Today's hearing has a ponderous title but it is a national policy imperative: "Eliminating Federal Red Tape and Excessive Litigation" is indeed the only path to "Create Healthy Forests, Jobs and Abundant Water and Power Supplies."
Media Spotlight
Reconciliation Act
House Chamber, Washington, D.C.
May 10, 2012
News & Updates
The Export-Import Bank dragoons American taxpayers into subsidizing loans to foreign companies, making it cheaper for them to buy products from politically-favored American companies which in turn use those products to compete against less-favored American companies.
Here is an appropriations bill originating in this House that still has outrageously wasteful and indefensible spending. Perhaps the flagship of this folly is the $182 million in unauthorized - there's that word again: unauthorized - spending for the Economic Development Administration. This is solely and simply a slush fund that gives away money for the most dubious of local projects.
This amendment cuts more than a quarter billion dollars of unauthorized appropriations from the International Trade Administration. What does it do, exactly? The ITA has some legitimate functions enforcing trade agreements and treaties. This amendment leaves these functions untouched. But it also - to quote from its own material - provides counseling to American companies in order to develop the most profitable and sustainable plans for pricing, export, and the full range of public and private trade promotion assistance... as well as market intelligence, and industry and market specific research." That's well and good, but Mme. Chairman, isn't that what businesses, trade associations and the Chamber of Commerce are supposed to do with their own money?
Under the Fourth Amendment, if the Government wants to snoop through a person's email, it must first convince a judge that there is probable cause to believe that person has committed a crime and it must specify the documents it believes are relevant to that charge. Yesterday the House passed a measure that makes a mockery of this cherished protection.
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