What's Congress up to? 114th Congress edition, volume 1

Today is the new 114th Congress' second day on the job.  As you know, the mid-term elections improved the Republican's majority in the House, and gave them the majority in the Senate.  Just in case it hasn't been made clear this is NOT my preferred state of affairs.

Yesterday, Congress did a lot of procedural stuff, like re-electing John Boehner Speaker of the House.  But today, all the bills sponsored by the new members of Congress have appeared on congress.gov.  The full text of the bills is not yet available (gotta give them time, there's 239 bills to input), but the titles and numbers are all available. Today, I just want to point out the titles of a few of these bills, so you can see what kind of things your elected reps are pushing.


The bills all get numbers, and the number is proceeded by H.R. (for House of Representatives). The first 10 bills are 'reserved for the Speaker', and the next 10 (11-20) are 'reserved for the Minority Leader.'  I am assuming (because I haven't looked it up) that these bill numbers are set aside for legislation the Speaker or Minority Leader to introduce bills later.  I am not aware of any importance to the actual numbers.  (Does the Rep with the lowest number who's bill passed get a bonus?)

None of the 'reserved' bills have been given titles, save one:  H.R.3 - Keystone XL Pipeline Act.  This is listed as sponsored by Rep. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND-At Large].  As I said, the text is not available yet, but this shows us the Republican Party was not kidding when they said the priority would be the Keystone XL.  I've heard lots of people saying they don't think there's any reason to pass the Keystone XL now that oil has dropped.  That's missing the bigger picture; this slump in oil prices is the result of market manipulation and is temporary.  The Republicans have been ordered to get the Keystone XL passed, and they will do it.

The next bill in the list that looks interesting is H.R.25: To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.  I can't WAIT to read the text of this.  This is sponsored by Rep. Woodall, Rob [R-GA-7].

Next, H.R.31 - To prohibit the use of funds to implement the immigration policies set forth in the memoranda issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security on November 20, 2014, or the memoranda issued by the President on November 21, 2014, and for other purposes.  This comes from Rep. Martha Roby [R-AL-2].  Anyone want to place bets on whether she's a Tea Partier or not?  It seems the Republicans aren't done throwing a hissy fit over Obama taking action in the absence of Congressional action.  They did seem to get the message when Obama told them they could fix this by passing legislation; there are several bills introduced by Republican reps that address immigration reform.  And a few from Democrats.  Maybe we will get some relief to the millions of good, hard working people living in fear this congressional session.

Or maybe not.  The very next bill is H.R.32 - To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to expand the definition of an unauthorized alien to include aliens who have not been admitted to and are not lawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes.  This is introduced by Rep. Lou Barletta [R-PA-11].  This could be good, could be bad.  Being from a Republican in PA, I'm not exactly optimistic.  We will have to wait a few days for the text to get entered.

Of course, the Republicans are in power; there is an anti-abortion bill.  To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect pain-capable unborn children, and for other purposes.  Rep. Franks, Trent [R-AZ-8] has sponsored this bill.  While the text isn't available yet, The Hill reports that both sponsors of this bill have crusaded for a ban on late term abortions in the past, getting a similar bill pushed through the House in 2013.  That bill died in the Senate.   I suggest those who support availability of abortion and birth control get in touch with their reps NOW.

As a final note: Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN-7] has introduced several bills to cut spending across the board, based on the titles.  If you look at the linked list, she has separate bills for 1%, 2%, and 5% across the board cuts to government spending.  I'm going to guess she plans to push the high one first, then have the others as a backup if the high one dies.

I'm interested to see the text of some of these bills.  More titles later if I find any that look interesting.