November 29, 1999
Taking the Next Step
Building on This Year's Victories
This year I introduced a number of bills designed to address key concerns facing our country. With Congress now in recess I want to take this opportunity to share information with you regarding some of the bills I have introduced and the problems they seek to address.
Last week I mentioned the success we had with our efforts to derail the proposed "Know Your Customer" regulation and to end the national identification card scheme, as well as our efforts to curtail the activities of runaway agencies like the US Postal Service and the Selective Service Agency.
In each of these areas I introduced legislation, and to follow up on our victories in the National Identification Card and "Know Your Customer" battles, I now have bills, pending in committee, which would take the next step on these two topics. My bill to restrict usage of the Social Security number is the next logical step in our battle against federal identifiers. And, my bill to repeal the Bank Secrecy Act would protect us from further attempts at regulations like "Know Your Customer."
I have once again introduced legislation to end US involvement in the United Nations. As this international bureaucracy continues to threaten American sovereignty and the individual liberty of American citizens, as well as demanding more and more funding from American taxpayers, it is obvious that our continued involvement is at best a drain on resources and at worst a direct contradiction of the principles the founding fathers so clearly understood when they fought to establish our Republic.
During this year I also introduced bills to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans. Our founding fathers understood that the right to keep and bear arms was the bedrock upon which all other rights were rested, a sort of insurance plan against an intrusive and abusive federal police state, my legislation would restore our Republic to those founding principles in this crucial policy area as well.
I have also introduced the Separation of Powers Restoration Act. Again, based on reestablishing our Republic along the lines understood by our founding fathers, this bill is aimed at stopping Presidential usurpation of the constitutionally enumerated legislative powers. Through the vehicle of the executive order, various Presidents have encroached upon Congressional powers. Sadly, this has often occurred with the benign neglect, or even support of our legislative branch. This bill, which rapidly received a hearing in a key sub-committee of the House Judiciary committee, will continue to be a focal point for my activity in the next session of Congress. And, hopefully, it will continue to attract interest from a multitude of media outlets, as well as support from freedom loving Americans across our nation.
In addition to these important pieces of legislation I have introduced a number of bills designed to cut taxes on American families. Next week, I will spend more time outlining the importance of that body of legislation. Moreover, my first bill introduced this Congress was the "Social Security Preservation Act," designed to take all Social Security receipts out of the hands of the politicians and put them into a separate interest bearing account that could only be used for the purposes which those funds were taken from the taxpayers, namely the provision of public pensions through the Social Security system. This is something that everybody now claims, at least rhetorically, to support, yet still we see Social Security dollars being used to finance welfare and pork barrel spending as well as foreign aid and overseas deployment of troops in Kosovo, the Middle East and elsewhere.
As the next session of Congress begins in early January, I will be working to get these important legislative initiatives through the committee process and to the House Floor. This will be a key part of my work in the year 2000.