Spectator NZ

Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

November 29, 2022

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who has been a strong advocate for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-9), joined a virtual roundtable last night with Caring Across Generations and a coalition of Illinois care advocates. The lawmakers underscored the urgent need for federal support for the array of care programs and caregivers that provide invaluable support to families across Illinois.

“We don’t thank or support our care providers nearly enough,” said Senator Duckworth. “Think of the many seniors and neighborhoods that they support. Think of how they show up with compassion every single day to care for our family members and loved ones. There’s no reason why they should be underpaid or forgotten, and I plan to keep pushing in Washington for care programs and providers to get the federal support and compensation to continue their incredibly important work.”

“Care infrastructure is infrastructure,” said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. “You cannot have a strong, successful country and economy if people do not have adequate care for their children and elders. Home and community-based services allow Americans to receive the quality long-term care they need, in the comfort of their own communities. Yet far too many people are forced to enter nursing homes or placed on long waitlists because of chronic underinvestment in care workers. We must start paying a livable wage to caregivers, who are predominately women of color, and we must value unpaid family caregivers by offering compensation in acknowledgment of their contribution to society. I will not rest until our hardworking care workers have the resources they need and deserve.”

“Tens of thousands of families across Illinois struggle to find and afford care from its underfunded and outdated patchwork of programs that rely on a severely underpaid direct care workforce,” said Ai-jen Poo, executive director of Caring Across Generations. “Today, caregivers, care workers, along with the disabled and older Illinoisans who need care across the lifespan came together to imagine a different reality. We will continue to push for funding for Medicaid home and community-based services as a critical first step in fully funding our care infrastructure. I look forward to working with the growing coalition of Illinois care advocates and care champions in Congress like Senator Duckworth and Congresswoman Schakowsky to win the changes we all deserve.”

“Home and community-based services are critical to the long-term care that people of all backgrounds rely on across Illinois,” said Brigitte Dietz, Health and Aging Policy Analyst for Illinois Aging Together, a campaign of the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group. “We demand inclusive and supportive care, human rights, and that people be able to live where they wish. These systems of care matter to all of us to support our families and communities––and for our own selves as we age.”

“Unless you’ve been on the giving or receiving end of home care, it’s hard to understand what a huge impact it has on people’s lives,” Margaret Heywood-Smith, SEIU-HCII. “I do so much for people—it can be help with taking a shower, getting dressed, making a meal, picking up for them—anything that someone can’t do for themselves anymore. We make it possible for people to stay in their homes, and for them to feel at home because their needs are met. But there aren’t enough of us, there aren’t enough services, and those of us who do this for a living can barely afford to live. It’s time people starting caring more about home care and home care workers.”

“Care work is deeply underestimated as a critical socioeconomic driver holding our nation together,” said Amber Smock, Advocacy Director at Access Living. “Likewise, the national socioeconomic contributions of those who rely on care work is also deeply undervalued. The full freedom of people with disabilities goes hand in hand with good wages, training and support for those who provide our direct support and personal care.”

During the roundtable, Duckworth and Schakowsky discussed federal legislation and highlighted their advocacy for long-term resources for Illinois’s care system, including affordable care for families and adequate pay for caregivers who are largely underpaid women of color.

Duckworth and Schakowsky were joined by Caring Across Generations, Access Living, The Arc, Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, Jane Adams Senior Caucus, Illinois Aging Together and SEIU-HCII.

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Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse

11.29.22

In new letter, SCOTUS legal counsel ignores important questions about need to limit far-right influence campaign targeting Republican-appointed justices

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA-04), Chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Courts Subcommittees respectively, are responding to a new letter from the legal counsel for the Supreme Court.  The Court’s response comes after Whitehouse and Johnson wrote to the Supreme Court last week calling for answers to basic questions about apparent ethical lapses related to an outside influence campaign targeting Republican-appointed justices.  The scheme was exposed by recent reporting in Politico, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times.

