June 8, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to revelations by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will contain a European Union-styled transnational commission:

“Senator Sessions’ revelation that the Trans-Pacific Partnership contains a ‘transnational commission’ — chartered with a ‘Living Agreement’ clause — where the Sultan of Brunei will have an equal vote as the United States should send a shudder down the spine of every member of Congress.  Voting to fast track Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership is a breach of faith with the American people.  This is no longer about trade, but instead about power, and reveals why Obama has called this the most ‘progressive trade deal in history.’”

Attachments:

Sen. Jeff Session letter to President Barack Obama, June 5, 2015, at http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/45aa77c1-94c4-4f9a-a6a1-7459e92c771f/letter-to-obama-on-pacific-union.pdf

Text of the letter follows:

Dear Mr. President:

On May 6th of this year, I sent you a letter (enclosed) regarding your request for Congress to grant you fast-track executive authority. Under fast-track, Congress transfers its authority to the executive and agrees to give up several of its most basic powers. These concessions include: the power to write legislation, the power to amend legislation, the power to fully consider legislation on the floor, the power to keep debate open until Senate cloture is invoked, and the constitutional requirement that treaties receive a two-thirds vote.

The latter is especially important since, having been to the closed room to review the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is clear it more closely resembles a treaty than a trade deal. In other words, through fast-track, Congress would be pre-clearing a political and economic union before a word of that arrangement has been made available to a single private citizen.

The letter, which received no reply, asked several fundamental questions Congress ought to have answered before even considering whether to grant the executive such broad new powers. Among those, I asked that you make public the section of the TPP that creates a new transnational governance structure known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission. The details of this new governance commission are extremely broad and have the hallmarks of a nascent European Union, with many similarities.

Reviewing the secret text, plus the secret guidance document that accompanies it, reveals that this new transnational commission — chartered with a “Living Agreement” clause — would have the authority to amend the agreement after its adoption, to add new members, and to issue regulations impacting labor, immigration, environmental, and commercial policy. Under this new commission, the Sultan of Brunei would have an equal vote to that of the United States.

The implications of this new Pacific Union are extraordinary and ought to be discussed in full, in public, before Congress even contemplates fast-tracking its creation and pre-surrendering its power to apply the constitutional two-thirds treaty vote. In effect, to adopt fast-track is to agree to remove the constitutional protections against the creation of global governance structures before those structures are even made public.

I would therefore ask that you provide to me the legal and constitutional basis for keeping this information from the public and explain why I cannot share the details of what I have read with the American people. Congress should not even consider fast-tracking the transfer of sovereign power to a transnational structure before the details of that new structure are made fully available for public review.

Very truly yours,

Jeff Sessions
United States Senator

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

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June 5, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest jobs numbers:

“Let’s hope that the positives in today’s overall jobs numbers with more people entering the labor force and 280,000 jobs created reflect what is really happening in the economy. It should serve as a cautionary note that the Labor Department’s jobs data completely missed reflecting the first quarter of 2015 economic contraction as they showed more than 500,000 jobs created during the first three months of the year while the economy slumped by 0.7 percent.”

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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June 3, 2015, Fairfax, Va.— Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in favor of an amendment to the Transportation and HUD appropriations bill Rep. Paul Gosar plans to offer (R-Ariz.) defunding implementation of the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule and the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool,” which when finalized will empower the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to condition eligibility for community development block grants on redrawing zoning maps to achieve racial and income integration:

“We urge support for Rep. Gosar’s amendment to defund HUD regulations redrawing zoning maps in any locality that accepts any part of the $3.5 billion a year in community development block grants from the federal government. HUD has no place in local zoning decisions, which are better left up to states, counties, and cities to figure out for themselves. The House adopted a similar rider last year, and should do so again.

“Racial quotas are unconstitutional, and yet that is exactly what HUD will use to redraw every neighborhood in America. This has nothing to do with housing discrimination, which has been illegal since the 1960s. Instead ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ is based on a utopian goal of creating evenly distributed neighborhoods based on racial composition and income. The House must take a stand to preserve local zoning rights.”

Attachments:

Draft Amendment to Transportation and HUD appropriations bill, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), June 3, 2015 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/GOSAR_090_xml.pdf

AMENDMENT TO H.R. 2577, AS REPORTED

OFFERED BY MR. GOSAR OF ARIZONA

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

SEC. ll. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce the rule entitled ‘‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’’, published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Federal Register on July 19, 2013 (78 Fed. Reg. 43710; Docket No. FR-5173-P-01) or the notice entitled ‘‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool’’, published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Federal Register on September 26, 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 57949; Docket No. FR-5173-N-02).

