Friday July 21, 2017
Dear Mr. President: Many of us in the U.S. House of Representatives believe we have been denied our sacred duty to debate and declare war. You could say that I am disappointed by this. Disappointed because after 16 years in Afghanistan, Congress deserves another vote on this conflict. Disappointed because almost $1 trillion of taxpayers’ money has been spent with no direct goal or strategy. And most importantly, I am disappointed because we continue to lose American lives.
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Tuesday July 11, 2017
Each year we could look forward to the traditional August recess for some relief from legislators in Washington, DC passing more laws to grow government at the expense of liberty. Not so much this year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that this summer the United States Senate will stay in session for the first two weeks of its planned August recess.
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Thursday June 29, 2017
While Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Charter is inarguably non-binding on Member countries to use military force to defend other Members, that such a response is required has become an article of faith through repeated mis-interpretation of the Article. In fact, a careful reading of Article 5 makes it clear that other NATO Members are free to do nothing at all if another Member is attacked. A NATO Member is only bound to take "such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area." It may well be deemed necessary to ignore an attack on a NATO Member in many circumstances.
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Monday June 12, 2017
The Senate is expected to vote as early as tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon on a measure to disapprove of President Trump's announced deal to transfer half a billion dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The bipartisan measure, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), could lead to the Senate blocking the massive weapons sale, striking a serious blow to what the President touted as a major achievement of his first foreign trip last month.
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Tuesday June 6, 2017
Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC) has looked at war from both sides. As he has readily shared with us, he was hoodwinked by the US intelligence community in the run-up to the Iraq war. He attended the briefings and he trusted the "professionals." As the neocon promised "cakewalk" turned out to be a slaughterhouse, he began to think hard about what he had been told about Iraq and terrorism and 9/11.
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Friday May 26, 2017
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and I just re-introduced legislation to make it easier for small farms and ranches to serve consumers. The#PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act would give individual states freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb, to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores.
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Tuesday May 23, 2017
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is expected to offer legislation as early as tomorrow (Wednesday) to force a Senate vote on President Trump's freshly-inked deal to sell $110 billion in US weapons to Saudi Arabia. Using the increased authority over the transfer of American-made weapons overseas granted Congress by the 1976 Arms Control Export Act, Senator Paul, according to an aide, will introduce a motion of disapproval regarding the sale.
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Wednesday March 15, 2017
"Putin derangement syndrome" may have finally jumped the shark. Just minutes ago on the US Senate Floor, Sen. Rand Paul did the sensible thing and blocked NATO accession for tiny, corrupt Montenegro. The inconsequential Balkan country brings absolutely nothing to the NATO alliance, with its army of approximately 1,950 active duty military, a population the size of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a history political repression and corruption.
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Monday February 6, 2017
On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives approved H.J.Res. 40. The legislation prohibits the imposition of regulations published in December that define a process for placing individuals, who the Social Security Administration unilaterally determines have sufficient mental health problems, into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database so the government may restrain them from purchasing and possessing guns. The regulations, which had been in the works for years, would breach the privacy of affected individuals, while also denying respect for their due process rights and their constitutionally protected right to bear arms.
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Wednesday January 11, 2017
US House Member Justin Amash (R-MI) announced Wednesday on Twitter that the Obama administration has agreed to the request Amash and fellow House Member Walter Jones (R-NC) made to President Barack Obama on December 19 that a classified briefing be provided for all Congress members concerning evidence being used to support claims that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 US presidential election to help Donald Trump’s campaign.
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