“Through legal counsel, the Supreme Court reiterated Justice Alito’s denials but did not substantively answer any of our questions.  The Court’s letter is an embodiment of the problems at the Court around ethics issues.  Unlike all other federal courts, there is no formal process for complaints; it took a Senator’s and a Congressman’s repeated letters to galvanize a response.  Unlike all other federal courts, there is no formal process for fact-finding inquiry.  The assertions of fact by the Court’s lawyer emerge from darkness, and overlook important facts like all the contemporaneous evidence that Mr. Schenck in fact knew both the outcome and author in advance and acted at that time on that knowledge.  Unlike all other federal courts, there is no independence — no formal process of independent review.   That absence of independence violates the ancient maxim, nemo judex in sua causa:  no one should judge their own cause.  These multiple failures of orderly process are peculiar, coming from the highest Court in the land.  Procedure is the bone structure of justice,” Whitehouse and Johnson said in response to the new letter.

In September, Whitehouse and Johnson sent a letter to Chief Justice Roberts requesting information about the lobbying effort, referred to as “Operation Higher Court,” orchestrated by right-wing religious group Faith and Action to influence the justices.  In an early November response to the Chairmen, the Court’s legal counsel did not substantively address their questions and made no mention of Faith and Action.  That letter is available here.

Following the Court’s letter, a New York Times report revealed how Faith and Action sought to sway the justices and was able to gain advance knowledge of the Court’s decision in a key reproductive rights case.  Whitehouse and Johnson responded to the reporting with another letter reiterating their previous calls and asking new questions of Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court’s legal counsel, including whether the allegations regarding Faith and Action have been investigated internally and whether the Court has reevaluated any of its procedures related to judicial ethics.

Earlier this year, Whitehouse and Johnson introduced the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to enact stronger recusal standards, require the Court to adopt a binding code of conduct, and mandate the Supreme Court adopt more robust rules governing disclosure of gifts and travel paid for by outside parties.  The bill would also require disclosure of the identity of funders of amicus briefs, and block amicus filers from making gifts or providing travel to court of appeals judges or Supreme Court justices. 

Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) issued the following statement:

“Donald and Colette McEachin have been wonderful friends to me and Lisa for more than thirty years. We often bonded over stories and laughs about our mutual challenges raising families with three strong-willed daughters.

“Up until the very end, Don was a fighter. Even though he battled cancer and faced other trials in recent years, he never lost his focus on social and environmental justice. Tonight, Virginia has lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend.”

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Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey

Washington (November 28, 2022) – Today, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Representatives Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) and Steve Scalise (LA-01) applauded the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent, unanimous decision to prohibit the importation or sale of communications equipment deemed a threat to national security in the United States. The new rule implements the lawmakers’ bipartisan Secure Equipment Act, legislation signed into law by President Biden in November 2021 that directs the FCC to adopt rules clarifying that it will no longer review or issue new equipment licenses to companies on the Commission’s “Covered Equipment or Services List” that pose a national security threat. The FCC is required to maintain this list under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, which laid out detailed criteria for determining what communications equipment or services pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. safety.

“I commend the Federal Communications Commission on issuing its final rule to implement the bipartisan Secure Equipment Act, which I was proud to help lead in the Senate,” said Senator Markey. “This new rule will help bolster our communications infrastructure and protect against global technological threats. In our digitally connected world, these protections are essential to ensuring that our communications networks are safe and secure.”

“I applaud the Federal Communications Commission for taking this important step to implement my law. This new rule will help ensure that critical American infrastructure is protected from Chinese exploitation,” said Senator Rubio.

“I’ve fought for over a decade to address vulnerabilities in our telecommunications infrastructure that directly impact our national security. Equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party, increases the vulnerabilities of our telecommunication systems and puts the privacy and safety of Americans at risk. I applaud the FCC for taking historic action by implementing the Secure Equipment Act, our bipartisan, bicameral legislation that prohibits licenses for any equipment made by companies that threaten our national security,” said Representative Eshoo.

“I applaud the historic action taken by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to properly implement my bipartisan legislation, the Secure Equipment Act, which safeguards our telecommunications networks from threats by China and others so we can strengthen America’s national security. The FCC’s important action finally starts to confront the significant threat China poses to Americans’ privacy and data security interests. I am pleased to see the FCC take this unprecedented action, and look forward to working with the Commission and other partners to address the continued threat China poses to America,” said House Republican Whip Steve Scalise.

In 2020, the FCC adopted new rules to require that U.S. telecommunications carriers rip and replace equipment provided by “covered” companies. While that rulemaking was an important step, it only applied to equipment purchased with federal funding. The very same equipment could still be used if purchased with private or non-federal government dollars. Senators Markey and Rubio, alongside Representatives Eshoo and Scalise, introduced the Secure Equipment Act to close this loophole and further prevent identified security threats from having a presence in U.S. telecommunications networks. The FCC’s new rule completes the rulemaking as required under the Secure Equipment Act.

