Welcome to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas.  We are a group within the Republican Party which seeks to promote the values of limited government, free enterprise and individual liberty.  We’re part of a growing nationwide organization with thousands of members and active chapters all over the country.  We are working locally and nationally and with other groups to work to return the Republican Party to its traditional, constitutional values.  Please join us and become part of making the Republican Party the great voice for the people and their rights which it ought to be.

Don’t Believe the Hype.  Meet the Real Rick Perry
Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas Sends Warning to Republicans Nationwide About Perry’s Tax and Spend Record

AUSTIN, TX – Texas Governor Rick Perry may be the flavor of the day for a lot of Republicans, but Texas Republicans who are familiar with his record are a lot less enthusiastic about his presidential run.  “Perry has a unique talent for finding new ways to raise taxes and loves to use taxpayer money to subsidize his business cronies,” says Secretary Dave Nalle of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas.  “His supposed belief in limited government and states rights conveniently disappears whenever it conflicts with the demands of the special interests and corporate cronies who he serves.”

Governor Perry’s record of big government, big spending, big taxing and attacks on the fundamental rights of Texas citizens is a familiar to Texans, but seems to be much less well known to Republicans outside of the state, which may explain his high initial showing in the polls.  The Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas is compiling a complete dossier on Perry to share with fellow Republicans outside their state so that they can be informed about what they are being sold in a Perry presidential candidacy.

The file on Perry’s abuses of power, insider deals with cronies and tax and spend policies is thick, but for a start here are what Texas RLC members voted as the top five Perry scandals which GOP primary voters need to know more about:

1. Business Slush Funds: Perry made heavy use of business incentive “slush funds” which used taxpayer dollars to subsidize selected businesses, many of them run by his major campaign contributors.  Just two of these funds, the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Growth fund, spent over $700 million to subsidize businesses to move to Texas or expand operations in Texas, with little evidence that these handouts of taxpayer money produced job or revenue growth anywhere near sufficient to justify the expense.  In fact, many of these businesses eventually downsized or relocated long before they had earned the money Perry gave them, or even went bankrupt with $25 million fund dollars like Contrywide Financial. source

2. Toll Roads and Land Seizures Perry has never met a toll road project he wasn’t willing to seize huge amounts of private land for and then give the exclusive management contracts to foreign corporations.  Perry’s time in office has set records for eminent domain land seizures – over a million acres have been seized.  His toll road projects have confiscated family farms and torn communities apart.  Toll roads have been used as a massive off-the-books tax program, taking money from Texas drivers and feeding it to foreign financial interests and management groups which lobbied the governor for special deals which produce much higher tolls and higher profits than are typical in other states. source

3. Forced Vaccinations: In 2007 Perry issued an executive order which would have forcibly vaccinated every girl in Texas entering the sixth grade with Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus.  This massive violation of the privacy rights of Texas teenagers and their parents would have come at a cost of $360 in taxpayer money per shot.  It would have been a huge windfall for Merck, which had paid Perry’s former Chief of Staff $250,000 to lobby the governor and legislature to promote the forced vaccination program. source

4. The Job-Killing Franchise Tax: Knowing that it would be impossible to pass an income tax against popular opposition in Texas, Perry promoted the idea of a special business tax called the “Franchise Tax” which taxes businesses at different arbitrary rates set by the government.  This tax expands business taxes to types of businesses which are not taxed in most states and in many cases taxes small businesses more than large corporations they compete with.  For example it taxes small car repair shops at double the rate it taxes large dealerships for car repairs.   It’s a small business and job killer. source

5. Scuttled the Ant-TSA Bill When Rep. David Simpson led the Texas legislature towards passage of an enormously popular bill (HB1938) to hold the TSA accountable for intrusive searches of airline passengers, Perry played a key role in making sure that the bill was not passed.   When the TSA and the Justice Department began pressuring him, although Perry had promised to submit the bill to the special legislative session, he delayed submitting the bill until it was so late in the session that it was virtually impossible to hold the constitutionally mandated votes necessary for passage.  That way he could score points with the public for submitting the popular bill while at the same time making sure that it wouldn’t pass.  It’s a classic example of Perry’s insincere pandering. source

Don’t be fooled by campaign hype.  If Perry says he’ll cut taxes or get government off our back, look up his real record.  Look up his past statements.  He supported TARP.  He supported the bailouts.  He was even Al Gore’s Texas campaign manager back in 1980.  A vote for Perry in the Republican primary is a vote for more big government and more taxes and more of the the same deficits and irresponsibility we had for 12 years under Bush and Obama.  The Republican Party and the nation need real leadership, not more of the same with a nicer head of hair.

