Support of Bladensburg Veterans Memorial

by: Family Research Council

Washington, D.C. - February 26, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- On Wednesday, February 27, Alexandra McPhee, FRC's Director of Religious Freedom Advocacy, and an author of our amicus brief in the case, will give her reaction to the oral arguments in American Legion v. American Humanist Association. She will be available for comment on the steps of the Supreme Court immediately following the arguments in the case, which concerns the future of a historic cross-shaped veterans memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland.

Alexandra McPhee, FRC's Director of Religious Freedom Advocacy, made the following comments:

“Across the nation, monuments depicting religious imagery are being challenged by groups arguing that having these monuments on public property constitutes government establishment of a religion, even though these monuments are often greatly important to the local community. The Supreme Court’s decision in this case could have reverberating effects on whether religiously themed monuments may be maintained on government land anywhere.

“To find a display or memorial unconstitutional for its religious inspiration alone shortchanges a community’s history and culture. It also neglects the important role of religion in our public life. The Peace Cross, for instance, serves as a reminder to residents and visitors of the surrounding Bladensburg community that freedom has been bought with the lives of our loved ones. How can it be unconstitutional for the government to preserve that memory when it was the very same government that asked those loved ones to die for their country?” concluded McPhee.

WHO: Alexandra McPhee, Director of Religious Freedom Advocacy, Family Research Council

WHAT: Reactions to the oral arguments in the Bladensburg Cross Case

WHERE: Supreme Court of the United States, 1 First St NE, Washington, DC 20543

WHEN: Wednesday, February 27, 2019, immediately following oral arguments (approximately 11:30 am Eastern)

T-Mobile Feels Heat on Jobs-Related Concerns, Lashes Out with Unsubstantiated and Hypocritical Attacks

by: Communication Workers of America

Washington, D.C. - February 26, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- With a growing number of elected officials and regulators expressing concerns about the jobs-related effects of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger, T-Mobile executives are clearly feeling the heat and starting to worry. How else to explain their ramped-up attempts to attack CWA’s credibility on jobs?

This week, Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile’s senior vice president for government affairs, told Communications Daily that CWA has “no credibility” on jobs - an inaccurate and wildly hypocritical assertion in light of T-Mobile’s real record on jobs and the job-killing impact of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

CWA’s comprehensive economic analysis shows that the merger will result the loss of 30,000 U.S. jobs—25,500 from the closure of overlapping retail stores and 4,500 at headquarters. New Street Research, an independent telecommunications and technology research firm which has been supportive of the merger, has estimated similar losses.

Ham’s comments come after T-Mobile CEO and President John Legere faced tough questioning during a hearing last week before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. T-Mobile is making a desperate attempt to obscure the job-killing impact of the merger by pledging to open customer experience centers if the merger proceeds—but the jobs pledge is filled with loopholes and would not come close to offsetting the 30,000 jobs that would be lost due to the merger. As CWA President Chris Shelton noted at the hearing, “trusting Sprint and T-Mobile with American jobs is like trusting a vampire at a blood bank.”

According to CWA President Chris Shelton, “T-Mobile is clearly feeling the heat on jobs-related concerns about the merger and is lashing out in a manner that is wildly disingenuous and incredibly hypocritical. T-Mobile has one of the worst records on workers’ rights issues in corporate America and the company has yet to explain why our analysis is incorrect. Just look at the store location maps. In many areas T-Mobile and Sprint stores practically sit on top of each other. They are going to close those stores to create “synergy” for their investors. We know what synergy means—pink slips for working people and more money for the German government, which owns T-Mobile, and Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, who owns Sprint.”

Club for Growth Supports Neomi Rao’s Confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals

by: Club for Growth

Washington, D.C. - February 26, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- Club for Growth President David McIntosh provided the following statement offering his support for Neomi Rao, President Trump’s nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals:

“I have known Neomi for decades and have no doubt that she will be a principled jurist, cut from the same cloth as Justices Scalia and Thomas,” stated Club for Growth President David McIntosh.

“Not only is she eminently qualified for the position, she possesses an extensive knowledge of administrative rulemaking given her most recent time as the Director of President Trump’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House. Furthermore, the decades I have spent working with her on separation-of-powers issues demonstrate that she is an originalist who is faithful to the Constitution. Senate Republicans should not be thrown off track by rumors and innuendo, and instead should stand behind President Trump in support of this nominee. The Senate should move swiftly to confirm her.”

CVT Asks Kids “Should we help asylum seekers?” In New Digital Ad

by Center for Victims of Torture

St. Paul, MN - February 26, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- A new digital ad from the Center for Victims of TortureTM (CVT) strips away the rhetoric surrounding asylum and features children answering a simple but powerful question: Should we help asylum seekers?

