10 Scary, Whacky, and Weird Bills Introduced in Congress

1. H.R. 899:  To terminate the Department of Education. 
   
   Introduced by Thomas Massie (R-KY), Justin Amash (R-MI), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Jody Hice (R-GA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Raul Labrador (R-ID)
   
   This bill is quite simple.  The above congressmen are seeking to terminate the Department of Education in its entirety.  It's latest action has been a referral to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.  Rep.  Thomas Massie, the key Congressman behind this bill, believes that the federal government doesn't have the constitutional authority to dictate what our kids learn and that's where Massie gets it totally wrong.  The Department of Education's mission is to establish policies to federal education funding as well as the administration and monitoring of their use, collecting data and research, using that information to identify major issues in education and inform the public, and lastly, enforcing federal laws prohibiting discrimination (US DoE: What We Do)  So if the Department of Education isn't dictating what kids learn at our public schools, then who does?  The states, themselves.  Massie et al get an F for their failure to understand the US educational system on its most basic level.
   
   
2. H.R. 610 Choices in Education Act of 2017:
   
   Introduced by Steve King (R-IA), Andy Harris (R-MD),  Trent Franks (R-AZ), Pete Olson (R-TX).
   
   This snazzily named bill (it's all about choice and the freedom of it, yo!) essentially repeals the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and, instead of terminating the Department of Education, it just limits its activities to providing block grants to states.  Wait a second...I'm seeing a pattern here.  One bill wants to get rid of the ED altogether, which basically means that the ED will no longer be monitoring how our federal tax dollars are being used, and the second bill wants to also do the same thing.  That's two bills involving money and taking away the federal overseeing body of its use. 
   
   This one, however, is packing that all in with the requirement of providing block grants that provide vouchers for kids in case they want to be either home schooled or enrolled in a private school.  Here's the deal with that though:  How do we know that our tax dollars to these kids are going to equal a basic education?  We won't have a body overseeing that.  On top of it, it's giving kids who opt to go to a private school an additional leg up and what kids tend to go to private schools?   Primarily children of the wealthy and this bill makes no income limits in regards to limiting the usage of these sorts of vouchers to children in financial need.  This bill does nothing to eliminate the increasing wealth and opportunity gaps within the country. 
   
   Part two of this bill is the No Hungry Kids Act.  Again, it sounds great except for the fact that it repeals all the current nutritional standards for national school lunch and breakfast programs so they would no longer be required to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat/fat free milk available to kids as well as getting rid of the limits on sodium, saturated and trans fats, and children's actual caloric requirements.  In short, this portion of H.R. 610 wants to be certain that our kids eat total crap for lunch because having a nation of obese children who learn to eat crap is a great idea.
   
   
3. H.R. 861:  To Terminate the Environmental Protection Agency:
   
   Introduced by Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Steven Palazzo (R-MS), and Barry Loudermilk (R-GA).
   
   I'm not sure what these three bozos were thinking when they introduced this bill because what it really does is get rid of the agency in charge of regulating our existing environmental laws.  Getting rid of the regulating agency doesn't get rid of the environmental laws and those laws would need to be regulated by another (probably pre-existing) agency.  H.R. 861 is just stupid and the three authors of it are all freshmen representatives.  They're new at this whole Congress thing and by god, is it showing with this one.
   
    
4. H.R. 147  Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2017 (PRENDA):
   
   
   Introduced by 60 Republican Members of the House. 
   
   These illustrious members of Congress want you to know something and that is that discriminating against an unborn child due to its sex, gender, race, or color is not okay.  Do you hear me?  It's not okay!  According to this bill, they want to make sure that everybody knows that and nobody forces any pregnant woman to get rid of a child based on any of the above criteria because apparently, the Republican congressmen are confused by all of their clothing labels that say "Made in China" and think we're living in it.   And if you think it's okay to force or coerce a woman into an abortion on based on these criteria, well, you'll be in big trouble as this law makes it criminal.  What I really want to know is how people can tell what gender a child is before its born considering that gender is sometimes different from sex?
   
   
5. H.R. 586 Sanctity of Human Life Act:
   Introduced by 30 Republican Members of the House
   
   This bill is pretty weird at face value.   I'm just going to quote the summary of the bill so you can read it yourself. 
   

   This bill declares that: (1) the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human and is a person's most fundamental right; (2) each human life begins with fertilization, cloning, or its equivalent, at which time every human has all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood; and (3) Congress, each state, the District of Columbia, and each U.S. territory have the authority to protect all human lives.

