Big Challenges Ahead in Congress
With limited time remaining in the fall session of Congress, were focused on a variety of issues still before lawmakers.
By way of an update, 194 Members of Congress have signed the discharge petition to bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the floor for a vote. This is 24 short of the 218 signatures that are needed. Unfortunately, not a single Democrat has been willing to put his or her name on the line in support of this important issue. We will continue asking them to do so, as the first bipartisan signature may pave the way for the remaining signatures needed. Please continue to express your support for the Broadcaster Freedom Act to your Congressional representative.
On the Senate side, we continue to work with various Senators and staff on judicial nominations. Following the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the question has been, "Who do we go with next?"
With the legislative clock running out, there are several great nominees facing confirmation hearings and committee votes. While Leslie Southwick and Jennifer Elrod have just recently been confirmed to the 5th Circuit, we believe Catharina Haynes, a highly qualified nominee out of Texas, should also be confirmed for a seat on that appeals court.
Another nomination in the spotlight is Peter Keisler, whose nomination to the DC Circuit has languished for nearly two years. We're hopeful that Keisler will get another hearing and that his nomination will move forward by sometime this spring. Late last week, Drew Ryun, our Director of Government Affairs, began meeting with various Senate staff to see what we need to do to get Keisler's nomination moving. Also on the list of highly qualified judges whom we would like to see receive their hearings and get confirmed are Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews, both nominated for seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
On another issue that has been off the radar screen for the past few weeks, House and Senate negotiators on the fiscal year 2008 defense authorization bill hoped to hammer out a compromise last over whether to allow unrelated hate-crimes language in the Senate's version of the Pentagon policy bill into the final conference report. The language, not related to anything regarding defense spending issues, would extend the definition of hate crimes to cover sexual orientation. This issue had no business being tied to a defense authorization bill, and it was a big victory for us when Congressman Duncan Hunter stood his ground and refused to sign a conference report with the language in it. Eventually Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stripped the language out of the conference report.
Congress has a lot of ground to cover in the next couple of weeks before it breaks for Christmas. We'll keep you informed on the issues that matter most via our website and on our daily radio broadcast, Jay Sekulow Live!