“‘Fundamentally transforming America’ one neighborhood at a time,’ By Robert Romano November 20, 2014 at http://netrightdaily.com/2014/11/fundamentally-transforming-america-one-neighborhood-time/

“Racial quotas for local zoning decisions?” By Robert Romano, June 6, 2014 at http://netrightdaily.com/2014/06/racial-quotas-local-zoning-decisions/

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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June 2, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the House of Representatives to defund in the Commerce, Science, and Justice appropriations bill implementation of the “Broadband Technology Opportunities Program” under Pub. L. 111-5, the Broadband Data Improvement Act under Pub. L. 110-385, and “Expanding Broadband Deployment and Adoption by Addressing Regulatory Barriers and Encouraging Investment and Training” presidential memorandum issued March 23, 2015:

“President Obama’s attempt to nationalize broadband by making it a de facto right should be rejected by Congress by defunding the administration’s municipal broadband and other programs. Obama’s elevation of broadband access to the status of being a necessity sets up the justification for even greater federal government intrusion into the Internet Service Provider marketplace. Broadband access is not a right, it is a convenience.   If anything Congress should be evaluating the nation’s outdated telecommunications laws with the goal of ending those that restrict access in so-called underserved areas, creating increased competition that allows consumers to choose the level of service that is right for them based upon cost and usage desires.”

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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May 29, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to a House Republican aide who told Politico, “The more time it hangs out there, the more third parties on the right will dig in and wavering members will go the wrong way” on fast track:

“It is clear that House leadership recognizes the growing unpopularity of fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ignoring the implications of trusting Obama to negotiate a treaty that in the President’s own words, ‘writes this century’s rules for the world’s economy’ is both dangerous and irresponsible. We urge members to listen to their constituents and make it clear to leadership that no vote is better than a bad vote on a treaty that will permanently harm America.”

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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May 28, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging opposition to the separate customs bill and trade authority facing Congress that will allow human rights abusers to receive favorable economic treatment by the U.S. in international trade:

“Congress is looking to whitewash the horrors of mass graves and religious persecution in Trans-Pacific Partnership nations like Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam through passage of a separate customs bill which would allow human rights abusers to get the most favorable economic treatment from the U.S. available in the world. It is this exact kind of legislative maneuvering and chicanery that has caused universal disgust with Congress and Washington, D.C., where both parties engage in cynical deal making to avoid confronting real evil.

“The Senate unanimously indicated concern about religious freedom in an amendment to fast track legislation, and additionally there are provisions barring Malaysia, a slave trafficking regime, from participating in the trade agreement. The upcoming customs bill wipes out these provisions through a simple wave of Obama’s pen certifying that the human rights abusers are trying to do better.

“We all know Obama will ignore any language directing him to enforce the trade agreement, proving trade authority will not worth the paper it is printed on. Even if trade authority says no Malaysia, he’ll put Malaysia in. Amendments that have no real power over what Obama puts into the Trans-Pacific Partnership or who participates in it, provide political cover with no practical binding impact. If House members are truly concerned about the human rights atrocities of our trading partners they must reject fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“The time to amend the Trans-Pacific Partnership is after Obama submits it when Congress has the real power of two-thirds Senate ratification. Attempts to amend the trade deal through fast track depend upon Obama’s good will. If there’s one lesson Congress should have learned by now, it’s that Obama doesn’t care what they think.”

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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May 27, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that Definition of “Waters of the United States” Under the Clean Water Act regulation will be finalized shortly:

“The rule just adopted by the EPA will regulate all waters of the United States under the terms of the Clean Water Act, something that was never intended by the statute. The Supreme Court has twice struck down agency attempts to do precisely this, but what do these administrative state agencies care about court rulings or what the law actually says? We have been playing regulatory whack-a-mole with the EPA for decades. This is just the latest dictate from an agency that simply does whatever it pleases. Here we go again. Now it will once again be up to federal courts to safeguard the rule of law and protect all Americans from a regulatory regime so severe it will claim dominion over every puddle on their properties and threaten the viability of U.S. agriculture.”

Attachments:

“Clean Water Act regulatory whack-a-mole hurts farmers,” By Robert Romano, February 20, 2015 at http://netrightdaily.com/2015/02/clean-water-act-regulatory-whack-mole-hurts-farmers/

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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May 27, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to reports that the L.A. County Federation of Labor is seeking an exemption from the $15 an hour minimum wage law they advocated:

“It is almost criminal that the very labor union leaders who have urged the Los Angeles City Council to destroy thousands of jobs in their successful campaign to raise the City’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, now are asking that union jobs be exempted from the wage law.

“This tacit admission that the minimum wage law pushed by the L.A. County Federation of Labor is bad for business and will lead to the elimination of jobs is Kafkaesque in its cynicism. Apparently labor leaders have given up on convincing workers to join unions and now seek to convince employers to embrace the sub-minimum wage that they promise to deliver should they get their special carve out.

“In light of this demand to allow unions to negotiate and maintain sub-minimum wages, the City should reconsider and abandon their $15 an hour minimum wage folly.”

Note: Rick Manning is a former resident of Los Angeles and a graduate of the University of Southern California, the largest employer in the City.

Attachments:

“L.A. labor leaders seek minimum wage exemption for firms with union workers,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2015 at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-minimum-wage-unions-20150526-story.html

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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