   Most of it is easily understood.  By codifying that human life begins at conception, this bill--if made into a law--essentially makes things from certain IUDs, morning after pills, and abortions murder.  It makes no exclusion on whether or not there is something significantly wrong with the fetus either. All embryos are life without prejudice.  This is explicit in the text of the bill, itself.  Nor does it take into account how the "life" began (no exclusion for rape) or whether or not a pregnancy will kill the mother.  It then affirms that each state will have the authority to protect the lives of all human beings (including fertilized embryos) within their respective jurisdictions. 
   
   What about the truly weird part though?  The cloning.  Why are these congressmen so interested in something that you would typically think would be against their traditional values just on the sheer basis of being pure sci fi?   The most likely answer is pretty simple:  fetal stem cell research.  This form of research is performed using embryos created through cloning.  In 2001, the US was restricted to 19 lines that were being cloned for stem cell research  What would happen if this bill passes into law?  It would mean that those embryos could not be aborted or destroyed and any woman currently carrying a clone for research would be forced to term.  We would have our first human clones walking among us.  Outside of the weird factor and perhaps more importantly, fetal stem cell research is considered to be the best hope for a cure of an innumerable number of chronic and potentially fatal conditions and diseases.
   
   
6. H.R. 83  Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act:
   
   Introduced by Lou Barletta (R-PA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Tom Marino (PA-10), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Steve King (R-IA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mark Sanford (R-SC).
   
   This bill, if passed, would basically take Trump's executive order on punishing sanctuary cities and the states that these cities reside in by withholding federal assistance from them and codifies it.  It also charges the Department of Justice with the duty to monitor whether or not state and local governments are complying with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.  Whether or not this will be held as constitutional, if passed, is up to question, however, based on a recent ruling in the 9th District of the US Court of Appeals that found the requiring law enforcement agencies to act as ICE to be unconstitutional based on the 10th Amendment (LA Times).
   
   
7.   H.R. 785  National Right-to-Work Act:
   Introduced by Steve King (R-IA), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Robert Pittenger (R-NC), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Andy Barr (R-KY), Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Bob Goodlatte (lol do you think he makes good lattes?) (R-VA), Rick Allen (R-GA), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Bill Hulzenga (R-MI), Robert Wittman (R-VA), Richard Hudson (R-NC), David Trott (R-MI), Kristi Noem (R-SD). 
   
   This bill basically states that it will "preserve and protect the free choice of individual employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations or to refrain from such activities".  Currently, the law states that employees can form, join or assist labor organizations so what this bill actually does is given an employee the choice to opt out of joining a labor organization at their place of employment.  The proponents for this bill basically argue that the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act (for transportation industry unions) is essentially unfair in that it forces workers to join and pay dues to unions.  Sounds great because having a choice is a good thing, right?
   
   Not necessarily as sometimes the direct benefits of something are not immediately felt.  It's because of labor unions that workers have good wages, benefits, and the assurance of safety requirements that were all brokered by unions through collective bargaining.  Basically, if every employee is within the union, that means that it's not an individual fighting for any of the above perks.  It's all of them.  Without the unions, then those protections are at risk as the power of the unions against their employers will be diminished for every employee that opts out.  Period.  This one is a tricky one as we all want a freedom of choice but at the same time, there aren't that many in politics that are really fighting for our workers.  Politicians may say they are but what have they really done?
   
   
8. H.R. 354 Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2017:
   
   Introduced by 136 Republican Congressmen.
   
   This bill basically deprives Planned Parenthood of all federal funding for any purpose for one year and the only way to restore the funding is if they certify that they or none of their affiliated staff performs abortions and that they do not provide funds for another entity to administer an abortion.  The only exclusions for this are cases of rape, incest or where the pregnancy endangers the mother's life.  Basically, Planned Parenthood clinics across the United States will be stripped of federal funding for any of their services if they opt to perform abortions. 
   
   If they certify that they will not and perform an abortion, they will be forced to repay the federal assistance that they received to the Department of Health and Human Services.  Here's a quick question about that: If a Planned Parenthood clinic performs an abortion based on an allegation of rape and the case ends up being dismissed, is that a violation?   Considering the risks and the frequent length of court times, this bill is pretty nasty even for women who have been raped simply because, if Planned Parenthood is forced to wait for an outcome of a rape case, then it could end up being a late term abortion, which is prohibited.  And that's just one aspect of this bill's grossness as it essentially holds the entity hostage for a right that was already constitutionally protected under Roe v. Wade. 
   