RLC of Texas Chairman Judson Vandiver asks, “Let’s hope Republicans outside Texas see through all the hype.  Let’s all say to to Perry what he said to a Texas state trooper when he tried to bully her after she pulled him over for speeding YouTube: ‘Why don’t you just let us get on down the road?’”

Trading Massive New Debt for Unenforcable Promises of Future Cuts is Grossly Irresponsible

AUSTIN, TX -  The plan to raise the debt ceiling agreed on by the House this weekend is a total fraud, a vessel of broken promises, and a gross evasion of congressional responsibility to spend within its means, according to the Republican Liberty Caucus, a national organization of activists with official affiliates in 42 states. The Caucus Board of Directors blasted the latest deal as an insult to the basic American principles of individual liberty, limited government and private enterprise.

“The details will probably be secret until after the law is signed by the President,” says RLC Director Bill Westmiller of California, “but it is certain that it will authorize enough additional debt  to pay the costs of last year’s bailout, the Democrat’s stimulus, all the expenses of ObamaCare, and the continuation of extravagant federal programs implemented by both Republicans and Democrats over the past decade.”

The nearly three trillion dollar increase in the Debt Ceiling will take away all pressure on Congress to implement responsible spending policies for the next eighteen months, ensuring that spending and debt issues will not be prominent during the 2012 campaigns.

“This deal is a blatant violation of the promise from House Speaker John Boehner that every dollar of new debt would be matched by a dollar of cuts,” noted RLC National Chairman Dave Nalle. “All of the cuts are stretched over ten years, while the deficit spending will occur in less than eighteen months,” explains Nalle, “which means that we’re actually getting less than ten cents of current cuts for every dollar of perpetual debt. That’s not a deal, it’s a blank check for bigger government.”

The final plan includes unspecified spending cuts, which would be spread over ten years. For the coming fiscal year, there will be real cuts of less than $100 billion dollars. Since the bill assumes that the same level of reduced spending will continue for ten years, the “savings” are simply added together, for the supposed $1 trillion  of cuts.  There’s no real plan for specific long term cuts.

“Whether it’s one trillion or three trillion, it’s meaningless,” explains RLC Northeast Regional Director Vic Berardelli of Maine. “The Supreme Court has already ruled and all legislators acknowledge, that one Congress cannot impose any obligations on a future Congress,” says Berardelli. “That means that all of the promised cuts are not binding on the federal government after the next election.  They might as well not even exist”

The Supreme Court threw out the Gramm-Rudman Balanced Budget Act in July 1986, as a violation of the Constitution, by a 7-2 vote. Every prior budget authorization must be renewed by the new Congress, or it simply expires.

“There are no real cuts in the debt ceiling compromise,” says California RLC Director David Johnson. “Instead there are just promises of cuts to ‘projected spending,” which is another way of saying they’ve eased up slightly on the accelerator of the car heading for the cliff. These guys aren’t even trying.  I fully understand that the big cuts needed from defense and entitlement are controversial. But where are the smaller uncontroversial cuts? Why are there no cuts in corporate welfare? Why no cuts in foreign aid?”

The main source of added revenue is more than a trillion dollars obtained by auctioning off cell phone frequencies. All of those costs will be passed on to clients of the cell-phone companies with increased prices. Although technically not a “tax increase”, it will produce additional federal revenue that can be applied to new programs or expansions of old programs.

“This authorization, applauded by leaders of both parties, does absolutely nothing to reduce the debt,” says RLC Director Aleq Boyle of Georgia. “The deal actually allows a 50% increase over ten years, from $14.3 trillion to at least $21 trillion by 2021. Even if annual budget deficits were reduced by 100% over the coming decade, the actual public debt and annual interest due will increase more than it has in any prior decade. The pretense that the debt problem is solved is a perverse charade.”

