Floor Seating Arrangements of the House and Senate (click here). In case they forgot where their assigned seats are.
Yesterday in the Senate the kind gentleman from West Virginias stated, " Senate Resolution 480 states, "Resolved, that it is a standing order of the Senate that during yea and nay votes in the Senate, each Senator shall vote from the assigned desk of the Senator.
This standing order is a point of order of West Virginia Senators. It was passed for respect of Senator Jennings Randolph, a Democrat from West Virginia, as he demanded in his years in the Senate (1958-1984) dignity over disorder. Make no mistake in the recent weeks of this Congress it has been raucous in both the Senate and the House.
At any rate, the West Virginia Senators are quite right. Order for procedural issues has to be implimented to return civility to this Congressional session. I sincerely believe the Republicans have no respect for their collegues or the Constitution. I'll go as so far as to say that if procedure is not followed to the letter, or close to it, any measure with 'ya' or 'nay' votes can be challenged as 'out of order' when resolution is passed. We should all thank Seantor Byrd for bringing that to all our attention.
At any rate, the degree of disrespect by the Republicans is more than evident.
Yesterday when Immigration law was introduced, Senator Kyl began his opening statements by blackmailing the entire legislature in the Senate. He stated, '... that if the 'core wording' to the legislation was changed by one syllable he would not vote for the bill.' Well, who cares. If Senator Kyl calls himself a devoted member of the Senate than he needs to exhibit same by working bipartisanly to resolve a serious issue for the USA. The borders along his state are like seives and he IS one of the problems. He wants to defeat this bill without any shadow of a doubt in my mind. I hope it sinks into oblivion until this country has two legislatives houses they can be proud of, void of people such as Kyl.
In introducing a bill from The Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Senator Sherrod Brown stated the reason for so much inconsistency to any of the bills passed costing so many Americans their jobs, especially with his constituency in Ohio (click here) , is that the Executive Branch virtually ignores any and all amendments to any bill and ONLY abide by the 'core' requirements of it as if it were a 'Power of the Presidency' and where have I heard that before? allows such disregard of the Legislative Branch of the government. He went on to say that Bush literally allows every other country in the world to treat labor as they will, including devastatingly low wages as in the Jordan circumstances with Bangledesh workers, while allowing these products to be imported. He further stated the Executive Branch completely disregards any and all amendments to laws currently governing fair labor treatment abroad and environmental standards to allow cheap goods to be imported to the USA.
This lackadaisical application of the laws of this country allows Bush and Cheney their dictatorial status while attempting to undermine the authority of the legislature. The USA has good laws, but, just as it's gun laws are abused without enforcement so are the standards of decency in the importation of goods from other countries. The Repulican Right Wing will demand a fertilized human embryo is a human being and place oppressive laws to work against the free will of women to choose in their own lives, but, when it comes to demanding decent wages and environmental standards from foreign governments to import to the USA this is just to hard for the Executive Branch to get their minds around. These violations of enforcement of laws already passed in the USA is clearly further incompetency by the Bush Administration and more reason for impeachment.
Senator Brown stated, the 'core statements' of any bill has to reflect the demands of the law and not just expressed in amendments. The amendment process is out of control in the USA House and Senate and needs to be trimmed back. There are committees that are supposed to investigate issues, write legislation and submit to the general assembly of the House and Senate for vote. The process is as old as the USA Constitution and that is being circumvented by amendment after amendment once legisaltion is presented out of committee. The Republican Party has no respect for the USA Constitution, the procedural laws of the Legislation Branch or the decency of submitting to the will of the people of this country. They all need to be replaced. At least the Democrats have it right and demand a return to procedural correctness to rein in the runaway Republican train.
The other day US House Representative Barney Frank, whom recently had surgery on his arm, was attempting to carry an Affordable Housing initiative forward (He has so many of them, it's difficult to say which were in debate.) when a Republican added an amendment that would profoundly change the spirit of the law, if not the actual law itself. It would sincerely defeat the purpose of the legislation, now out of Committee. It was astonishing to realize how much of a temper tantrum the Republican Party is having in the House and Senate in hopes they can impress enough oppression on the electorate to replace them back into majority. Why? They were horrible in the first place, they continue to be horrible and why would anyone in this country ever want a Republican majority of both houses ever again?
They all need to return to procedural laws of both Houses and stop this insane 'gaming' of the Legislative Branch !
