SECURE AMERICA’S FUTURE ECONOMY,
advocating smaller, more focused, less costly government since 1996

December 2, 2019

Sen. Tom Carper, Sen. Chris Coons & Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester,

We would like to let you know how SAFE feels about several current matters.

FIRST, our members are thoroughly disenchanted with the House impeachment inquiry, which in our view is being pursued for reasons of political payback vs. principle. See Democratic presidential candidates miss the boat again, 11/25/19, Secure America’s Future Economy (blog page), 11/25/19.

SECOND, congressional failure to take care of even “routine” tasks is inexcusable. Essentially nothing has gotten done this year, including the following items:

•Twelve appropriation bills for fiscal year 2020 were supposed to be completed by 10/1/19 under the congressional budget rules; not a single one has been sent to the president for signature.

•The USMCA treaty has been agreed with Mexico & Canada after months of painstaking negotiations and it’s time to seal the deal with our trading partners.

•A decision is needed on proposals to rescue multiemployer pension plans, which are underfunded by some $600 billion. We would favor denial of support to solve a problem that the federal government did not create, but in any case Congress should stop kicking the can down the road and make a decision.

Longer term, Congress is committing institutional suicide by failing to exercise its exclusive legislative powers (Constitution, Article I, Section 1) and forcing the executive branch to fill the resulting vacuum by aggressively interpreting its administrative powers. Impeachment push is symptom of underlying problems, Secure America’s Future Economy (blog page), 12/2/19.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

SAFE