Tom Feeney, my Representative, just so happens to be a member of the House Judiciary Committee, so I thought I'd send him a letter about the GOP members' rewriting of several amendments offered by Dems to this bill. Most of you probably are aware of this via Rep. Louise Slaughter's
recent diary entry.
Letter in the extended section....
The Honorable Tom Feeney
U. S. House of Representatives
323 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Re: Rewriting of amendments to the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act
Dear Congressman Feeney,
As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I hope you can offer some explanation as to why the Republican Majority rewrote several amendments offered by Democrats to CIANA to make it appear as if the amendments were intended to protect sexual predators. I have attached a comparison sheet of the original and rewritten amendments for your convenience.
This abuse of the Committee Majority's power came to my attention after a post by Rep. Louise Slaughter to the DailyKos website. Every time I think I'm immune to shock over new abuses that come to light, this action really floored me. I would really like to think that you, as my Representative, were not party to this travesty.
To the best I can determine, CIANA is not in the least bit connected with predatory behavior and the amendments were well in keeping with the intent of the legislation. Whatever purpose was served by the Majority rewriting these amendments is utterly perplexing, unless of course one considers the obvious - that Republican committee members wanted only to make Democrats out to be desirous of protecting sexual predators. Now, this language is permanently entered into the record of debate on CIANA, and I have little doubt it will rear its ugly head at very "opportune" times.
No less disturbing was Rep. Slaughter's account of Chairman Sensenbrenner's puerile response to her concerns: "He said, and I quote... `You don't like what we wrote about your amendments, and we don't like what you said about our bill.'" Is this the Congressional equivalent of "I don't like you so I'm taking my toys and going home?" You might politely remind the Chairman that such an attitude is befitting of a second-grader, but certainly not of a presumably responsible and mature public official.
As Sherlock Holmes has said, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Unfortunately, given the current political climate, it's clearly becoming less and less improbable that many Republicans think nothing of besmirching the reputation of anyone outside their party who disagrees with them, even at the expense of American citizens.
I certainly look forward to your explanation of why this was allowed to happen, and expect an assurance that it will never occur again and that you will be courageous enough to make a public statement correcting this falsehood.
Sincerely,
[name omitted]
(I rather like Sherlock Holmes and if I can work one of his quotes into a letter, I try to do so. LOL.)
I might copy Rep. Slaughter on this as well in case she needs ammo for her fight against this abuse. I thought I read recently that she's attempting to get another piece of legislation passed to put on record what the true amendments were, but I can't find any reference to that article now.