“The fear-mongering about this issue is truly craven,” says RLC Vice Chairman Aaron Biterman.  “Telling people that failure to adopt this huge debt increase will result in U.S. bond rating downgrades, higher consumer interest rates, and possibly cutting entitlement payments. That’s all pure fantasy. The reason that the monopoly federal agencies cut bond ratings is because the interest demanded by the consumers of government bonds has increased, not because an agency lowers their rating.”

Currently, U.S. Federal Debt is nearly 100% of GDP, comparable with Italy (120%) and Ireland (114%). Those countries have had their debt ratings downgraded simply because of the level of their debt in comparison to their GDPs.  Two of the major U.S. ratings agencies say that adding more debt will not prevent a ratings downgrade: the Congress must show an earnest effort to reduce the outstanding debt, not merely the deficit.  This bill does not include enough cuts to offset the massive increase in debt.

“In any case, there is no reason to default on bond debt or interest,” adds Westmiller, “since the government has more than enough incoming revenue to pay all public debt, all pension checks, and everything else enumerated in the Constitution as a federal power. In fact, the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the U.S. Treasury honor all debt instruments and pensions ‘without question’,” says Wesmiller.  “Contrary to the claims of some Democrats, nothing in the 14th Amendment gives the President any power to borrow money at his sole discretion.”

“The most grievous flim-flam in this deal was trashing the requirement that Congress send a Balanced Budget Amendment to the states,” notes RLC Secretary Corie Whalen, “which simply won’t happen. The deal was modified to simply require one vote on the issue, which Democrats will easily defeat in the Senate. That ends any hope that Congress might actually allow the states to make a decision on balancing the federal budget.”

“The entire budget deal is a shameful fraud,” says RLC Chairman Dave Nalle. “It doesn’t do what our leaders say it will do; it allows increased revenues demanded by the President; it only pretends to cut spending, and it gives Democrats the power to force tax increases and other revenue raising measures through a Super Committee before the end of the year.”

“Although this agreement was a failure and a fraud,” concluded Nalle, “some praise goes to the small cadre of newly elected fiscal conservatives in the House, most of whom were endorsed by the RLC.  They at least spoke up for fiscal respnsibiity and forced a change in the terms of the debate. They stuck to their principles in the face of hysteria and doomsday threats. The RLC will be looking for more responsible candidates to join them in the House and the Senate in 2012.”

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The Republican Liberty Caucus is a nationwide grassroots organization which promotes individual liberty and limited government within the Republican Party.   You can find more information about the Republican Liberty Caucus at www.rlc.org

Speaker John Boehner is engaged in an epic struggle to pass some sort of compromise plan to raise the debt ceiling while cutting spending, moving forward with desperation and a certain amount of bullying to push through a plan which has now been modified and reduced to the point where it can only be described as absurd. Feeling the pressure from the endless fearmongering of President Obama and Timothy Geithner, Boehner seems to have gone off the rails with a plan which actually offers fewer cuts than the Democrats and no spending cap at all.

It’s a very heated issue in which some of the facts are being lost, so let me straighten them out.

Boehner’s Plan

Boehner’s current proposal is being described in some quarters as an increase in cuts from his earlier proposals, but in fact the cuts included are bizarrely inadequate. The plan currently includes $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years with another $1.8 trillion in unspecified cuts to be implemented by a special committee at some point in the future, in exchange for a $2.7 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.

There are a number of problems with this proposal.

The first phase of cuts only comes out of discretionary spending and all cuts to entitlements are left to the bipartisan committee at some future date. Whether this committee or its cuts will ever happen is highly debatable when the balance in Congress shifts next year and plans get rewritten.

The cuts are spaced out over a 10 year period, amounting to only $300 billion a year, and with more than half the cuts still in abeyance, the real cuts in the first year are only $120 bilion or likely even less. In fact, the way the cuts are structured the cuts in the next year may be as low as $6 billion. And because the cuts are not enough to offset increases in debt just from interest, spreading them out over 10 years means that they will be outpaced by debt increase and never come close to catching up. Ten years of small cuts to offset an immediate debt limit increase only works if there are not more debt limit increases down the road, and with cuts so small further increases are unavoidable.