Created and written by CVT and produced by Emergence Pictures, Inc., the ad is running until June on Facebook and will also be posted to CVT’s Twitter and Instagram platforms. The children in the ad are not actors, had no prior knowledge of what they would be asked and did not work from a script. The ad captures their genuine responses to a question many adults struggle to answer in this day and age. CVT’s ad is intended to challenge viewers to rethink preconceived notions about asylum seekers.

“The right to seek asylum is not complicated, but the politics surrounding it can be, as we’re reminded with each new attempt by this administration to weaken or shut down the U.S. asylum system,” said Curt Goering, CVT’s executive director. “Our new ad was created to get to the heart of why people seek asylum: safety. We know that as many as 44 percent of refugees, asylees and asylum-seekers living in the United States are torture survivors, and safety is paramount to healing. The straightforward, unbiased and un-coached responses from the children in our ad represent the very essence of our message: Asylum seekers need our help. We should help them. Period.

“For more than 33 years, CVT has rebuilt the lives and restored the hope of tens of thousands of refugee and asylum-seeking torture survivors and their families, and we have had the honor to witness remarkable healing among our clients when access to safety and rehabilitative care is available. We have also seen the heartbreaking results of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of what it means to seek asylum. CVT has and will continue to educate about refugee and asylum issues and to dispel the myths about who refugees and asylum seekers really are. This ad is just one example of CVT striving to engage as many people as possible in order to dispel these myths.”

The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization headquartered in St. Paul, MN, with offices in Atlanta, GA, and Washington, D.C.; and healing initiatives in Africa and the Middle East.

BPC Launches New Initiative to Develop Long-Term Solutions to Funding Federal Infrastructure Needs

By Bipartisan Policy Center

The Bipartisan Policy Center today announced that former Reps. Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Joe Crowley (D-NY) will lead a new Great American Rebuild Initiative to identify long-term mechanisms to finance the Highway Trust Fund. Their work will focus on developing potential long-term solutions to fully fund America’s critical infrastructure programs, up to and including ending the federal government’s reliance on the gas tax.

Under their leadership, the initiative will conduct a comprehensive review of potential revenue sources and develop recommendations to improve and sustainably fund trust fund programs. This effort aims to offer solutions that are practical, politically viable, and bipartisan.

Without new revenue sources, maintaining current spending levels will require an average bailout of general revenues of $20 billion per year. However, with increasing pressure on the federal budget—projections show federal deficits surpassing $1 trillion in 2019—forward movement on an infrastructure bill demands new, collective thinking on sustainable revenues.

“With the greater adoption of electric vehicles and more efficient gas-powered vehicles, the gas tax is increasingly untenable as a long-term funding source. Even if the gas tax were raised by 20 cents per gallon, as some interest groups suggested, Washington would still face a long-term funding crisis. Congress can no longer avoid a comprehensive examination of the federal role in funding our nation’s transportation infrastructure and the best means to meet those obligations,” said Shuster, the former chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The launch of the Great American Rebuild Initiative comes ahead of the expiration of the FAST Act, which authorizes federal spending on roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure, on September 30, 2020. In addition, the Highway Trust Fund balance will approach zero in fiscal year 2021.
“There is bipartisan agreement that infrastructure needs to be addressed, but no consensus on how to pay for those essential upgrades. Now is the time to come together and forge a new path forward to ensure our infrastructure can meet the needs of our economy,” said Crowley, a former member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

BPC’s Infrastructure Work
The Bipartisan Policy Center has played an integral role in infrastructure policy circles for over a decade with its leadership of several key infrastructure projects, including the Executive Council on Infrastructure and the National Transportation Policy Project.

Supreme Court rejects abortion groups’ attack on Texas Catholic bishops

by Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Washington, D.C. - February 26, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by abortion groups to pry into Texas Catholic bishops’ private discussions about religious doctrine. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, several abortion advocates targeted and subpoenaed Texas’ Catholic bishops to demand their internal deliberations regarding abortion. Last year, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected the surveillance attempt as intimidation and an invasion of the church’s right to privacy. Today’s Supreme Court ruling finally puts an end to the abortion group’s intrusion efforts.

In 2016, Whole Woman’s Health, a Texas-based abortion facility chain, sued over a state law that would require hospitals and abortion facilities to dispose of aborted human remains by burial or cremation, rather than in a landfill or the sewer, as is currently allowed. Because of the Catholic Church’s pro-life stance, the Texas Catholic Church’s leadership––the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops––acted according to its faith and offered to provide burials to all unborn children who were aborted. Although the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops was not part of that lawsuit, last year the abortion groups retaliated against the bishops by subpoenaing decades of internal religious deliberations among the bishops regarding abortion.

