Tag: Where is Congress

Major states' rights battle shaping up, if only the governors understood it!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The other day we reported that the Texas governor withdrew the state from the FEDERAL Refugee Admissions Program (RAP) and some of you gave a sigh of relief (prematurely).
The federal government’s Office of Refugee Resettlement wasted no time in informing Texas that you will be a so-called ‘Wilson-Fish’ state.  I suspect other states that ‘withdrew’ recently including Kansas and New Jersey are probably already W-F states and experienced maybe a few months of bureaucratic chaos, but that resettlements there are probably moving right ahead.  (Disgusted, I have not followed the Kansas, New Jersey saga since the governors made their announcements there back in the spring.)

kaygranger
One of those members of the Texas delegation in Washington who has enormous power is the 4th in seniority on the House Appropriations Committee. Find her on the campaign trail. Call her local office(s). Tell her politely what you think about the RAP and tell her to work to DEFUND it in November.

We contend that the entire Wilson-Fish program, which is one where the state government has given up any role and a NON-PROFIT group is now running the show, is unconstitutional.
Think about it, in these states*** decisions about spending state taxpayer money is being made between the federal government and an unaccountable NON-PROFIT group.  (If you want to know more about Wilson-Fish, click here for our extensive archive).
Frankly Governor Abbott’s action of last week will only matter if he now sues the federal government on Tenth Amendment grounds.
Tennessee, also a Wilson-Fish state, has a lawsuit ready to go, but who knows when they will pull the trigger.
Here is the latest from KXXV.TV:

WACO, TX (KXXV) –The State of Texas has withdrawn from the federal refugee resettlement program after the governor stated it did not receive assurances it asked from the federal government. However, the federal agency who oversees the program stated this will not stop current services provided to refugees or future resettlement.

[….]

The Office of Refugee Resettlement said in a statement that it will continue to help current refugees and accept more into Texas.

“While we, of course, regret Texas’s decision, ORR is working to appoint designees to administer services to refugees in Texas until a later time when competitive bids will be accepted for a Wilson-Fish alternative program,” ORR said in a statement.

The Wilson-Fish programs serve as a replacement for a state when a state government doesn’t participate in the refugee assistance program, according to ORR.

Continue here.

This all points back to my recent harping!

It is the Republican Congress that has the power over the program right now because it is Congress that holds the purse strings. 
And, it is Congress that could reform or abolish the Refugee Act of 1980 (and the later unconstitutional Wilson-Fish provisions).  If Hillary doesn’t get to the White House!
However, Governor Abbott’s actions and any other state and local efforts to begin to control the monster are important actions so that the public becomes increasingly informed about what is happening to their communities. Every time you make the news or hold public meetings or write letters to the editor, you are waking up more people where you live, but then the next step is focusing like a laser on your Washington representatives.
(Every time you hold a public meeting be sure those in attendance know who your Congressman and Senators are and give them calling instructions before they leave the meeting!)
It is Congress and the President who will make the ultimate decisions about whether we will be flooded with impoverished third worlders many coming from countries that hate us!
If you live in Texas and are praising the Governor, please continue to do so, but you have a very powerful Congressional delegation in the state and one Congressman in particular, Rep. Brian Babin, willing to take on the powerful pro-refugee lobby (including the Chamber of Commerce!).
You need to breathe down the necks of the Texas delegation in Washington. Tell them to defund the Refugee Admissions Program.  Click here for the list.
They are all back in Texas campaigning and they will be returning (even the losers) for the Lame Duck session beginning in November.  There is one more shot this year to DEFUND the program and it will be in November and December!
Find them as they campaign and tell them what you think of the Refugee Admissions Program in Texas (it receives more refugees than any other state—they are turning red states blue!).
I hear ‘Mom for Trump’ calling…..

Ann, could you tell all your readers on a daily basis to call our useless Congress @ 202 224 3121 and have them say DEFUND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. I call daily and if enough of us do so, we can make a difference.

***Wilson-Fish states where the feds and a NON-PROFIT federal contractor call all the shots and your elected government has virtually no role.

