What is the 119th House Doing First?

They got Mike over the line on Friday, albeit early signs indicate it won’t be so easy going forward as the Speakership vote is the easiest vote. Yesterday was certification of the Orange Menace.

They have 12 bills cued up. Hat tip to Daniel Schuman of GovTrack, THE source for legislation. His full post is here, and these are the bills:

• For compliance with “title IX” in athletics, to define sex based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth (a version passed in 2023)

• To take into custody non-citizens who have been charged with theft.

• To make sex offenses and domestic violence deportable offenses (a version passed in 2024)

• To make the assault of a law enforcement officer a deportable offense (a version passed in 2023)

• To withhold federal funding that goes to “sanctuary cities” to benefit undocumented immigrants (a version passed in 2024)

• New criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing Federal officer while operating a motor vehicle (a version passed in 2024)

• To prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion (a version passed in 2023)

• To sanction the International Criminal Court for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or if it investigates, arrests, detains, or prosecutes any American or ally of the United States. (a version passed in 2024)

• A likely-bipartisan bill to fix double-taxation of residents of Taiwan who pay U.S. taxes

• To require proof of United States citizenship to register and to vote (a version passed in 2024)

• To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl (a version passed in 2023)

• To prohibit a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing (a version passed in 2024)

There is a high probability that these bills will pass the House, and then the Senate. That’s because these are all MAGA objectives, and there is no money specifically involved¹. Some of it is pure idiocy. For example, it’s already against the law to register to vote, or to vote, if one is not a citizen. Then, there’s no standing to sanction the International Criminal Court, since the US is not a party to it.

The Title IX bill was anticipated, and will end up being litigated, along with the current Title IX cases in the pipeline. This is sadly, but expectedly, just the tip of the iceberg of trans discrimination legislation.

The Sanctuary City legislation will also end up in court, if and only if, those mayors and governors responsible for the local ordinances decide to show balls and backbones. If they capitulate, it’s all over. If you read the bill (link in the bullet point) you’ll see this salient point:

[A] sanctuary jurisdiction is ineligible to receive any Federal funds that the sanctuary jurisdiction intends to use for the benefit (including the provision of food, shelter, healthcare services, legal services, and transportation) of aliens who are present in the United States without lawful status.

That means school lunches and breakfasts. In Philadelphia, ALL kids get free breakfasts and lunches, and have for the past decade. It was cheaper to hand out the food than process the paperwork, and the paperwork was often impossible to fill out for many parents. That first undocumented child who eats a carrot places the City in violation.

It also means emergency medical care². List goes on. Remember that cruelty is a feature not a bug of the Rethuglican Party.

And then, fracking will return. Fracking is terrible for the environment. It’s also terrible for things like childhood leukemia, and early deaths for seniors. Link.

Yes, this is all terrible. You have two choices.

YES YOU!

You can be upset and dismayed. Or you can take action. Will taking action work? Maybe yes, maybe no, but the importance is in TAKING action.

In medicine, when we evaluate a patient, we arrive at a diagnosis, and then we look at the potential treatment plans, and pick one. Will it work? We always pick the best possible treatment plan, and we have some level of confidence in the outcome³. Nothing is 100% guaranteed, still, we treat.

Action Items

There are several types of actions for 2025⁴. One is contacting elected officials. CONSTANTLY. If they hear no objection from their constituents, there is no threat to them⁵. PLEASE take action as often as you can. It takes 3 weeks to solidify a habit, and communicating with your elected officials should become a habit. Like brushing your teeth.

1. Go on the record opposing these bills. Use the links to get the bill numbers, and pick one or two that you feel strongest about, and contact your Member of the House, and your Senators. Use Resistbot, mail a postcard⁶, or call their offices. If you feel strongly about multiple bills, call daily (a bill a day).

2. Tell everyone you know what’s upcoming and ask them to contact their reps also. The more people who make their voices heard, the better the chances of a positive outcome. I know what you’re thinking: there are a lot of elected officials who are wedded to their positions and couldn’t care less what their constituents say. But involving those people (“those people”, your friends, family and neighbors, are VOTERS) on issues is a path to getting them to vote the bad people out. Elections have consequences.

1. The big battles will come regarding whether the border is tackled first, or overall appropriations, or whether both go in an massive reconciliation bill.

2. This is personally painful to me. While I retired from practice, I took an oath, and like all doctors, nurses, EMTs, etc., it’s inculcated to render emergency care, completely independent of immigration status, or any other status. That patient in front of you is a HUMAN BEING and we are obligated to render aid.

3. Some diagnoses are easy, and there is a high level of confidence that things will resolve: for example, if there is a simple fracture, we set the bone. Sometimes, the outcome is less certain, like when an operation is called for to remove bullets and fragments. We don’t know precisely what we’ll find once we go in, but we try because most often, removing bullets is a good treatment plan, even if some fragments are located in places from which they cannot be removed. Point is: we do the best we can given what we know, independent of the outcome.

4. Others are covered in later posts, starting with “What will Replace Canvassing” this Thursday.

5. Yes, for most elected officials, at all levels, the “threat” is for a primary challenge, not a general election challenge. BUT there are still competitive general election races - these are the ones cited for 2024, and the outcome of many of the toss-ups were incredibly close.

6. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but avoid sending letters. Envelopes need to be opened by gloved people wearing masks, because of the threat of anthrax and other powdered nasties. Letters often end up in a box “to be opened”, whereas post cards are read more quickly.