“Thank goodness the Supreme Court saw this appeal for what it was: a nasty attempt to intimidate the bishops and force them to withdraw their offer to bury every child aborted in Texas,” said Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “Abortion groups may think the bishops ‘troublesome,’ but it is wrong to weaponize the law to stop the bishops from standing up for their beliefs.”

Last June, a trial judge ordered the bishops to hand over their internal communications about abortion to Whole Woman’s Health—even though they had already provided 4,000 pages of external communications. The bishops appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted them permanent protection from the order. The court ruled that the bishops’ claims “go to the heart of the constitutional protection of religious belief and practice as well as citizens’ right to advocate sensitive policies in the public square.” Whole Woman’s Health asked the full Fifth Circuit to rehear the case. The full court rejected their request. They then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which today also rejected the group’s bid.

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops is also represented by Steven Levatino and Andrew McRae of Levatino | Pace PLLC in Austin, Texas.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, contact Melinda Skea at media@becketlaw.org or 202-349-7224. Interviews can be arranged in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Becket is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions and has a 100% win-rate before the United States Supreme Court. For over 20 years, it has successfully defended clients of all faiths, including Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians

Bipartisan LEGION Act introduced in the Senate

By The American Legion

Washington, D.C. - February 23, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- A bill expanding membership eligibility for the American Legion was filed last week in the Senate. The Let Everyone Get Involved in Opportunities for National Service Act — also known as the LEGION Act — is a bipartisan effort introduced by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and co-sponsored by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Because the American Legion’s membership periods are congressionally chartered, the organization is prevented from expanding membership eligibility without an act of Congress. The act expands membership eligibility to honorably discharged veterans who have served in unrecognized times of war since World War II.

“Nearly 1,600 brave American men and women were killed or wounded since World War II, while defending our nation during times not officially recognized as periods of war by the U.S. government,” American Legion National Commander Brett P. Reistad said. “These veterans are unable to receive some of the benefits and recognition available to their counterparts who served during official wartime periods.

“Because The American Legion is congressionally chartered, we are unable to welcome many of these veterans as members of the nation’s largest veterans organization. It is fitting that during the 100th anniversary of the founding of The American Legion, Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Thom Tillis are introducing the LEGION Act, bipartisan legislation that will recognize all veterans who served honorably since the start of World War II, while also fostering growth within the veteran community. Moreover, we salute Sen. Sinema for making this the first bill that she has introduced as a newly elected U.S. senator. We hope that the American people will encourage all members of Congress to support the LEGION Act. It is an appropriate ‘thank you’ to those who served.”

“The American Legion provides critical resources to our veterans, but currently, only veterans who served during formally recognized conflicts can belong to the Legion,” said Sinema, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “That restriction leaves out thousands of former American servicemembers who signed up to defend our country. Our legislation rights this wrong and ensures veterans have the opportunity to join the American Legion.”

VA issues proposed rule for new community care program

by American Hospital Association

Washington, D.C. - February 23, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed the criteria for determining when covered veterans may elect to receive necessary hospital, medical and extended care services from non-VA entities or providers under the Veterans Community Care Program. The AHA-supported MISSION Act of 2018 requires the agency to consolidate its existing community care programs into this new program by June.

Under the proposed rule, covered veterans would have to be enrolled in the VA health care system and meet at least one of six conditions: VA does not offer the required care or services; VA does not operate a full-service medical facility in the state in which the veteran resides; the veteran was eligible to receive care under the Veterans Choice Program and is eligible to receive care under certain grandfathering provisions; VA is not able to furnish care or services to a veteran in a manner that complies with VA’s designated access standards; the veteran and the referring clinician determine it is in the best medical interest of the veteran to receive care or services from an eligible entity or provider based on consideration of certain criteria VA proposes to establish; or the veteran is seeking care or services from a VA medical service line that VA has determined is not providing care that complies with VA’s standards of quality.

The proposed rule also designates access standards for the new program, as announced last month; describes non-VA entities and providers eligible to participate in the program; and clarifies payment rates and methodologies for those community providers to include rates for critical access hospitals and other types of providers. According to the agency, providers eligible to participate in the new program would be “substantively identical” to those permitted to participate under the VA’s current Veterans Choice or other community care programs.

The proposed rule will be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register with comments accepted for 30 days. VA last month issued a separate proposed rule implementing urgent care provisions for the new program.