Alabama
Alaska
Colorado
Idaho
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Nevada
North Dakota
South Dakota
Tennessee
Vermont

I suspect these two are now officially W-F, but have not followed them recently:

Kansas

New Jersey

New House bill would go a long way to reform Refugee Admissions Program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is, if Speaker Paul Ryan would give the go-ahead to the House Judiciary Committee (Reps. Goodlatte and Gowdy) to give it a hearing, and that is the rub!  It is not that all of Congress would disapprove the bill (they might), but it will certainly never see the light of day in this Congress or likely the next unless you act now.

goodlatte-and-gowdy-2
Stop ranting about Obama and focus your energy where it matters on two Members of Congress who could slow the flow of Middle Eastern/African refugees to your towns if they weren’t so afraid of Speaker Ryan (and his role in determining their own personal upward mobility). Reps Gowdy (left) and Goodlatte.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the House Judiciary Committee (Goodlatte and Gowdy) never gave a look at another excellent bill by Rep. Brian Babin and dozens of co-sponsors to put the RAP on hold until certain benchmarks were met. That bill was introduced last year (the first year of this Congress) and so there was plenty of time to hold hearings, mark it up and move it to the floor.
(By avoiding moving any bills like this to the floor they don’t have to ever show their constituents what they really believe and shamefully direct your anger at Obama instead!)
We can argue the merits and demerits of the different proposals until the cows come home, but none of it matters when Reps Goodlatte (chairman of the full House Judiciary Committee) and Gowdy (Chairman of the Immigration subcommittee) make NO effort to even entertain reviewing the Refugee Act of 1980.  (In fact, by not holding a hearing on Obama’s ‘determination’ for FY2017 before the start of the fiscal year, they have already broken the law in the JUDICIARY Committee)

Why? Because they do what Paul Ryan tells them to do!

Here is a good write-up by Daniel Horowitz at Conservative Review about this new bill:

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. (F, 53%) has made it clear that if voters reelect his party, he will promote jailbreak legislation, the biggest priority of George Soros. Imagine if his party would instead run on protecting the security and sovereignty of the people by returning to the states the power over refugee resettlement?

Now, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. (C, 76%) has a bill to do just that. Sadly, his bill — a reflection of amazing policy and a winning political strategy — is not as much of a priority as George Soros and creating a permanent Democratic majority.

Perry’s bill, similar to a plan I outlined in Stolen Sovereignty, would require that states affirmatively sign off on refugee resettlement proposals before the federal government and private [taxpayer-funded] refugee resettlement contractors can seed their communities with refugees. Under this legislation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would have to first submit a plan to the relevant state legislature that includes all of the information concerning costs, criminal history, and health records of prospective refugees. They would also have to provide information regarding said refugee’s affiliation with any Muslim Brotherhood group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case. Most importantly, any plan for resettlement must be ratified by the state legislature and signed by the governor, otherwise no refugees can be settled in that state.

[….]

No legal body in this country — from Congress to state legislatures — would approve the resettlement of tens of thousands of Somali refugees if they had to affirmatively approve it today. Unfortunately, in the most grotesque violation of the social contract and consent-based citizenship, the most radical forms of cultural transformation are in the hands of unelected entities. Scott Perry’s bill would right this ship and empower the people.

Read it all here.
Rep. Perry deserves praise for his willingness to put his name on a plan to put more power over the resettlement of refugees in the hands of the states, but sadly this Congress is over for all intents and purposes.  He will have to resubmit his bill when Congress returns in January.

However, it is not too late to make the funding issue a major one before the election next month.

The Continuing Resolution, passed last week, funds the government at the FY2016 level until December. They need to address the entire budget when they return right after the November election.
You still have one more chance to stop Obama’s 110,000 flood of refugees that began on Saturday and that is if you spend the next 36 days working to elect Donald Trump and to figure out every imaginative way to figuratively beat-up (and I mean it!) your Washington representatives by telling them to DEFUND THE REFUGEE PROGRAM FOR THIS YEAR. Tell them you want a moratorium!  (If you don’t ask for the moon, you will get nothing).
REPUBLICANS! Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are the ones who ultimately hold your community’s fate in their hands, not Obama!
I told you the other day that I would keep repeating what ‘Mom for Trump’ said, so here it is again:

Ann, could you tell all your readers on a daily basis to call our useless Congress @ 202 224 3121 and have them say DEFUND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. I call daily and if enough of us do so, we can make a difference.

