’ Erveena Hammond and her two girls will not be the last to die due to Congressional prisoner reprieves. One wonders what the heck Congress is thinking?”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 11, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting plans by U.S. House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to push legislation in the next six months that will result in the mass, early release of thousands of felons from federal prison, who told Politico in an interview published Jan. 10 “I think criminal justice reform is probably the biggest [issue] we can make a difference on… There’s a real way forward on that”:

“Not to be outdone by President Barack Obama’s plan to begin releasing 46,290 drug offenders from federal prisons, Senate and House Republicans are stepping in with their own legislation to release thousands more, including crack offenders and those who committed felonies with firearms in their possession.

“House Speaker Paul Ryan is doubling down on this risky mass criminal release scheme by volunteering to push the same legislation through the House to somehow help brand the GOP as kinder and gentler. This is reckless. At the same time police are overwhelmed with record murders in cities like Baltimore and Chicago, gang problems, Islamist terrorists and the like, Ryan and House Republicans apparently want to help empty the federal prisons. But besides the adult prison population, defense attorneys and liberal elite professors at college campuses, who exactly is the constituency for allowing thousands of federal prison inmates go early?

“It is guaranteed that a large percentage of those released early will commit new crimes. In fact, a 2014 Bureau of Justice Statistics study tracked 404,638 state prisoners from 30 states released in 2005.  76.9 percent of drug offenders were re-arrested within five years with 25 percent of the offenses being violent crimes.  These crimes have real victims with dire consequences for communities.

“It is not compassionate to inject a new pool of hardened criminals into our communities, it is foolhardy, and unfortunately, it is the poorest of our nation’s citizens who will bear the brunt of it. Speaker Ryan should stop the madness of pushing this early criminal release bill through the House, because if he is successful, the surest bet on the planet is that people will die.”

Attachments:

“Why is Congress hell-bent on releasing thousands of dangerous criminals from federal prison early?” By Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning, Jan. 8, 2016 at http://netrightdaily.com/2016/01/why-is-congress-hell-bent-on-releasing-thousands-of-dangerous-criminals-from-federal-prison-early/

“Congress to authorize Obama’s early criminal release program?” By Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano, Oct. 14, 2015 at http://netrightdaily.com/2015/10/congress-to-authorize-obamas-early-criminal-release-program/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 5, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in response to the announced executive action by the Obama administration on firearms:

“If Obama’s contention is that he is merely enforcing the law as written with his so-called executive action on firearms, and that he believes doing so can prevent more shootings, then Obama must be admitting that his apparent failure to enforce existing law makes him culpable for gun-related murders. Of course, Obama should enforce existing laws. He’s the President after all.

“Unfortunately, Obama’s record is of declining enforcement actions against illegal firearm dealers with only his Justice Department only generating about 200 convictions a year of illegal unlicensed gun sales. There is no loophole that prevents federal law enforcement officials from going after illegal unlicensed gun trafficking, otherwise, there would not be any convictions at all. Obama should urge the Department of Justice to aggressively investigate and prosecute real gun trafficking crimes involving real criminals and stop the politicized rhetoric against law-abiding gun owners.

“What is even more distressing is that while Obama blames law-abiding gun owners for violence, he hypocritically is releasing tens of thousands of felons from federal prisons, increasing the risk of repeated crimes. It would seem that with his tepid prosecution record and his felon release program that all Obama needs to do to find out who’s at fault is look in the mirror.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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