If liberals thought the debate over military sex changes was over, they underestimated the American people! Even Republicans have been stunned by the level of outrage over the policy, which has been lighting up phones on Capitol Hill since last Friday, when 23 GOP members agreed that $3.7 billion in transgender “treatment” was a valid use of taxpayer dollars. Those Republicans are almost certainly having second thoughts now, after hearing from their constituents, who can’t believe the GOP is letting Obama’s radicalism continue to dictate military policy!

For conservatives like Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), who’s led the charge against this dangerous distraction, the grassroots pushback is giving them all the motivation they need to keep fighting. Re-energized by the outpouring of support, she and members like Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), and Mark Meadows (R-NC) are more determined than ever to protect the military from an agenda that’s not only jeopardizing the future of national security, but compromising its present. “Steps must be taken to address this misuse of our precious defense dollars,” Hartzler told her colleagues in the lead-up to next week’s appropriations debate. “This policy hurts our military’s readiness and will take over a billion dollars from the Department of Defense’s budget. This is still an important issue that needs to be addressed.”

With the defense appropriations bill on deck for debate, Republicans are already warning the Pentagon that they aren’t going to approve the bump in spending — not if the administration is willing to spend billions on treatments for people who shouldn’t be serving in the first place! As someone who understands the problem firsthand, Congressman (and Brigadier General) Perry explained to me on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch” just how backwards the policy is. In his own district, he says, he couldn’t believe the military would welcome the gender-confused while it turns away solid recruits like this young man:

[He’s] the kind of person you want carrying the squad automatic weapon (and guys who patrol will know what I’m talking about). Just desperate to serve his country in uniform — but has a very mild peanut allergy. He’s barred from enlisting. He cannot join. And I juxtapose that situation — this man wants to fight for his country and secure our freedom and liberty, and he’s not allowed to join. We can’t fix the broken backs of Special Forces soldiers at the VA… but somehow, we’re going to spend $3.5 billion for people to have their sex reassignment in the military, be off the job for a couple hundred days, not deployable, while they convalesce after the surgery. And then they require drugs, hormones, etc. if they do deploy — yet this young man who wants to join but has a peanut allergy and might need something as simple as an [EpiPen] or anti-inflammatory, he can’t join… This doesn’t lead to readiness or enhanced strength, and I don’t know how you can make an argument that it does.

Like some of his House colleagues, he’s amazed the GOP would go along with an agenda that makes special accommodations for unstable people like Chelsea Manning. “I don’t know what party I belong to when Republicans are in control of the House. We decide what gets put on the floor, and we don’t have the votes to pass an amendment in the House… To me, it’s very, very disappointing. We dealt with this kind of attitude for eight years under a president that I think was very counterproductive to national security in the military, and I think most of us thought when his term is over, that kind of attitude was over. But unfortunately, we’re fighting that fight among our own and that’s disappointing to say the least.”

After a rocky week with constituents, maybe some of the 23 Republicans have learned their lesson. When Vicky’s amendment to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to gender-reassignment failed, the GOP “spent a good chunk of a closed-door Republican conference meeting harping about what happened.” The outcome this time around, Politico speculates, might be far different. “The federal government has no business paying for that procedure. A lot of us feel very strongly about that and we want to have a chance to have that in the bill,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) insisted. If that means a blockade of the increased funding for defense, so be it.

President Obama is gone. It’s time his extremism is too. Call your House member today at 202-224-3121 or email them here! Tell them to oppose the Make America Secure Act until the president makes our military sound.

Originally published here

DOJ’s Sessions Saves FACE

When did it become news for a government agency to enforce the law? I suppose after eight years of an Obama administration that didn’t. In less than six months at the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions probably didn’t think he’d make headlines for doing his job. But that’s what happens after two terms of lawlessness and an administration that was bent on writing the rules as it went. Now, settled into his new office as America’s top law enforcer, the media can’t help but notice how different things are.

Unlike Obama, President Trump doesn’t believe in ignoring laws that aren’t politically convenient. The same goes for Jeff Sessions. When 10 pro-lifers were charged for protesting outside of an abortion clinic in Kentucky, he may not have agreed with the buffer zone rules, but that doesn’t mean he won’t uphold them. And earlier this week, that’s exactly what Justice officials did.

The Washington Post was one of several media outlets taken aback by Sessions’s ability to put his duty above his personal beliefs. When the government’s lawyers sided with the court on the 10-foot “bubble,” liberals were surprised. Surely Sessions, like his predecessor, would use his power to further his pro-life agenda. But, in the latest evidence that this isn’t Obama’s Washington, the attorney general did what he promised in his confirmation hearings and enforced the legislation on the books. After all, as a former senator, Sessions knows better than anyone that if people don’t like the law, it’s up to Congress — not the executive branch — to change it.

Of course, the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act also applies to religious institutions. Like abortion clinics, churches are also protected from protestors who might interrupt worship services or cause a disturbance. Unfortunately for Christians, that side of the policy has been rarely enforced. But liberals shouldn’t be surprised if that changes now that Sessions has established that he’ll impartially apply the law. And in a country increasingly hostile to religion, that’s exactly the neutrality Americans have been waiting for.

Originally published here

Dems Can’t Beat Around John Bush

If you thought your to-do list was long, you should see the U.S. Senate’s. Bogged down by health care, confirmations, and a basket of looming spending bills, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had no choice but to extend the chamber’s working hours. Now, a lot of that persistence is paying off — despite the Democrats’ efforts to derail the Senate’s business.

Thursday, GOP leaders won a major victory when it confirmed John K. Bush to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. His lifetime appointment was cheered by conservatives, who’ve now seen four of President Trump’s originalists take a seat on American benches. Despite the Left’s name-calling (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, called Bush a “freak” for his pro-life, pro-marriage views), McConnell plowed ahead, aggressively fighting to add another nominee to the appellate courts. A fellow Kentuckian, the majority leader praised the Louisville attorney as “a man of integrity and considerable ability.”

But Bush, who was grilled by the Left for conservative posts he wrote under a pseudonym, had McConnell’s backing from Day One. “Mr. Bush, as we all do, has his own personal views about politics, which he enjoys discussing… But this has not diminished the professional esteem in which his colleagues hold him … nor their firm belief that he will follow the law.”

Fifty-one Republicans agreed, voting this week to add to the administration’s list of strong nominees. Meanwhile, the spirit of cooperation isn’t exactly catching on in the Democratic Party. Its obstruction is almost an art form, as 25 of Trump’s judicial nominees sit waiting for the home-state senators to give the go-ahead. As The Washington Times points out, most of the president’s picks have been held up “because Democrats haven’t returned blue slips signing off on the nominees. Traditionally, home-state senators return blue slips for nominees from their states if they approve of the pick. But the top Democrat on the Judicial Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said her party isn’t abusing the blue slip tradition, but is ‘doing … due diligence in reviewing these nominees.’” Thank goodness Mitch McConnell is also doing his and refusing to back down on qualified men and women who deserve the Senate’s support!

Originally published here

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.