Dec. 19, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Congress to reject the Kids Online Safety Act:

Censorship is an ugly word. Over the past decade, our nation has witnessed federal agents pressuring social media platforms to suppress, remove, and prohibit user content on several critical topics. These include valid treatment options for COVID-19, concerns about election integrity, the now-debunked Russian collusion narrative, and the incriminating revelations from Hunter Biden’s laptop, to name just a few examples.

Now, under the pretense of protecting children from “harmful,” non-government-approved content, Congress is considering a last-minute push to grant the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unprecedented authority to decide what children should or should not access.

Believe it or not, this proposal also allows each state’s Attorney General to sue social media platforms over content they disapprove of. This can only end badly.

For instance, consider the state of California. With its radical policies on gender identity and transition, California could wield this new authority to suppress dissenting voices. Facts and moral objections to these policies could be censored, preventing children—who are directly impacted by such initiatives—from accessing vital information. California law already prohibits teachers and school officials from notifying parents about “gender-related decisions” made at school, effectively preventing parents from intervening and opposing these psychological attacks against their children.

Giving content censorship powers to a state that already censors parents from receiving information about state-conducted changes to their children’s biology would be insane. Yet that is precisely what the deceptively named KIDS ONLINE SAFETY ACT would do.

Stop this bill now and let President Trump and the next Republican Congress act to protect children without granting powers that would destroy those children’s ability to access information and empower themselves against those who seek to prey upon them.

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 17, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the re-introduction of the Modern Employment Reform, Improvement and Transformation (MERIT) Act by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), which has been cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and nine other House members:

“The MERIT Act will allow federal civil service managers to fast track the firing of incompetent, insubordinate and/or recalcitrant employees. This is necessary to ensure that the federal workforce succeeds in its mission to serve the American taxpayer.  After all, you cannot drain the swamp if you cannot fire the swamp.”

Attachments:

H.R. 10397, The MERIT Act at https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:6884a48b-f3e0-4949-a063-7f04baf93040?viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 12, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the U.S. Senate for blocking the confirmation of Lauren McFerran to chair the National Labor Relations Board:

“The U.S. Senate blocking Lauren McFerran to chair the National Labor Relations Board is a major victory for President-elect Donald Trump, and stymied an end of presidency power play to keep Democrat control over the board by President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the lame duck session. We look forward President Trump’s choice to chair the NLRB and thank the Senate for respecting the will of the American people.”

Attachments:

“GOP Senate Needs To Show Up To Work And Block Biden NLRB Chair Pick,” By Rick Manning, Dec. 10, 2024 at https://dailytorch.com/2024/12/gop-senate-needs-to-show-up-to-work-and-block-biden-nlrb-chair-pick/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 10, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Congress to reject the Kids Online Safety Act as currently written:

“Speaker Mike Johnson is absolutely correct that the issue of protecting free speech is paramount to any consideration of the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill as rewritten still allows the FTC to regulate and states to sue websites over the content on their platforms, a clear contradiction of Johnson’s admonition. Each of us has seen and perhaps even experienced the result of the federal government coercing social media to deny access to information on issues as broad as Covid, election integrity and Russiagate, and instinctively know that creating a federal government censorship regime can only end badly. In its current form, the legislation will effectively and ultimately require government identification in order to access anything that children might see on the web. Note that the federal government does not require the same identification requirements for voters.

“Congress needs to heed Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s reservations about this legislation’s impact on free speech, and instead push the Kids Online Safety Act to the next Congress and the Trump administration to ensure that kids’ online safety is protected as much as possible while the First Amendment’s requirement that Congress shall make no laws abridging free speech is not violated.”

Attachments:

“Johnson pours cold water on KOSA push,” Dec. 10, 2024 at https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5032362-house-republicans-cautious-online-safety/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 5, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Senate to confirm President-elect Donald’s Trump nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought:

“Russ Vought is the best possible choice to head the Office of Management and Budget in President Trump’s second term. It should be remembered that Vought served in President Trump’s first term as the Acting OMB Director and during his confirmation was attacked by Senate Democrats for being a Christian, as strange as that sounds.

“But Mr. Vought’s importance to the Trump administration is really found in his dedication to limited, constitutional government principles.  As the Elon Musk/Vivek Ramaswamy led DOGE commission gets headlines, it will be Russ Vought and his crew at OMB who will be reviewing and ultimately approving every regulatory and budgetary change, doing the real hard work of putting into action what others propose.  If I were to personally choose a Director for the Office of Management and Budget, it would be Russ Vought, who I have known for years and has the competence, intelligence and experience to make the needed reorganization of the federal government to bring the deficit and out of control administrative state under control.