Stay tuned! Look for more things you can do to get to your Washington, DC so-called representatives while they are stumping in the home district starting tomorrow and for the next month.
All of our discussions about the budget process, and Congress generally, over the last couple of months can be found in my tag ‘Where is Congress.’

Why you should send testimony to Senator Sessions' Immigration Subcommittee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

O.K. I’ve been hearing a lot of excuses about why some of you don’t want to be bothered doing this!
Sorry folks, but saving America is going to be hard work and this is the least you can do—spend an hour writing a proper, polite letter to Senator Sessions who held a hearing last week on Obama’s final determination as President to bring in 110,000 refugees this fiscal year (the new flow began yesterday!).  Go here for a report on the hearing. The security issues were front and center.
And, here is my post from Friday on sending testimony (a letter) to the Subcommittee.
no-excuses
I don’t want to hear about the postal service and how slow it is! I don’t want to hear that they don’t listen to us anyway! I don’t want to hear, why can’t we send postcards (make it easy for us)! Or, that the deadline is too soon and you don’t have an hour today or tomorrow! No excuses are acceptable.

The reasons to write are as follows:

~Senator Sessions took time to hold a hearing (only the second since 9/11) and should know that you care and appreciate that by taking time to write a real letter!

~Senator Sessions needs to know how many of you are working hard and are seriously concerned enough to write a letter (not just blast off an angry e-mail or send a pre-printed post card).

~Senator Sessions is an advisor to the Donald Trump campaign and maybe through your efforts this week, a message may be sent to the campaign about how much this issue matters to so many of you.

~Senator Sessions needs to hear that based on your experience you have suggestions for reforming the program.

~Your Senators and Member of Congress (however useless they are) must be copied on the testimony so they know that you are serious about your opposition to how the program is being administered. Attach a note to your testimony and ask that your representative respond that they received it.

~The Subcommittee can keep the hearing record open longer, but whether you make it into the record is not the important point (hardly anyone ever looks at the published document two months from now anyway). Just get something off in the mail tomorrow or use the fax number I provided here (or do both fax and mail).

~Your testimony now should be used by you locally to energize your fellow activists and it will be a good reason to get some local media. Send a letter to the editor of your local paper and say that you testified in writing to a Senate committee and summarize what you said.

~You are not expected to be an expert on the law, or sound like you are a lawyer!

~Your testimony does not need to be a monster summary of your situation and your concerns.  You can pick one or two key points about why you believe the UN/US State Department program needs to be halted/reformed.*** They are spending your money for it!  There is no wrong or right thing to say, just be polite.  Hint! If you don’t have a problem yet where you live, then find some specific thing you’ve seen here at RRW that is particularly concerning. 

Believe it or not, regular readers here probably know more about problems with the program than most Senate staffers do! You are educating them!

I am not a Pollyanna who thinks that Congress is going to save us tomorrow or this week.  I am not raising your expectations that your letter will make THE difference, or any difference.  I am saying that by not saying anything (by making excuses about the postal system) that you are giving up already.
Many of you talk big about how angry you are, you rant and rave at Obama and Hillary, you get into squabbles on social media, you are reading news all over the net all day and sending news to me, you send me ideas on what Congress should do, and then you tell me you haven’t an hour or two to write a letter to Senator Sessions, one of the few friends you have ever had in the Senate! 
This is one easy thing to do, and if you can’t do it, you are not ready for the major battles ahead.
Endnote:  I have gotten some copies of excellent letters to Senator Sessions over the last two days and I’m thinking about posting some of them (with permission of course). And, LOL!, I have a confession! I will have to force myself to write my letter today when I would rather be posting hot news here or tweeting or whatever!
***Update: For example, for those of you having problems (which is most of you) getting a copy of the FY2017 R & P Abstract, tell Senator Sessions about that.  I will bet that most Senate staffers will have no clue what you are talking about, so you will be educating them!

Roundup for the week ending September 30, 2016 and for the month of September

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In a little over 5 weeks everything with the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program will change.