The total cuts over a 10 year period, assuming even the entitlement cuts happen is less than the proposed budget deficit for the next two years, leaving 8 years worth of further debt increase in the next 10 years adding up to an increase of almost $10 trillion in the national debt. So the net result of the plan is a massive increase of the debt, not any real reduction.

The current Boehner plan also includes no provision to pass a strong Balanced Budget Amendment as a prerequisite to any debt limit increase. Every Republican in the House and Senate signed on to the Cap, Cut and Balance pledge and Boehner’s plan fails to meet its requirements. It also puts no caps on federal spending except for discretionary spending which makes up about a third of the budget.

Boehner’s plan is so bad that Sen. Harry Reid can actually make an argument that his proposed plan has more real cuts than Boehner’s does, because Reid’s plan includes substantial cuts to military spending and more overall cuts per year. It still results in a huge net increase in spending, and it raises taxes on those who already shoulder most of the tax burden, but in total it’s just a different bad plan, not really any worse than Boehner’s.

The Fearmongering

Perhaps the biggest lie in this whole melodrama is the claim coming from the White House and from Tim Geithner that the US will default and have our credit rating downgraded next Tuesday if we don’t raise the debt ceiling. These claims are nothing but an irresponsible intimidation tactic.

As Senator Rand Paul eloquently points out, and as I explained in detail in a previous article, there is absolutely no need to default on our debt if the debt ceiling is not raised. By prioritizing spending we can easily meet the requirements to servie the debt and provide for entitlements out of incoming revenue and we could probably keep doing that for 6 or 8 more months before it became a real problem.

Of course, this would put a lot of pressure on the administration because Obama and Geithner would be the ones who would have to make those spending decisions and they would get the blame for cutting subsidy programs, furloughing federal workers, closing down national parks and the other small short-term austerity measures necessary to meet obligations. They’d rather scare us with empty threats than admit the truth that we’re broke and need to tighten our belts – even in the federal government.

The other big lie here is that raising taxes on the “wealthiest among us” will actually solve the problem. If we were to raise taxes substantially on the top 1% of earners that would not be enough to balance the budget. Even raising taxes to the 70% rate of the Reagan era – almost double the current rate – would only raise about $300 billion more a year at a huge cost to the economy. So when Obama talks about raising taxes on the rich, he’s mostly making an argument for a symbolic act of class warfare.

What they also don’t point out is that we’re just as likely to have our credit rating downgraded if either of the current proposals passes. Because both Boehner’s and Reid’s plans are so inadequate they don’t represent the kind of real solution to the long term debt problem which international credit agencies are looking for, so they’re really worth nothing at all.

Real Solutions

The reality is that we need to put all this bickering aside and pass a real plan which actually addresses this problem in a substantive way. We’re not getting out of this mess without major cuts and a real cap on spending along with some policy changes which will spur economic growth.

• Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment and cap spending at a level tied to a percentage of GDP like the 18% proposed in the Cap, Cut and Balance pledge. Only by capping future spending can you make long-term cuts offset short term debt increases.

• Make cuts equal to or greater than any increase in the debt limit and make them take effect more quickly so that they reduce debt faster than interest increases it. A minimum of $600 bilion a year for 5 years would be a responsible proposal. And to do this you would need to go beyond the Boehner proposal to go after both military spending and entitlements. Just ending our current foreign deployments would take care of most of these cuts.

• If a tax increase is what it takes to get President Obama on board for real cuts, then let him have an increase of 10% on those earning in the top 1% (over $380 million a year), but offset that increase with a 10% cut in capital gains, which would have a great stimulative effect on the economy.

• Do the only thing which will really spur the economic growth which will get us out of a recession relatively painlessly. Cut corporate taxes. They don’t bring in that much money and that revenue is going down as companies offshore to avoid what is now the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Cut the rate substantially or eliminate all corporate taxes so that they will come to the US as a tax haven instead of fleeing and taking jobs and money out of the country with them. Short of lowering wages – which is not at all popular – cutting taxes on businesses is the easiest way to create jobs and grow the economy.