“Donald Trump was elected President to fundamentally transform administrative state abuses and overreaches, and Russ Vought will be the man who makes those promises happen. America needs Russ Vought as OMB Director and the Senate should move without delay to put him in place Day One of the Trump second term.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 4, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump’s selection of Peter Navarro as Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing:

“Peter Navarro has a clear vision of President Donald Trump’s trade and manufacturing America First policies, and is best suited to continue advising him on these critical economic issues. Navarro’s leadership in the first Trump White House was essential to the dismantling of NAFTA and its subsequent replacement USMCA that emphasized American manufacturing and putting Americans workers first. President Trump’s success in empowering all American workers was instrumental in his victory in November, and Peter Navarro is exactly the right person to keep the  America First promise to the tens of millions of Americans who put their faith in Donald Trump to restore our nation’s economic sovereignty.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Dec. 2, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter:

“President Joe Biden’s broken promise that he would not pardon his son, Hunter, is the least surprising event in Washington, D.C. in recent memory. The fact that President Biden claims that Hunter was unfairly targeted is particularly ironic given his own administration’s long history of weaponizing federal law enforcement against President Donald Trump and other political enemies. The other irony in the pardon is that it makes Hunter Biden immune from all future federal prosecutions, taking away his ability to use the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination should he be questioned by Congress or prosecutors about President Biden or his family’s international money laundering activities. Do not be surprised if Hunter Biden is not the first of many Bidens, including Joe himself, to receive a pardon prior to Jan. 20, 2025.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Nov. 27, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the U.S. House to reject renewed efforts to pass the Kids Online Safety Act in the lame duck session:

“The misnamed Kids Online Safety Act allows civil actions by states and/or the Federal Trade Commission against any website or application that ‘predominantly provides a community forum for user-generated content’. Specific to states, it says, ‘In any case in which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe that a covered platform has violated or is violating section 103, 104, or 105, the State, as parens patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State in a district court of the United States or a State court of appropriate jurisdiction…’

“It is not hard to imagine a far-left, California attorney general utilizing this power to prohibit access to, for example, Christian religious content including the Bible to minors under the guise of protecting them from truths that are unacceptable their gender-bending doxology. Ultimately, Silicon Valley, California-based companies will have significantly more liability in California courts, resulting in default bias against conservative thought and speech on these platforms under the guise of combating misinformation.

“The granting of national authority to the FTC requires a legislator to put blinders on regarding the unconstitutional, already expanded power of that agency under the Biden administration.

“The KOSA sounds like something everyone can get behind. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and those details demand that it be rejected as a Congressional approval for broad-based censorship of the internet. The First Amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech and of the press. By authorizing the FTC to censor speech, it makes one ask what part of ‘Congress shall make no law’ do members not understand.”

Attachments:

“Speaker Johnson: Kids online ‘safety’ bill will have ‘unintended consequences’. He’s right. It will increase government censorship.” By Robert Romano, Nov. 27, 2024 at https://dailytorch.com/2024/10/speaker-johnson-kids-online-safety-bill-will-have-unintended-consequences-hes-right-it-will-increase-government-censorship/

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Nov. 26, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Senate Republicans to block the appointment of Lauren McFerran to once again chair the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

“President Joe Biden is engaged in an end of presidency power play to keep Democrat control over the National Labor Relations Board by pushing a renewal of current chair Lauren McFerran to another term. Senate Republicans should do everything in their power to stop this power play and allow newly elected President Donald Trump to name the next Chairperson.

“Among the absurd decisions made by McFerran’s NLRB, a company fired two employees for covering up a surveillance camera and making a threatening joke about another employee’s sexual orientation. Both fired employees admitted to their actions. Yet, McFerran’s NLRB ruled the firing illegal because the employees had in the past engaged in union organizing activity.

“The decision was overturned in federal court which called it ‘nonsense’.

“Another of many examples of McFerran putting the whole weight of her body on the side of protecting repulsive behavior occurred in the Liam Elastomers case where employees involved in union organizing activity were protected from discipline or discharge even if they have engaged in racist, sexist and/or profane behavior in the workplace. Apparently in McFerran world, being a racist lout disrupting the workplace is allowable so long as you can contend that you are a union organizer.

“Adjusting to the ebbs and flows of American politics are normal in D.C. It is not surprising that the outgoing Biden administration would attempt to hamstring their successor by locking in appointees during the succession.

“However, it would be unconscionable if Senate Republicans failed to show up to work in the lame duck session, allowing the Biden administration to subvert the Trump administration through the confirmation of leadership to important policy making bodies like the NLRB.

“Americans for Limited Government strongly urges the Senate to stop the McFerran nomination. Donald Trump won the election and Donald Trump should appoint the next Chair of the National Labor Relations Board.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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Nov. 22, 2024, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement following former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz’ (R-Fla.) withdrawal from consideration from and the nomination of former Florida Attorney General for the Attorney General nomination:

“Matt Gaetz’ withdrawal from the Attorney General position and the nomination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi makes it more imperative that President Trump redouble his effort to crush the weaponized intelligence community and Justice Department. Gaetz was doomed by targeted leaks that likely came from a terrified FBI aided and abetted by GOP Senators who rarely show a willingness to fight. Now, Bondi must continue the fight against the weaponization that targeted and still targets President Trump and his supporters.”

For media availability contact Americans for Limited Government at media@limitgov.org.

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