EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
 105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
E-mail


November 19, 2004
 

The Civics bill that will not die

 We face one final hurdle to stopping the New Civics Bill, H.R. 5360, in the lame duck session that will end over the weekend.

The New Civics bill was successfully kept off of the "suspension calendar" yesterday in the House. (See our alerts.) House rules allow votes on the suspension calendar on only Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Unfortunately, plans are afoot to change the rules today to allow opportunity to pass more bills on the suspension calendar. If that happens,  H.R. 5360 would likely come up for a vote and pass, after thousands of people across the country have been calling and faxing in against it continuously since Tuesday when it appeared!

Bills on the suspension calendar bypass committee hearings and committee votes. They are defined as non-controversial bills, and no amendments are allowed. If no member requests a roll call vote, it passes on a routine voice vote, though a 2/3 majority is required.

Changing the rules in the last hours of this session would allow this terrible legislation to slip through the U.S. Congress like a shadow in the night. We must not allow this to happen! You can make the difference if you make your final calls today. It is so very important!

PLEASE CALL or FAX THE HOUSE LEADERSHIP IMMEDIATELY:

  • Tell them to not to pass any more legislation on the suspension calendar.
  • By extending the suspension calendar rules, they would be bypassing the legislative process for the proper consideration of laws.
  • By allowing a vote on the New Civics, House leadership (listed below) would be ignoring the ten members who removed themselves as co-sponsors of H.R. 1078, the mother of H.R. 5360.
  • By allowing a vote on the New Civics H.R. 5360, House leadership would be ignoring the base of their voting constituency who will consider themselves betrayed.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert 202-225-2976
FAX: 202- 225-0697

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay     202-225-5951
FAX: 202- 226-5241

Majority Whip Roy Blunt   202 - 225-0197
FAX: 202- 226-1115

PLEASE ALSO CALL OR FAX YOUR OWN HOUSE MEMBER OF CONGRESS: Their contact information is listed here.

  • Ask them to urge House leadership not to pass any more legislation on the suspension calendar.
  • Give the same message as listed above for the House leadership.

Thank you for making this final effort to protect our country from unconstitutional federal academies that will teach American students and teachers from every state the anti-American Federal Curriculum in history and civics. One small action today may have a profound influence on the direction of our country far into the future.