At this point the melodrama surrounding this issue is becoming embarrassing. Real problems need real solutions, not pandering, fearmongering and passive-aggressive walkouts on negotiations. Boehner, Reid, Geithner and Obama need to start acting like grown-ups, make serious proposals and work out compromises which give up more than either side wants for the good of the people and the nation.

This article appeared previously on Blogcritics Magazine.

When a virtual army of RLC endorsees including Senators Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey and Mike Lee plus Congressmen like Jeff Flake and Ron Paul are all backing something you know it has to be a good idea and an important statement for smaller and more responsible government. While some congressional leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell seem ready to sell out to the Obama administration’s demands for more taxes and spending, responsible leaders with principle are promoting the “Cap, Cut and Balance” pledge.

With the US facing an unavoidable debt crisis, we’re not going to be able to balance the budget and revitalize our economy on the backs of taxpayers or with superficial cuts in a few programs or cuts put off over long periods of time. We need real and substantial cuts now, including an end to our unnecessary wars, restructuring of entitlement programs and a program by program audit of every aspect of the federal government.

Faced with demands to raise the debt limit without implementing needed cuts, fiscal conservatives in Congress are signing the new “Cut, Cap and Balance” pledge which follows the guidelines of the Republican Study Committee and demands real and immediate cuts, enforceable spending caps, and Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

As proposed by the Republican Study Committee, Cut, Cap, and Balance entails:

* Cut – Immediate spending cuts to reduce the deficit by half next year. According to March projections from the Congressional Budget Office, this would require spending cuts of approximately $380 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.
* Cap – Statutory, enforceable caps that bring spending into line with average revenues at 18% of GDP. Reps. Kingston and Mack have each introduced legislation that would ratchet total federal spending down to 18% of GDP over the course of 5-6 years.
* Balance – House and Senate passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that includes a spending cap at 18% of GDP and a supermajority requirement for tax increases. The House Judiciary Committee and all 47 GOP Senators have endorsed Balanced Budget Amendments along these lines.

You can show your support by signing the pledge too at www.cutcapbalancepledge.com.

And please help support our efforts to promote liberty issues and reform the Republican Party by joining the RLC today or by making a donation.

To the dismay of many Texans and of civil libertarians nationwide, after a dramatic struggle this week, the Texas legislature’s special session ended on a sour note with the defeat of Rep. David Simpson’s bill opposing invasive TSA searches of airline passengers.

The failure of the bill was made considerably more bitter by the underhanded tactics by which a tiny faction of the House leadership scuttled the bill against overwhelming support from both parties and the public. With all of the hard work put into promoting the bill by grassroots groups, its defeat under questionable circumstances has redirected anger originally aimed only at the TSA to political leaders in Texas, particularly House Speaker Joe Straus.

The story of how such a widely supported bill could end up not being passed is an object lesson of how easily the will of the people can be subverted by those who value power over principle.

During the regular legislative session Rep. Simpson’s anti-groping bill and it made it through the House of Representatives by unanimous acclamation and made it out of committee and to the floor of the Senate where it was set to pass when the TSA stepped in and lobbied against it and the Department of Justice issued a letter threatening to close Texas airports if it passed, leading Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to apply his influence to get the bill which was minutes from passing pulled from the floor.

As the inevitable special session approached, Senator Dan Patrick and other supporters convinced the governor to come on board and support the bill and agree to sign it if they could get a pledge from a majority of the members of the House and Senate to support it. This would let them fast-track the bill through both houses and to the governor for his signature quickly without unduly delaying other legislation.

They got the votes. They notified the Governor’s office that they had the votes and they asked the Governor to call the bill for the special session. Governor Perry was out of town doing a pre-presidential tour and when confronted by a citizen journalist and asked about the bill he said that he was not aware that the necessary votes had been pledged, but when he returned to Austin on Sunday the 19th of June he did put the bill on the call for Monday the 20th.

