This week in Congress: NDAA

The House of Representatives is continuing to work on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. 

The House is considering NDAA under a rule that automatically repeals the provision requiring  woman to register for selective service.

Campaign for Liberty has signed a letter in support  an amendment forbidding the Department of Defense from implementing two Obama Executive Orders requiring ti to adopt polices and programs to a dress “climate change”:

Dear Representative,

The undersigned organizations write in strong support of Representative John Fleming’s amendment #87 to H. R. 4909, the National Defense Authorization Act, that if enacted would prevent the Department of Defense from continuing to implement Executive Orders 13653 and 13693. These two executive orders require the Department of Defense to create a number of climate change programs and policies throughout the Department.

These climate programs and policies have nothing to do with the mission of the United States’ Armed Services. In fact, many of these programs and policies are likely to undermine military readiness by diverting scarce resources to such things as helping state and local governments to “go green,” meeting targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, meeting a variety of green energy quotas, meeting fleet requirements for low and zero emissions vehicles, and incorporating climate resilience and preparedness as principal aims of land and water management.

Most importantly, Rep. Fleming’s amendment would prevent the Department of Defense from implementing section 5 of Executive Order 13653, which requires the Department of Defense to develop “comprehensive plans that integrate consideration of climate change into agency operations and overall mission objectives.” In our view, this is an entirely unsuitable addition to the critical mission of our men and women in uniform.

For these reasons, we urge you to vote Yes on Rep. Fleming’s amendment #87 to H. R. 4909. Thank you for considering our views.

Sincerely,

Myron Ebell

Director, Center for Energy & Environment

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Phil Kerpen

President

American Commitment

Rick Manning

President

Americans for Limited Government

Brent Gardner

Vice President for Government Affairs

Americans for Prosperity

Jeff Gayner

Chairman

Americans for Sovereignty

Richard Falknor and Susan Falknor

Publishers

Blue Ridge Forum

Norm Singleton

President

Campaign for Liberty

Elaine Donnelly

President

Center for Military Readiness

Ron Pearson

President

Council for America

Thomas Schatz

President

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Craig Richardson

Executive Director

Energy and Environment Legal Institute

George Landrith

President

Frontiers of Freedom

Andresen Blom

Executive Director

Grassroot Hawaii Action, Inc.

Joseph Bast

President

Heartland Institute

Seton Motley

President

Less Government

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Allen B. West

Executive Director

National Center for Policy Analysis

Willes K. Lee

President

National Federation of Republican Assemblies

Kenneth Haapala

President

Science and Environmental Policy Project

James L. Martin

Chairman

60 Plus Association

David Williams

President

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Judson Phillips

Founder

Tea Party Nation

KaLeigh Long

Executive Director

The Conservative Leadership PAC

C. Preston Noell III

President

Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

Morton Blackwell

Chairman

The Weyrich Lunch

Andrew C. McCarthy

Former Chief Assistant U. S. Attorney

Southern District of New York

Here are some other amendments that Campaign for Liberty supporters may be interested in:

Amendment number 81– Repeals the 2001 Authorization of Military Force–which has been used to justify everything from military action to indefinite detention to warrantless wiretapping and other forms of snooping 90 days after enactment.

Amendment number 99 — Strikes language calling on president to expand the scope of the mission in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, even though the House Rules Committee approved  over 100 amendments, they blocked an amendment that would have forbidden the Department of Defense from requiring technology companies to put “backdoors” into their products,thus allowing the government to hack into them.

Campaign for Liberty cosigned the following letter to the rules committee in support of that amendment and we will continue to work to make Congress address this issue:

Dear Chairman Sessions, Ranking Member Slaughter, and Members of the Committee on Rules:

 

We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge your support for Amendment ___ to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, H.R. 4909 (“NDAA”). The amendment is a necessary step toward protecting the competitiveness of American industry and preserving the privacy and security of all Americans from government mandates that undermine the integrity of encryption techniques.

The long-term security of our country is threatened by governmental efforts to weaken encryption, such as the NSA’s subversion of encryption standards and the FBI’s attempt to conscript Apple into developing and installing a backdoor into its own products. Americans rely on strong encryption to protect their financial transactions, their health information, personal data, and much more. Businesses and government rely on strong encryption to keep sensitive information confidential. The overwhelming majority of encryption experts agree that strong, unbreakable encryption is critical to our safety. So too does former NSA director Michael Hayden.

Amendment _____, offered by Reps. Lieu, Lofgren, and Poe, would defund some governmental efforts to force companies to undermine encryption in their own products. This amendment is closely tailored to solve this problem. It has a carve-out for third-party anti-encryption solutions, so the Department of Defense could contract with a third party to bypass encryption measures. But the government’s exploitation of flaws in cryptographic systems is different from forcing companies to create holes in their security. We need the best encryption we can create, and government must stay out of the way.

The House of Representatives should have the opportunity to consider this measure in the context of the NDAA. We respectfully urge you to ensure this amendment is ruled in order and brought to the floor of the House for consideration.
Sincerely,