Either Donald Trump is elected and hopefully reform of the program will be launched and Congress will be more agreeable to rein-in funding, or Hillary Clinton wins the White House (further neuters Congress) and follows the lead of her role model, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, opening the floodgates with a flow of migrants and refugees into the country like we have never seen.
congress
But, rather than sit around wondering, those of you concerned about the secretive and out-of-control refugee program, this 5 week window is the best opportunity you will have (maybe ever) to organize and put pressure on the group of people who are really in charge of the program—-your Member of Congress and your US Senators who hold the cards because they control the money!
Those elected officials might be attempting to throw the blame off on Obama when you contact them about how disruptive the program has been for you and your community, but they are to blame for what is happening to you, to us. 
They can cut the funding for it when the budget is revisited in November; and in the new year they can begin to rewrite refugee law for America.  So, I’m going to be a broken record on this subject.
(Everything I’ve written in recent weeks on the budget issue and Congress may be found filed under the tag ‘Where is Congress.’)
The first thing you need to do is send testimony to the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, go here for instructions.  I’ll have a separate post on that again shortly and will have much more on what you should do to make the most of the weeks up until Congress returns after the election.

Back to the roundup!

Here are the Top Three Posts of the week (daily top posts are in the right hand side bar):

Senators Cruz and Sessions let loose in yesterday’s Senate hearing on FY17 refugee plan

Comment worth noting: NY state reader is one heckuva brave guy!

Maine has a sexual assault problem in its Somali community

The Top Three Posts for the whole month of September are these:

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota is responsible for the Somali chaos in St. Cloud

HUGE! Food stamp fraud bust in Baltimore, check out the names, see a pattern?

Heads-up Aberdeen, South Dakota! New resettlement site being proposed

We also have thousands of readers arriving monthly from around the world.   Here (below) are the top ten countries for the month of September from which visitors arrived here.  BTW, September was our second highest month for readers in nine years as about a quarter of a million of you visited. (That is small by big blog standards, but I am thrilled since this is a narrowly focused single topic blog site).
Top Ten Countries:

Canada

UK

Australia

Germany

South Africa

Norway

India

Netherlands

Malaysia

France

For new readers!

I know there are a lot of you, so rather than simply repost information for new readers, please visit the August roundup and scroll to the new reader section to find out how best to use the information archived here.  There is one change and that is that we have now posted 7,913 posts since 2007.
See my newest video, It is about the issue of Congress and the budget.

Comment worth noting: Call Congress daily! (this reader does!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor: This is a comment from a reader ‘Mom for Trump’ who asked me to tell you this daily. So I will!
Years ago I had some experience on ‘The Hill,’ but I will tell you the place has changed over the last two decades! They simply do not want to hear from you (the peons!).  They have made it increasingly difficult for you to get a message to them and even setting foot in the place is like going in to Ft. Knox.

brigitte-gabriel-2
Our reader says: follow Brigitte Gabriel on twitter, here: https://twitter.com/ACTBrigitte

I’m going to say this over and over again for the remainder of the year!
You must call your members, you must see them at townhalls while they are campaigning, you have to picket their local offices and their homes if necessary.  Call them constantly and call their local offices too! And, you have to take an hour out of this weekend and write a decent, thoughtful and informative letter to Senator Jeff Sessions Subcommittee, here.
Congress will return in November and they will be deciding how much money will be spent to bring in over 100,000 refugees in 2017—you have one more shot to save this country by telling them no!

Frankly, I am getting really tired of all the ranting and raving I’m getting from some of you here at RRW. With all the time you are spending reading social media and yammering and yelling, you could actually be putting pressure on the only people that matter right now—on Members of Congress and Senators because they (the Republican majority!) hold the purse strings.  No money=no unvetted refugees for your towns.
And, of course you must be working to elect Donald Trump.  If Hillary is elected we are finished!
Sorry (now I was ranting!), here is the comment from ‘Mom for Trump:’

Ann, could you tell all your readers on a daily basis to call our useless Congress @ 202 224 3121 and have them say DEFUND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. I call daily and if enough of us do so, we can make a difference. Would you also tell your readers if interested to join @ActForAmerica and follow @ACTBrigitte. I just joined this group and I’ve learned a lot about terrorism, the Muslim Brotherhood in our country and the Islamization of our country.

Act for America is the only national grassroots organization focused exclusively on immigration (and reforming the Refugee Admissions Program) from Islamic terrorist-producing countries.
See other ‘Comments worth noting’ here.