Dear friends,
The sun is out, for the second day in a row!
I really expected to be writing about a government shutdown today and am enormously grateful that it was averted.
And yet, it was a very close call, which should not leave us feeling that all is well.
A government shutdown is not possible in other rich countries. As Rick Noack details at The Washington Post, in Westminster-style systems like the U.K. or Australia, if the government fails to pass a budget, then typically it must resign and new elections are triggered. Or in Germany, failure means the government budget runs on autopilot. Amusingly, Belgium also has a German-style system, and when it had no government at all for almost two years in 2010-2011, the autopilot budget was quite helpful because inaction meant avoiding much of the brutal austerity then being imposed across the continent.
Cooper explains that Jimmy Carter’s Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti invented the government shutdown by an unnecessarily narrow reading of the 1870 Antideficiency Act. That law was passed to rein in executive overreach in government spending while still ensuring that Congress would meet legitimate spending obligations.
Cooper acknowledges that a new interpretation of the Antideficiency Act would probably be a less effective way to keep the government funded than a new law.
Senators Maggie Hasan (D-NH) and James Lankford (R-OK) have proposed amending the budget procedure so that if Congress fails to pass a budget, a status quo spending bill would re-up every two weeks until Congress does their job. The proposal includes a provision that would forbid legislators from leaving DC until a budget is passed.
Tell your Congressional delegation that you support the bipartisan effort to eliminate shutdowns.
Nicole Malliotakis, another member of the House from New York, is drafting a resolution to expel Bowman, for disrupting a proceeding. She is the same person who voted against impeaching the former president for his actions (and inaction) on January 6.
Bowman was rushing to the vote and stuck in a vestibule. He insists that he wasn’t trying to delay the proceeding but to get to it, and pulled the lever because of confusing signage.
In any case, he is cooperating with authorities. Even if Bowman was being slick — I’ll wait for the video from the vestibule — it’s hard to understand why Republicans who foment rebellion and defraud voters are still ‘serving’ in Congress.
If your Congressional representative is a Republican, let them know that you’re unsatisfied with the double standards.
Our current system continues to allow gun purchases without background checks, in spite of the spate of mass shootings and relentless gun violence.
There’s a public comment period for the new rule, and we need to speak up in favor as the various gun lobby groups mobilize against this common-sense rule. As always, it’s worthwhile to personalize your comments.
Tell the ATF to close the loopholes in federal law that allow gun purchases online and at gun shows without background checks. Everytown for Gun Safety makes this easy.
Eddie Bautista, director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, questioned why Adams did not appear before the public until well into the storm.
“I don’t understand how a mayor whose prime campaign narrative was public safety…is public safety only when it comes to street crime?” he said. “It doesn’t get more public safety than this.”
Official communications should not only come with warnings but also actionable advice, said Daniel Zarrilli, the former chief climate policy advisor in the de Blasio administration.
Let the Mayor know about your day on Friday and demand better planning.
with love,
L