AFT Supports Legislation to Make Workplaces for Healthcare, Social Service Employees Safer

By American Federation of Teachers

Washington, D.C. - February 23, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1309), introduced by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), would make nurses and healthcare workers safer in their workplaces. The bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop protection measures and enforceable safety standards for people who work in front-line healthcare jobs, who are five times more likely to be assaulted at work than the rest of the labor force.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, 80 percent of emergency medical workers experience violence during their careers, some reporting verbal assault and some reporting physical abuse. And the rates are rising. Between 2007 and 2017, rates of violence in hospitals grew by 123 percent.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said, “Our nurses and health industry workers care every day for the sick, the elderly and the mentally ill, yet they often feel unsafe or unprotected themselves from the assaults that occur in hospitals and other healthcare-related settings.”

“While OSHA has left these workers vulnerable,” she said, “incidents of workplace violence continue to rise, with 69 percent of reported cases occurring in healthcare settings. Thankfully, this bill addresses this increasing trend head-on, and it provides long-needed protections and specific and enforceable safety standards for people who work in front-line healthcare jobs.”

Weingarten concluded, “No one should face violence, intimidation or fear for their safety while they’re on the job. And as a union of healthcare professionals, educators and public employees, we welcome this effort to finally make federal workplace-safety regulations a priority.”

The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.

‘The Administration is Setting Us Up to Fail,’ says VA Workers Union

by American Federation for Government Employees

Washington, D.C. - February 23, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- On Friday, February 15, the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly posted that the agency now has 48,985 unfilled vacancies – up nearly 4,000 since the VA started posting vacancy totals in August 2018. The muted rollout of the data – which is only tracked and posted because of a push for transparency from the American Federation of Government Employees – follows Secretary Robert Wilkie’s recent announcement that the Department is outsourcing care and funding from the already short-staffed and underfunded agency.

“It is unconscionable that Secretary Wilkie is starving the VA by leaving almost 49,000 positions unfilled– 42,790 of which are at the Veterans Health Administration,” said AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. “As the Secretary recently said, the ‘VA is seeing more patients than ever before, more quickly than ever before, and Veterans are more satisfied with their care than they have been previously’ – which comes as the VHA has jumped from having 35,000 unfilled vacancies in October 2017 to nearly 43,000 today.”

Cox added, “With the outstanding work being done by VA medical centers across the country, why would anybody try to undermine them with short staffing or shifting funding to the private sector?”

Last month the VA announced new criteria for privatized care that will be simultaneously slower and inferior to the integrated and specialized care offered by the VA. Understaffing the VA is a slow-motion replacement of VA’s in-house care with private care that is demonstrably unable to deal with veterans’ unique needs. Workers, medical experts, and members of Congress raised concerns that the VA’s in-house funding and staffing challenges will be worsened by funneling more money into the private, for-profit sector, and questioned the lack of transparency around the development and implementation of expanding private care for veterans.

“This push for further privatization should not occur, and the MISSION Act should not be implemented under the current schedule unless and until the VA does a thorough analysis of the impact of privatization on the quality and cost of care,” said AFGE National Veterans Affairs Council President Alma Lee. Lee, who represents 250,000 workers at the VA, says there are alternative approaches that will improve care – namely increased funding and a commitment to achieving full-staffing inside the VA.

“While the administration is setting us up to fail so they can dismantle veterans’ preferred health care provider, there are thankfully allies in Congress who are working to ensure we can hire and retain the medical professionals we so desperately need,” said Lee.

In early February, Rep. Mark Takano of California, introduced H.R. 1133 – VA Employee Fairness Act – to restore equal workplace rights to VA Title 38 health care professionals. H.R. 1133 already has 27 co-sponsors, and in mid-February was introduced as companion legislation in the Senate by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

“Veterans are provided the best quality and timely care when the VA workforce can thrive,” said Rep. Takano. “With more than 40,000 employee vacancies in the VHA alone, it is crucial to ensure that doctors, nurses, and other medical professional are equipped with the best tools to retain and recruit the best talent to serve veterans — this bill will help make that possible.”

“The nurses, physicians, and health care workers at our nation’s VA medical centers, many of whom are veterans themselves, are the best at what they do. When they are able to collectively bargain and have their voices heard in the workplace, care improves for veterans. At a time when Americans are working harder and earning less for the time they put in, we should be making it easier for all workers to advocate for better working conditions, which leads to better veteran services and care,” said Sen. Brown.

“Thank you to Rep. Mark Takano and Sen. Sherrod Brown for once again standing with the women and men who care for our nation’s veterans,” said Cox. “Without the ability to advocate for other health care employees working under stressful conditions, or the ability to advocate for better patient care, the VA is going to struggle to attract and retain the best and brightest in the medical field and veterans will be at greater risk. It’s essential that Congress pass the VA Employee Fairness Act as soon as possible, so we can stop losing the professionals we have and hire the workers we need to continue serving those who have borne the battle.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.