Today, the House will consider two bills with some amendments that are important to conservatives.

Abortion

After a period of morning speeches, the House will finish work on H.R. 1216– the fourth bill brought to the floor that defunds mandatory appropriations for an Obamacare program.  This bill rescinds all unobligated funds for graduate medical training programs created under Obamacare.  It also subjects the remaining appropriations to the annual discretionary spending process.  This will prevent the program from becoming a mandatory slush fund for Democrat special interests.

The critical vote on this bill is the Foxx Amendment (H. AMDT. 298, which prohibits funding for graduate medical institutions to be used for the purpose of training medical residents in abortion procedures.  Please call you member of Congress and request a yes vote on the Foxx anti-abortion Amendment.

Update: Foxx anti-abortion amendment passed the House 234-182!

Defense

After work on H.R. 1216 is complete, the House will begin debating the FY 2012 Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1540); along with a marathon amendment process which calls for votes on 152 amendments.  That means that we must watch the floor vigilantly.

The underlying bill will authorize $690 billion for the DOD, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and nuclear weapons related activities at the Department of Energy.  This is a $15 billion decrease from the defense appropriations for 2011.  There are several attached provisions and amendments that are of importance to conservatives.

DADT

Two of the most egregious bills passed by the lame duck 111th Congress, no thanks to Senate RINOs, were the repeal of DADT and the START Treaty.  Congressman Duncan Hunter inserted language in the bill that would delay the repeal of DADT until all four military service chiefs have certified that repeal would not “degrade the readiness, effectiveness, cohesion, and morale of combat arms units and personnel of their respective armed force that are engaged in combat, deployed to a combat theater, or preparing for deployment to a combat theater.”  In addition, the bill prohibits the use of military facilities for same sex marriage ceremonies and defines marriage as between one man and one women for all purposes of military benefits and policies.  Ask your member of Congress to stay strong on DADT and not to budge on the DADT provision in the defense bill.

START

Last year, the Senate RINOs helped pass Vladimir Putin’s treaty to ostensibly unilaterally reduce our nuclear arsenal.  Conservatives inserted a provision into the defense bill which would defund any effort to reduce our nuclear arsenal unless the secretaries of Defense and Energy certify that the remaining arsenals are being modernize, as promised by Obama based on the preamble of the treaty.  This measure also prohibits Obama from withdrawing or reducing our weapons deployment from any European country without the agreement of the host country (remember Poland?).  Ask your member of Congress to hold steadfast on START accountability.

Terrorist Detainees

There is a provision in the defense bill to prohibit the transfer or release of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the American homeland or any other country without accountability from Congress.  Additionally, Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL) is submitting the Military Tribunals for Terrorists Act (H.R. 478) as an amendment to the defense bill.  This will prohibit any future detainees (to the extent that Obama will capture anyone else alive) from ever receiving a civilian trial in the U.S.  Anthony Kennedy is already flooding the country with domestic criminals.  We certainly don’t need terrorists in our “inhumane prisons.”  Ask your member of Congress to support the Buchanan amendment to ban all civilian trials for terrorists.

Obama has issued a Statement of Administration Policy threatening a veto of the defense bill over any of the aforementioned provisions.  Call your House member and ask them to remain strong on all national security issues, and not to get intimidated by a President who couldn’t care less about our national security.

Keep up the vigilance on congressional proceedings!