I know the bill was a sham, despite it's name and its promise to hold congresses feet to the fire when it comes to passing a budget that would have avoiding this whole shutdown debacle, the act has no teeth. The net effect of it is that their pay is held in escrow until such a time as a resolution is passed that funds the government for 2014. With no real stipulation that it needs to be a complete budget, so they could even claim that the resolution allow active military to get paid will suffice. My attempt was to get an explanation in the fullest from Rep. Braley's office on how they can pass a bill with such a misleading name and how he can justify voting for it. The explanation to which I will gladly share once it comes in.On open letter to Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA)
Greetings,
I would first like to start off by thanking you, your vote on H.J Resolution 73 for continuing authorization for the National Institute of Health was a bold move for you by not allowing these political games to get in the way of what is right for the country. It took some courage for you to break ranks of 85 the percent of the Democratic caucus that voted against this bill and I wanted to let you know that I appreciate it.
My question for you today, however, is one concerning the enforcement of a current law that is on the books, specifically, the 'No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013'. Signed into law on February 4th of this year. As I'm sure you are aware, this act was intended to put Congress on notice to pass a budget for fiscal year 2014, which began last week, or suffer the self imposed consequence of going without pay.
Did I miss an aspect of this bill? Did congress somehow fulfill it's end of this bill's deal to pass a budget for fiscal year 2014 without actually passing a budget? All I hear in the news today is how congress is one of the few entities that is truly exempt from furloughs and cuts during the federal shutdown. Or is there an aspect of this law that renders is toothless and a congressional gimmick that was never really intended to hold congress accountable for failing to keep the government moving along?
On the topic of keeping the government operating, any further insight that you can offer me, as a constituent, as to the current climate in the House of Representatives and what your plan is to help bring this current locking of horns in congress to an end.
For my part, I feel that too many debt deals and temporary. Solutions have been used to kick the can of our fiscal spending down the road. With the understanding that any form of a grand bargain is not practical both from a time constraint point of view and an ability to enforce any agreement long term, I personally feel that there are too many dangerous 'land mines' in our current system that need to be addressed to avoid a long term dilemma. I will not spend the time going down the list of arguments against the American Care Act as I'm sure you have heard them all before, but suffice to say that I feel that program will not be soluble long term and major steps need to be taken to correct some of the obvious errors that where written into it. To this end, I would ask of you, as my representative, to vote against any legislation and forces the enforcement of this law on to any unwilling citizen for at least the duration of one year, and to use that time to debate in honesty a plan to correct the many issues with this legislation.
I appreciate your fair representation you have given us to date, and pray that a fair resolution to the current embattlement can be reached. I also thank you and your staff for your service and would appreciate an email response to my concerns above, thank you.
~Chris
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