   And lastly, it's an incredible overreach into the legal, non-federally funded activities of a non-profit organization.  The usage of federal funds for abortions is already prohibited by the Hyde Amendment and Planned Parenthood, by law, does not use those funds for the administration of such.  If this one passes, I would love to see an argument about the compelling interest of the state for that case as this bill is clearly punitive, meaning to punish a non-profit organization irrespective of the state laws in which their clinics reside.
   
   
9. H.R. 370  To Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare")
   
   Introduced by Bill Flores (R-TX).
   
   Brave Bill (or "Crazy" Bill depending on how you look at it) is the sole sponsor for the only bill that introduces a repeal of the ACA.  Nobody else in the House of Representatives seems to want to touch the damn thing and I can't blame them, considering that many of them are currently avoiding their own offices because of angry constituents about this thing.  This bill seems to be traversing through various committees ranging from the Budget to Education and Workforce and heck, even the House Committee on Natural Resources had a chance of chiming in on it.  H.R. 370 is the super ball of bills right now.  The full list of House Committees is almost comic:  Energy and Commerce, Education and Workforce, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Natural Resources, House Rules, House Administration, House Appropriations, House Budget, Subcommittee on Health, and it's currently residing in...wait for it....drum roll please....
   
   The Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs.
   
   Never mind.  Despite the very seriousness of this bill for millions of Americans, what's happening to it is hilarious and should give us a small grain of hope as this is clearly the pariah of all the bills introduced to the House.  Keep fighting it, people. It's working.
   
   
10. H.R. 392 Fairness to High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2017:
    
    Introduced by a bipartisan group of 101 members of Congress.
    
    If you're scratching your head about this one based on all the anti-immigrant rhetoric that we've been hearing so much of along with the accusations of them stealing our jobs, well, behold, for perhaps the first time, a more moderate portion of Congress (except for Chaffetz because he's the nut that wants to get rid of the Department of Education, H.R. 899).   This pro-immigration bill is pretty simple.  It doesn't reduce the number of immigrants into the United States but instead, eliminates the per country limitations on employment-based immigrants and increases the per country limitations for family based immigrants up to 15%.   It also eliminates a portion of an existing law that requires the reduction of annual Chinese immigrant visas.
    
    This increase in immigration, however, is limited to EB-2 or EB-3 visas. In the most basic terms, EB-2 visas are given to "experts" or people with exception abilities.  These people are still required to have a labor certification (a H1B, L-1, or TN status) except in the case where the individual possesses an exceptional ability that is within the national interest.  EB-3's are people who don't meet the expert standards for an EB-2 but are still professionals with labor certifications.  With all the rhetoric about immigrants coming into the country to take jobs and Trump's hold on expedited H1B's (which potential immigrants pay an additional fee for to be processed more quickly), why is Congress looking at passing a bill that increases immigration for certain people? 
    
    There's one answer to that and that's "brain drain".  Brain drain is essentially the emigration of highly educated and skilled individuals from a country.   In short, they leave the country or even their field due to a lack of opportunity.  Coupled with the increasingly prohibitive costs of higher education within the US, the end result is a loss of that expert talent within the country.  The recent severe recession within the US actually sparked a brain drain and now, with Trump in office, the US is likely to experience a more severe brain drain.  Passing a law that opens the door to those highly skilled individuals may help stymie that but not when those individuals are at risk for getting shot and killed.
    
    

The List of the Detained

"In that moment I loathed America. I loathed the entire country. And it was my 117th visit to the country so I know that most people are very generous and warm-hearted. They have been wonderful to me over the years. I got over that hatred within a day or two. But this is not the way to win friends, to do this to someone who is Australian when we have supported them in every damn war. It’s absolutely outrageous." (Mem Fox, The Guardian)

 I am well aware that this list of people who have been detained by CBP and ICE is by no means comprehensive.  In fact, based on an article in The Boston Globe today where it was reported that "the Boston office of US Customs and Border Protection has recently asked local police departments to make more bed space available for the short-term detention of noncitizens", it is likely just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  These are just a few names that have come out of people who have been detained.  Some of them were notable because they were notable people or worked for well known organizations that had powerful backers.  Others were notable simply because of the extremity.  No one knows who the Iranian woman was with the baby or the woman from Taiwan was that Mem Fox saw in the BCP waiting room--all detained alongside her.  How many countless others are there in detention right now, frightened and unsure of what is going to happen next?  