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Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

Source: United States Senator for Texas John Cornyn

While this bill does not move the needle on same-sex marriage, this legislation will raise serious issues for religious liberty.

“Unlike Obergefell, this legislation expressly empowers private litigants to sue religious institutions, faith-based organizations, and private parties who oppose, for sincerely held religious beliefs, same-sex marriage.”

“If the goal of the bill is to preserve religious liberty, I think the bill needs to be amended. Religious liberty is the cornerstone of our democracy. It’s explicitly protected by the United States Constitution, and we cannot allow it to be trampled on.”

WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed how the Respect for Marriage Act threatens religious liberty and called on Leader Schumer to allow votes on amendments that would protect the rights of those who oppose same-sex marriage. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be foundhere.

“As the Senate knows, this week we will be voting on a bill called the Respect for Marriage Act. Tonight, we’ll vote on a procedural matter to move that legislation along. Supporters of this legislation have framed it as a way to protect the right of same-sex couples to get married in any state in America. To be clear, that is already the law of the land.”

“While this bill does not move the needle on same-sex marriage, this legislation will raise serious issues for religious liberty. We all know that many Americans hold sincere beliefs, religious beliefs, objecting to same-sex marriage. Obergefell did not place any new requirement on those individuals or their religious institutions. The Obergefell decision coexists today with other Supreme Court precedents like Masterpiece Cakeshop, or Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, or Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.” 

“Each of these decisions recognized that religious liberties shall and must be protected as required by our Constitution, namely the Equal Protection Clause.”

“If the Respect for Marriage Act becomes law as it is currently proposed without amendment, that would change. Unlike Obergefell, this legislation expressly empowers private litigants to sue religious institutions, faith-based organizations, and private parties who oppose, for sincerely held religious beliefs, same-sex marriage.”

“Individuals and organizations that are trying to do good works consistent with their faith would be forced to spend a small fortune defending themselves in court, just as the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop did for ten years. This legislation could open the door for the government to take serious action against religious institutions for adhering to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

“Cities and states could deny foster care permits and licenses to religious organizations that do an immeasurable amount of good, including Catholic Charities, Little Sisters of the Poor, or Buckner International. The Internal Revenue Service could seek to revoke the tax exempt status of organizations that fail to comply with this new secular mandate.”

“I believe the proponents of this legislation thought they were protecting and preserving the religious liberties of people with sincerely held religious beliefs, but when they include a private right of action for someone acting ‘under color of state law,’ it refers to any public act, any right or claim. And as I said, you can interpret ‘color of state law’ to cover everything from professional licensing to teaching certificates to building permits to food and beverage licenses.”

“If the proponents of this legislation really believe that protecting religious liberty should be our goal, the best way to accomplish that is to allow votes on these amendments by Senator Lee, Senator Rubio, and Senator Lankford, who provided an extra clear assurance that this legislation does not constitute a national policy endorsing a specific view of marriage.”

“If the goal of the bill is to preserve religious liberty, I think the bill needs to be amended. Religious liberty is the cornerstone of our democracy. It’s explicitly protected by the United States Constitution, and we cannot allow it to be trampled on.”

Source: United States Senator for Florida Marco Rubio

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) released a statement regarding the historic mass protests against General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

• “The CCP’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy is outrageous. In addition, the CCP restricts all human rights and freedoms in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and across China. It has robbed the Chinese people of their human dignity. 

• “The Biden Administration’s weak rejection of the CCP’s zero-Covid policy and refusal to call out General Secretary Xi’s totalitarian grip is nothing short of cowardly. Just weeks after shaking hands with Xi in Bali, President Biden and his administration have once again demonstrated that they are unwilling to stand up to the CCP and stand in solidarity with the Chinese people.

• “Nike, Apple, and the rest of our nation’s hypocritical corporate elites are following the Biden Administration’s shameful approach. Why are they silent? Is it because they made billions doing business with the CCP? Their silence makes them complicit with the CCP’s egregious human rights violations.

• “These protests are not about a public health crisis, but a human rights crisis. The United States must be unwavering in our support for the Chinese people as they bravely call for freedom.” 

Rubio and Smith are ranking Republican members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).