Already a week had been wasted, but there was still time to pass the bill. Despite the Governor’s support, after the session began on the 20th the bill was not scheduled for consideration until the Friday the 24th, wasting more precious time. Then, when it was scheduled to be introduced on Friday, House Speaker Joe Straus made a public announcement that he thought the bill was a “publicity stunt” and not serious legislation, sending a clear message to his supporters to oppose it. This despite the fact that he had not voted against it in the regular session.

Nonetheless, a version of the bill was introduced in the House and another in the Senate with wording which had been edited by the Attorney General’s office to reduce the chances of the bill being contested in court and to satisfy complaints from Speaker Straus, but because of wrangling over the language any votes on the bill were delayed until Monday with the session scheduled to end on Wednesday.

With the Speaker apparently unwilling to advance the House version of the bill, desperate supporters in the Senate passed their version through committee and passed it on the floor in a matter of hours and sent it on to the House where the decision was made to use the Senate version as written to avoid the possibility that the Speaker would keep the House version off the floor.

The House session didn’t start until 2pm on Tuesday and when the messenger from the Senate arrived with the bill the Speaker’s office refused to accept the bill and it was kept waiting for several hours. This final delay guaranteed that passage of the bill would be extremely difficult because of Constitutional rules about how bills have to pass the House.

Under the Texas Constitution, for a bill to pass the House it has to be read and voted on three times, on three separate days and win each vote. At the point where the bill finally made it to the floor there was less than 24 hours left before the end of the session on Wednesday, so the only way to pass the bill was to hold a vote to suspend that constitutional rule to allow them to hold two of the three votes on the same day. Although there were plenty of votes in favor of the bill – enough to make up a supermajority – the vote to suspend the Constitutional rule required a 4/5 majority, and that was going to be very difficult.

The bill passed its first reading easily on Tuesday and then passed a second reading on Wednesday morning easily 106-27, but by the time the held a vote on the motion to suspend the constitutional rule some members had left and it passed with a 96-26 majority – an overwhelming vote in support of the bill, but not quite enough to meet the 4/5 requirement. Ironically the previous vote did meet that requirement, but it didn’t apply to that particular motion. At that point the bill which so many supported and which was enormously popular with the public, was dead.

Before adjourning the special session, the Speaker allowed Rep. Simpson to make a final speech about the bill and how the legislative process had failed so dismally. Simpson was not afraid to point fingers, saying:

“The people in support of this bill have succeeded in shining the light on those who collaborate with the growing tyranny of our federal government….Its’ defeat only propels the liberty movement in this state. The people now know that it is possible to fight back.”

His sentiments were echoed by a statement from the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, one of the grassroots groups which had made calls to legislators in support of the bill, which said “We may not have won the final victory today, but we sure flushed out the enemies hiding in the brush.” Another grassroots group, Stop Austin Scanners thought that Governor Perry should share the blame, citing Perry’s “failure to call the bill in a timely manner despite numerous requests to do so, his total lack of stewardship in the process, and Speaker Joe Straus’ willful misconduct are the principal reasons why the legislation was derailed.”

At every step Rep. Simpson and his allies did what was requested by the leadership. They amended the bill. They watered down the language. They even ultimately changed “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion” to give the Feds an easy out. Yet despite promises from Governor Perry, they were met with obstruction and delays from the Speaker at every step of the way. With two weeks to pass the bill they ended up having to try to pass it in two days with a special suspension of the rules requiting an outrageously large majority and creating the ironic outcome that a bill which passed easily with a 4/5 majority in the morning when it didn’t need it could not get that same majority in the afternoon when it did.

The defeat of the bill was not a complete loss.  It raised awareness of the issue substantially and drew attention to the forces opposing it and exposed the heavy-handed tactics of the TSA. There’s also some evidence that Simpson’s bill helped influence the TSA’s recent decision to reduce the intensity of their searches of children, though it did not stop them from carrying out a horrendous and highly publicized abuse of a 95 year old Leukemia patient.

This fight is not over. The issue still draws great public interest and anger at the TSA and its practices has never been higher. Supporters in Texas promise to continue to pursue the issue and legislators in a growing number of additonal states are introducing similar legislation. People don’t like having their privacy invaded and their persons violated in the service of excessive security procedures which have never been proven to be at all effective. The people may have lost this battle, but the war is far from over.

