Below is a press release I would like to share from Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN). Most of the problems the post office suffers from would be healed if this legislation was law of the land. As well as a lot of problems the APWU and labor unions have. Rep Nolan is one of the few friends we have in Congress. He is someone APWU Locals have had me reach out to and a Congressman’s office that has reached out to me as well. So I just want to share his press release because it is good stuff and in a world with a lot of bad stuff it is important to realize all elected officials are not crooked money grubs!
U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan today the reintroduction of his Restore Democracy legislation (H.Res. 343), a seven-point blueprint to address the public’s widespread dissatisfaction with our campaign system and Congress’s ineffectiveness.
“It is time to change the way we do politics, and restore our great American democracy to the stature and integrity our Founders intended,” Nolan said. “The simple truth is that in recent years, Congress is the most unaccomplished, undemocratic and unremarkable in our country’s history. We make Harry Truman’s ‘Do Nothing Congress’ look like over-achievers by comparison. Americans want Congress to put aside partisanship – get back to work – and start getting things done again.”
Nolan’s Restore Democracy legislation expresses the sense of Congress regarding the need for seven major reforms:
- Overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that declared corporations to be ‘people’ and money to be ‘free speech’ with respect to the right to donate money to Congressional campaigns.
- Establishing a public-private system of campaign financing, making candidates answerable to the people – not wealthy special interests.
- Restricting campaign advertising spending to a period 60 days before an election.
- Prohibiting incumbents and challengers from raising campaign funds while Congress is in session.
- Ending political gerrymandering of Congressional districts that have made all but 35 districts ‘safe’ for incumbents at election time.
- Encouraging nationwide voter participation by requiring states to establish online voter registration systems.
- Returning the U.S. House to a system of ‘Regular Order’ under which no bill can be considered on the Floor of the House without first going through the committee process – under an open rule – with amendments debated fully and openly and given an up or down vote. Conference committees would be required to meet in full, and resolve House-Senate differences with a vote of the full committee.
First Name: Jerry
Last Name: Stidman
Email: lwmedia2012@aol.com
Union/Local: Terre Haute Local #618
Office held if any:
Union and NAME of Local/Branch
Michigan State Retiree Chapter, Flint MI Area Local Retiree Chapter
Office held, if any
Past President Michigan State Retiree Chapter & Former Central Region National Retiree Representative (a.k.a. Delegate)
This logical, good-sense legislation definitely would be the panacea for this “Do-Less” House filled with sub-clutches who do harm to the business of the people. At the very least it’s a sobering revelation of the way it should be as opposed to the way it is! I’ve a member of the clutch of Congressmen here in Michigan’s 1st District. He succeeds a GOP slob who rode on others coattails, including Dem Senator’s accomplishments preserving The Dunes National Park and Great Lakes initiatives. Now, the President’s budget cut 98% of the funding for the Great Lakes initiative. The silence from Rep. Bergman is deafening. Then, there’s the 64 year-old Enbridge Line 5 pumping Canadian crude from Superior, WI, across the U.P., then 5 miles under the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac, then down eastern MI to crossing at Port Huron to Sarnia, Ont. Western Canadian oil transported under the Straits for Eastern Canada, and we take all the risk. Who does Bergman align himself with? Wonderful legislation that will die a slow demise in committee under a pile in the out basket. Pie-in-the-sky. Will never see the light of day. Unvarnished truth.