The one thing that can be certain though, based on this strange collection of detainees is that it doesn't matter who you are or where you were born.  You can be an US citizen--even born in this country--Australian, Argentinian or from some small country in the Caribbean.  You can be white, black, or brown--even a permanent US resident--and you can be detained or perhaps even denied entry into the country, itself, suddenly stripped of your own home and, as seems to be repeated again and again, deprived of legal counsel.  

I'm also keenly aware by making these observations and writing this post that I should probably not plan on flying out of the country myself anytime soon.  That's okay because when someone like Mem Fox, whose chosen career is to write charming children's books, is filled with the kind of loathing quoted above, we definitely have a problem here in the US that can't go without notice. I will be updating this list as it grows as that is very likely going to happen. 

Husband of Stacy-Marie Ishmael--Stacy-Marie Ishmael is a former reporter for Buzzfeed and the Financial Times.  Her husband, whose name was not released, was born in Trinidad, which is locatedin the Caribbean.  He is a permanent US resident and was purportedly denied the right to legal counsel.  When legal counsel arrived, CBP apparently tried to handcuff Ishmael’s lawyer. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/reporter-says-her-trinidadian-husband-was-detained-at-fort-lauderale-airport-last-night-9110815

Henry Rousso--A renown French historian traveling to the US from France (a visa-waiver program country) to the US (Houston) in order to attend a symposium at Texas A&M Rousso was born in Egypt and is of Jewish descent.   According to Rousso, a policeman took issue with his visa and suspected that he was traveling to the US to “work illegally”.
http://time.com/4685685/henry-rousso-houston-airport/

Celestine Omid--Omid is a Visa holder and software engineer from Nigeria travelling to the US for work related purposes for Andela, a start up backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
http://www.recode.net/2017/2/28/14764064/nigerian-software-engineer-detained-by-us-customs

Hina Shamsi--An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Shamsi, was detained after flying back from the island nation, Dominica.  Shamsi has worked for the ACLU for 10 over 10 years and has traveled in and out of the US for the last 25 years without having any sort of similar experience.  Shamsi was born in Pakistan and holds a Pakistani passport.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/flying-home-abroad-border-agent-stopped-and-questioned-me-about-my-work-aclu

Sardar Ahmad--Ahmad is a Fulbright scholar and doctor who was born in Afghanistan, had lived in the US and is now a Canadian citizen was detained for five hours at the US-Canadian border before being allowed entry into the US.  During this time, he was asked about his “tribal chief”.  
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/01/canada-doctor-sardar-ahmad-us-border-detained

Muhammad Ali, Jr.--Son of the late boxer, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad was born in Philadelphia and is a natural born US citizen.  Ali, Jr. reported that he was asked questions in regards to his religion. 
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/us/muhammad-ali-son-ex-wife-detained-at-airport-don-lemon-cnntv/

Khalilah Camacho-Ali--Ex-wife of the late boxer, Muhammad Ali, Khalilah was detained until she provided a picture of herself with the legendary boxer to prove who she was.   Khalilah also stated that she was asked questions about the origins of her name and her religion.   Khalilah (nee Belinda) was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.   Khalilah starred in the film “The China Syndrome” and has appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine 7 times.  
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/us/muhammad-ali-son-ex-wife-detained-at-airport-don-lemon-cnntv/

Mem Fox--Fox is a well-known Australian-born writer of children’s books, whose book, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, was given to Prince George as Australia’s official gift to the young prince.   Fox was on her way to a conference being held in Milwaukee and was detained for 1 hour and 40 minutes in a waiting room with others who had been detained, which she described as “the agony I was surrounded by in that room was like a razor blade across my heart”.   She was interrogated for 15 minutes until they realized who she was and let her go.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/in-that-moment-i-loathed-america-i-loathed-the-entire-country

Yousef Ajin--Ajin is an Uber driver who has resided legally within the US for 18 years and was held in detention for one month.  Ajin was born in Kuwait and immigrated legally to the US from Jordan in 1999.  Ajin holds a US green card and is a legal and permanent US resident.  He was detained after he visited ICE’s office for his biweekly residency check-in and was detained for two prior convictions dating from 2001 and 2003.  Ajin is Muslim.  
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-immigration-idUSKBN16900X