A version of this article appeared previously at Blogcritics Magazine.

After much wrangling over two different versions of the bill and various amendments to the language in committee, it looks like a reasonably effective version of the TSA anti-groping bill is poised to pass the Texas legislature and move on for the Governor’s signature on Wednesday. The most significant change is a downgrading of the level of proof required for a legitimate search from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion” but the basic objective of the bill – to hold TSA employees accountable for their actions – remains intact.

At this point it would still be helpful to make more calls and send more emails to Texas House members. Their have the final say on the bill in a concluding floor vote sometime Wednesday. You can use this handy tool to send an email, or call your representative directly by looking them up on the House website. If you don’t live in Texas just pick one and call to let them know they’re doing this for all of us.

Our friends at StopAustinScanners.org offer a full report on the steps the bill has gone through and its current status:

This evening, Texas Senate Bill 29 (SB 29), which proposes state prosecution and punishment for the offense of official oppression by the intrusive touching–(a euphemism for TSA groping)–of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation and defines criminal penalties for such offenses, was moved out of the House Criminal Jurisprudence committee without amendment by a vote of 7 ayes, 1 nay, 1 not present, with no abstentions.  This puts SB 29 on track for final passage on the House floor tomorrow, Wednesday, June 29th.

Both SB 29 and House Bill 41 (HB 41) were passed in their respective chambers yesterday, although HB 41 was subject to multiple amendments that alarmed true proponents of the legislation.  Upon passage in the House, Robert Kepple, Executive Director, of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, recommended abandoning HB 41 for the judicial problems the amendments introduced.

The principal concerns introduced by the amendments to HB 41 were:

1) lowering the standard by which a pat-down might be permitted from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion”,

2) providing a defense if the “actor” (TSA agent) was performing the search pursuant to an explicit grant of federal statutory authority, which is the case for all TSA agents and renders the legislation effectively meaningless,

and,

3) effectively giving the U.S. Supreme Court ultimate authority in defining the propriety of a search.

Mr. Kepple had testified earlier in the day before the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee in favor of amending a substituted version of SB 29 to eliminate vagueness and firmly structure the legislation as a matter of Texas state law, and make it enforceable to the maximum extent that is “consistent with federal constitutional requirements”.  This was proposed to correct bad language that was snuck into a version of SB 29 substituted in committee by Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa.

The amendments suggested by Mr. Kepple were later adopted in the Senate version, and are believed to legally restrict TSA agents from offensive touching in the same manner that FBI agents and federal Marshalls are now restricted.  It is believed this modification will provide the public a greater measure of protection, and the State of Texas greater standing in future judicial proceedings.

The language that provided the TSA wider lattitude when defending itself from criminal penalties when performing unlawful searches by lowering the standard from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion” is included in SB 29.  Another perceived shortcoming introduced into the bill by amendment allowed grounds for a TSA search to be an “unknown, prohibited or unlawful object”.

While the bill’s proponents strongly objected to this language, wanting the phrase “unknown object” to be stricken, there was general consensus that it would better serve the public good to have slightly flawed statutory law that could be amended as the flaws became more widely known than to have no law at all.

We think the public can now reasonably expect the TSA to use the “unknown object” defense in its vigorous quest to discover all those diaper bombs carried by infants and cancer victims in their last days of life.

The passage of SB 29 in the House Criminal Jurisprudence committee effectively sidelines HB 41, its companion bill, from further consideration, which StopAustinScanners considers to be a major victory.

If you’re a real political action junkie you can watch the final vote live online tomorrow at the Texas House website.

An Open Letter to Governor Rick Perry
Father’s Day, June 19, 2011

The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of the State of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Dear Governor Perry:

If you are willing, there is still time to enact legislation to protect the dignity of travelers in Texas. Egregious intrusive searches without probable cause continue every day by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Texans and indeed Americans around this nation are fed up with this out of control federal bureaucracy that has promulgated practices that violate the 4th Amendment and that treat grandmothers, the handicapped, Iraqi war veterans with prosthetic limbs, boys, girls and infants as criminal suspects—touching their private parts as a condition of travel.

