Luetkemeyer Calls on Pelosi, Hoyer to Keep Politics Out of Defense Appropriation Bill
Luetkemeyer Calls
on Pelosi, Hoyer to Keep Politics Out of Defense Appropriation Bill
WASHINGTON,
D.C. – U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) and fellow lawmakers are again
calling on House Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer to avoid partisan tactics
and allow the House to pass funding for our troops without attaching burdensome,
divisive and unrelated measures.
After allowing
controversial hate-crime legislation to be attached to previous defense funding
legislation, there are now reports that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer
plan to attach the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act (H.R. 157) to
the fiscal year 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.
“Members from
both sides of the aisle have concerns about H.R. 157 that deserve an open,
transparent debate. Inclusion of H.R. 157 in the Department of Defense
Appropriations Act would severely limit this necessary discussion and ignores
the valid constitutional questions surrounding this legislation, including
serious concerns that many Members of the House have regarding D.C. residents’
Second Amendment rights. We believe that separate deliberation on H.R. 157
would be most consistent with your promise to ‘create the most honest, most
open, and most ethical Congress in history,’ and urge you to resist any call to
include H.R. 157 in any legislation coming out of a Conference Committee,”
Luetkemeyer and his colleagues wrote in a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Majority
Leader Hoyer.
Luetkemeyer
said that the heavy-handed tactics being used by House leadership is reckless by
placing political considerations ahead of our troops.
“It is reckless for
the Majority Leadership in Congress to continue using bi-partisan legislation
meant to support our troops as a means to pass controversial legislation,”
Luetkemeyer said. “With our country engaged in two wars, it is time to put
partisan politics aside and pass legislation that gives our fighting men and the
women the tools to complete their mission and safely return home.”
