Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), the ranking member on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, issued a little noticed press release last Thursday that shows just how corrupt the Democrat Party has become.
Lucas, joined by Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), accused House Democratic leadership of “stripping bipartisan NASA policy from H.R. 5746 and replacing it with” H.R. 1, the federal election takeover they are so desperate to pass.
According to the press release:
H.R. 5746, the NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Act, was originally a bipartisan bill to extend NASA’s authority to lease idle or underutilized property to the private sector, state and local governments, and academic institutions. The money NASA receives in return can then be used to offset spending for facilities maintenance and property improvements. Under this program, the commercial space industry benefits from access to NASA facilities, and taxpayers benefit from the revenue these leases bring in to offset NASA’s costs. In 2022, NASA expects to collect $14 million in net revenue from enhanced use leases. The House passed a clean ten-year extension of the bill in December. The program expired at the end of 2021 and without a legislative extension, NASA’s ability to enter new leases will be delayed.
“The majority has taken a practical, bipartisan bill and gutted it, inserting 735 pages of unrelated legislation and forcing the House to vote on it barely 12 hours after the text was released,” Lucas said in a press release. “Democratic leadership not only withheld the text of this bill, but they deliberately kept even the subject a secret until the last possible moment. Good policy doesn’t require secrecy and schemes. This is no way to govern. What’s more, by stripping this NASA bill and replacing it with an attempt to impose federal control of elections, they have killed our only vehicle to extend NASA’s authority to lease out underutilized property and save taxpayer money.”
Rep. Babin said in a statement, “I am outraged because the Democrats have made a mockery of bipartisan collaboration for cheap political gain. A few hours ago, H.R. 5746 was the NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act, a simple three-page bill that was good for NASA, good for our space industry, and good for our taxpayers, a bill that I was very proud to cosponsor.“
“Now, in the dark of night,” he explained, “this bill has been hijacked and mutilated to become the latest iteration of the Democrats’ federal takeover of our election system – a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In fact, the only thing left from this original bill is its number. What’s worse, I can’t even remove my name as a cosponsor. This is no way to govern. Democrats are trying to sell the American people a bill of goods, and I will not support it.”
Rep. Kim weighed in as well. “The NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act was a noncontroversial bill to support the public and private sectors of our space industry. Senate Democrats and Speaker Pelosi hijacked a bipartisan, good-faith effort to support space innovation to move forward with their partisan agenda to take control of elections from state and local officials and give it to Washington politicians. Speaker Pelosi is again undermining good government to ram through her partisan agenda in the dark of night. I came to Congress to fight for commonsense solutions that help the American people. I cannot support the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5746, that is nothing more than a partisan power grab, undermining our elections.”
A very angry Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) posted a video to her Facebook page on Thursday after the “NASA bill” had passed the House along party lines.
I can’t say I’m surprised that Democratic leaders would stoop to such dishonesty. After all, morally bankrupt Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to put immigration reform into a reconciliation bill – twice. Thank goodness the Senate Parliamentarian called them out on it – twice.
Additionally, at 3:30 a.m. last August, following 15 hours of amendment votes on the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill, Schumer tried to force a vote on the For the People Act by unanimous consent. (I posted about this here.)
Nice try, Chuck.
Immediately, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas took to the Senate floor to deliver precisely the smackdown that Schumer deserved.
FOR THE PEOPLE ACT: In the dead of night, Sen. @tedcruz successfully blocked Democrats’ For the People Act from passing in the Senate. pic.twitter.com/XeWRux2YXf
— Forbes (@Forbes) August 11, 2021
Still, it’s pretty pathetic that elected public officials in the United States have reached this level of corruption. Do they think Americans don’t see this? President Biden’s plunging job approval numbers suggest that many do.
One would think by now Democrats would grasp the fact that the majority of Americans oppose both their radical agenda and the unscrupulous, coercive tactics they’ve used to try to pass it.
The Democratic base may approve of these banana republic strategies, but Independents, the voters who decide elections, certainly don’t.
Democrats know their days are numbered. But desperate people take desperate actions. Painfully aware of the impending rout in November, we can expect these unethical, fascistic maneuvers to keep on coming.
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We need to pull out all the stops on this one.
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