You write in your book, Fed Up, that you want to “help foster a nationwide conversation about the role of government in our lives” (Fed Up, 187). I can think of no role less suitable for our federal government than that of routinely violating innocent citizens of this state and those of the entire country.

Even our state officials are being violated as they travel to conduct the business of this state. I am sure you have heard by now that last Tuesday TSA officials reached up the skirts of Representative Barbara Nash and another female member of the Texas House, touching their privates through their undergarments! And Chairman Barry Smitherman of the Public Utilities Commission told FOX News last Wednesday that he was so aggressively searched that he was “sore” for hours afterward in those same areas. On top of that, the TSA officials acknowledged that they were “punishing” him for opting out of the scanners by going through every item in his carry-on luggage one piece at a time, taking about 40 minutes to do so.

I agree with you that “we have let establishment politicians on both sides of the aisle empower Washington at the expense of states, and thus our liberty” (Fed Up, xviii). Republicans started the TSA and Democrats expanded its reach.
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As a result of aggressive efforts by grassroots groups in Texas, Governor Rick Perry has offered to put Rep. David Simpson’s TSA anti-groping bill on the agenda for the upcoming legislative special session which starts this coming week if certain conditions are met. Although threats from the Justice Department and the TSA temporarily stymied bill sponsors in the state Senate after it passed the House with an overwhelming majority, they are now ready to put it through both houses in the special session where rules require only a simple majority of both houses for passage. Governor Perry has promised to put the bill on the agenda if there is a guaranteed majority supporting it in both houses and to sign the bill if it passes. A good summary of the situation can be found in the Washington Times.

Simpson’s HB 1937 (now SB29 and HB41) would make it a felony for TSA agents operating in Texas to engage in certain forms of intimate touching during the course of an “enhanced pat down” of an airline passenger. If a complaint were made against TSA personnel they could be arrested and charged by local law enforcement. As Simpson describes it, “All that HB 1937 does is require that the TSA abide by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution. We aren‘t even prohibiting the pat-downs, per se. We‘re just saying you can‘t go straight to third base. You have to have a reason — you have to have probable cause — before groping someone‘s sexual organs.”

The fight isn’t won yet! Although there is still a clear majority of support for the bill in the Texas House, the margin remains very close in the Senate and Governor Perry’s support of the bill is contingent on having a majority in both houses so that it will pass with minimal additional debate or disruption of the very busy special session. Perry is waffling and claims that there is not enough time to address the bill and needs to be reminded that the support is strong and that it must be put on the agenda for this week.

In order to make that happen the RLC of Texas and Stop Austin Scanners are urging concerned citizens to call Governor Perry (he’s apparently not reading emails) and call or email key state Senators to urge them to be part of the majority supporting this legislation.

Governor Perry can be reached to leave a message with his staff at 512-463-2000. Leave a voicemail on the weekend or talk to a person on Monday. Urge him to put the anti-groping bill on the special session agenda.

Rep. David Simpson recommends putting pressure on five key Republican state Senators. They are: Sen. Craig Estes (craig.estes@senate.state.tx.us 512-463-0130), Sen. Bob Deuell (bob.deuell@senate.state.tx.us 512-463-0102), Se. Robert Duncan (robert.duncan@senate.state.tx.us 512-463-0128), Sen. Kel Seliger (kel.seliger@senate.state.tx.us 512-463-0131) and Sen. Jeff Wentworth (jeff.wentworth@senate.state.tx.us 512-463-0125). Tell them you want Texans to be protected from federal violations of their Fourth Amendment rights.

Republican Liberty Caucus chapters are working to promote similar legislation in a number of states, including New Hampshire, Utah, Alaska, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Check with your local chapter for more information.

The RLC of Central Texas will be meeting on Friday, April 8th at 7pm at Big Daddy’s Burgers and Bar at the corner of Burnet Road and Research Boulevard in the Crossroads Shopping Center.

This meeting will feature a showing of the new movie “Guns and Weed: The Road to Freedom” which was produced by the RLC’s state coordinator for Wyoming and a prominent UT graduate and emerging media personality. Check out the preview below.

We expect a large turnout, so come early to get a seat. Food and drink will be available including some killer burgers. Admission is free and all are welcome.