Nearly 100 conservative leaders have signed a pledge to hold Republican leadership in Congress accountable for trillion dollar backdoor deals and for weeks-long recesses while they still haven’t accomplished much of the president’s and conservatives’ policy agendas.
The pledge was sent Friday to conservatives in the House, Senate and other groups involved in conservative politics. It has supporters agree and sign to the following points:
- Congress should delay August recess until government funding legislation has been openly debated in the House and Senate with a full opportunity for votes on amendments, and is approved by both houses and sent to the President.
- The Senate should delay August recess until sufficient progress has been made confirming the president’s nominees.
Conservatives who signed it include: former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Chief Executive Office of American Legislative Exchange Council Lisa Nelson, President of the Senate Conservatives Fund Ken Cuccinelli and others.
House and Senate lawmakers are on recess back in their districts this week, where many are planning to meet with constituents and host campaign fundraisers and events leading up to the November midterm elections.
Republican leadership is adamant that selling the benefits of the 2017 tax reform bill is the surefire way to maintain majority in the Senate and fight to keep the majority — a scenario that looks increasingly unlikely — in the House.
Conservatives are upset that Republicans they put in office have repeatedly failed to accomplish many of their top campaign promises — defunding Planned Parenthood, funding sanctuary cities (as The Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively reported), repealing and replacing Obamacare and building a border wall along the southern U.S.-Mexico border — and they are ready to put leadership on notice.
After Congress passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill that included a host of handouts and wins for congressional Democrats, conservatives who signed the pledge are telling members that they need to stop doing backdoor deals and legislate in public with open hearings and opportunities for amendments.
The president said he considered vetoing the spending bill because it did not include funding for a border wall, but ultimately signed it, although begrudgingly. Trump warned Congress that he would “never sign another bill like this again.”
WATCH:
“I say to Congress, ‘I will never sign another bill like this again.’ I’m not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It’s only hours old. Some people don’t even know what is in it. $1.3 trillion dollars–it is the second largest ever,” Trump said.
The president justified signing the bill because it was “necessary” to fund national security.
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