Quotes of the Day:
“In some cases, members clearly signed on without reading or understanding the implications of what they were signing on to . . . (referring to H.Con.Res 362)”
— Jim Fine, Legislative Secretary for Foreign Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation
“I agree that this (H.Con.Res. 362) should not be our policy, and I regret the fact that I did not read this resolution more carefully.”
— Congressman Barney Frank
Subject: Congress will not authorize a naval blockade of Iran
We’ve won another victory — this time in our fight against H.Con.Res. 362. This House resolution would have urged President Bush to impose a naval blockade on Iran, bringing the U.S. to a state of undeclared war with that nation.
The House Democratic leadership has decided to NOT bring the resolution to a vote.
This looks like it is a final victory. If any resolution comes to the floor in the next Congress it is unlikely to include the naval blockade.
This victory is due entirely to public pressure. DC Downsizers were a major part of that pressure. Massive public protest led five co-sponsors of the resolution to officially withdraw their names from the bill, while other co-sponsors flipped and voiced strong opposition to the naval blockade provision.
Jim Fine, the Legislative Secretary for our coalition partner, the Friend’s Committee, puts it this way, “None of us at FCNL can remember another time when five members withdrew from a resolution they had agreed to cosponsor.”
H.Con.Res. 362 is also another demonstration of the need for Downsize DC’s “Read the Bills Act.” Many of the co-sponsors were unaware of what they were committing to, because they hadn’t read the resolution before agreeing to support it. Your pressure helped make them aware of their error.
Pressure works, as long as there’s enough of it, applied relentlessly for a long enough time. We need to keep up the pressure, on all fronts. Which means . . .
We need to continue to pressure Congress on old issues as we also prepare for a long fight on the host of government interventions surrounding the Big Bailout. We must not allow old transgressions to be forgotten, and become locked in place, because the politicians have diverted our attention to their latest set of crises.
For instance, let’s not lose sight of our fight to repeal the REAL ID Act. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve pressured Congress on this issue. They may think we’ve forgotten about it. Let’s show them that we haven’t forgotten, and that we will never relent until we get what we want. Send a message right now asking Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act.
Tell Congress that you will not submit to a national identification card loaded with highly sensitive personal bio-metric information. You can send your message using our Educate the Powerful System.
Please also make a contribution or start a monthly pledge so that we can grow big enough to win more battles more often. You can contribute instantly at our secure website, or print out the form and mail a check to the address listed on the page.
Congratulations on your latest victory, and thanks for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.