Sidd Bikkannavar--Bikkannavar has been an employee for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and has worked with NASA for 10 years.  He was detained after flying into the US (Houston) from Santiago, Chile.   During this time, he was pressured by CBP to unlock his NASA-issued phone.  Bikkannavar is a natural born US citizen.  http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/12/14583124/nasa-sidd-bikkannavar-detained-cbp-phone-search-trump-travel-ban

Juan Garcia Mosqueda--Mosqueda, born in Argentina, has been a legal US resident for 10 years and owns, Chamber, a NYC gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood.  Mosqueda had flown to Argentina for a visit and had flown back to JFK airport only to be detained for 14 hours without access to legal counsel or food and then, escorted to a plane by armed officers. 
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/us/gallery-owner-detained-argentina-trnd/

Unknown 5 year old boy--This unknown little boy from Maryland was handcuffed and detained for hours at Dulles Airport.  According to Sean Spicer, he "could've posed a threat".  His mother is Iranian.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-house-five-year-old-boy-detained-dulles-international-airport-hours-sean-spicer-pose-security-a7554521.html

Daniela Vargas--22 year old DREAMER who arrived in the US from Argentina when she was 7 years old.  Daniela had just been speaking at a news conference, discussing the arrest of her father and brother, before she, herself, was arrested.  Daniela has no criminal history.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/us/daniela-vargas-detained-dreamer-petition/

Vargas--Father of Daniela Vargas.  Entered US 15 years ago.  Worked at a poultry plant.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/us/daniela-vargas-detained-dreamer-petition/

Vargas--Brother of Daniela Vargas
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/us/daniela-vargas-detained-dreamer-petition/

Daniel Ramira Medina--23 year old DREAMER from Seattle whose home was raided and was arrested while he was sleeping.  Daniel has no criminal history.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Dreamer-still-detained-decision-to-come-next-10987158.php

Bernardo Medina--Medina is a 22 year old US citizen who was born in Montrose, CO.  On January 27th, Medina had gone in for sentencing on a DUI conviction and was approached by ICE afterwards, who promptly arrested him even after Medina produced his ID.  Medina was detained for several days at an ICE facility before being transferred to a privately owned GEO detention center.  It was not until ICE received Medina's US birth certificate that they released Medina but not before threatening him with prosecution about the whole ordeal.  Medina was released with a dead cell phone, no phone call to family or friends to arrange a pick up, and $5 in his pocket.

Medina's attorney has filed two lawsuits.  The first against ICE is violations of Medina's 4th (unlawful search and seizure) and 5th (due process) rights.  The second is against GEO alleging negligence for holding a US citizen in an immigration detention center, false imprisonment, false imprisonment, the intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/ice-agents-illegally-detained-colorado-us-citizen-for-days-because-he-was-hispanic-lawsuit-claims

55 detained in Mississippi in one day--ICE arrested and detained 55 individuals on Feb. 22.  Only 11 of them are being charged with felony re-entry.
http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/34701520/11-out-55-detained-in-february-immigration-raid-charged-with-felony-re-entry

Jesus Vasquez--Vasquez is a 22 year old DREAMER with no criminal record.  He was detained after a routine traffic stop in El Paso, TX.  Vasquez came to the US when he was just 6 years old with his mother.  He is the father of a 4 year old US citizen.
http://www.elpasoproud.com/news/bnhr-dreamer-with-no-criminal-history-detained-during-routine-traffic-stop/667586348

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos--Guadalupe is a mother of two American born children, who was detained and deported by ICE after showing up for her annual check-in.  Guadalupe had a 2008 conviction for using a fake social security number to obtain employment.  She was deported back to Mexico within 24 hours of being taken in due to her 2008 conviction, according to ICE.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/us/arizona-garcia-de-rayos-protests/index.html

Family of 5 from Afghanistan--This family of 5, all of whom had Special Immigrant Visas in return for work that their father performed for the US Government in Afghanistan during the war, is being held in isolation without access to legal counsel after flying into LA.  The government initially had tried separating the father from his wife and three children but that was blocked by a court order from Santa Ana.  Neither his wife or children speak English.  Holders of these "Special Immigrant Visas" are required to have both performed services for the US government for one year as well as having to undergo a thorough background check and screening.  (Freed after 4 days in detention)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-afghan-idUSKBN16C0XD