I realize that it’s April 1st — April Fools Day — but today, the House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, introduced HR 1255:
To prevent a shutdown of the government of the United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011′.SEC. 2. FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE REMAINDER OF FISCAL YEAR 2011.
(a) Deadline for Consideration of Legislation Funding the Government for the Remainder of Fiscal Year 2011- If the House has not received a message from the Senate before April 6, 2011, stating that it has passed a measure providing for the appropriations for the departments and agencies of the Government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, the provisions of H.R. 1, as passed by the House on February 19, 2011, are hereby enacted into law.
(b) Publication of Act- In publishing this Act in slip form and in the United States Statutes at Large pursuant to section 112 of title 1, United States Code, the Archivist of the United States shall include after the date of approval, if applicable, an appendix setting forth the text of the bill referred to in subsection (a).SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN PAYMENTS TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.
(a) Treatment of Members During a Government Shutdown- The Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House, respectively, shall not disburse to each Member or Delegate the amount of his or her salary for each day that-
(1) there is more than a 24-hour lapse in appropriations for any Federal agency or department as a result of a failure to enact a regular appropriations bill or continuing resolution; or
(2) the Federal Government is unable to make payments or meet obligations because the public debt limit under section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, has been reached.(b) Treatment of the President During a Government Shutdown- The President shall not receive a disbursement of basic pay for any period in which–
(1) there is more than a 24-hour lapse in appropriations for any Federal agency or department as a result of a failure to enact a regular appropriations bill or continuing resolution; or
(2) the Federal Government is unable to make payments or meet obligations because the public debt limit under section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, has been reached.
The bill was closed to amendments. Excuse me? What were they thinking? The bill itself is clearly unconstitutional in that NO bill solely passed by the house can become the law of the land once passed by the House alone! A bill must be passed by both the House AND the Senate … and then once so passed, that bill must be signed by the President (the President can also take no action on the bill for ten days while Congress is in session and the bill will automatically become law).
What was all the hooplaw about reading the Constitution aloud on Day 1 of the session? How about that GOP rule that each introduced bill should cite Constitutional authority that allows Congress to consider such a bill? Must have been a whole bunch of nothing but hot air and an act for their Teapublican partners. They certainly had no intentions of actually doing that, because what they did today is solid proof of my premise: House Vote #224 held on April 1, 2011 at 2:55 PM EDT.
221 Republicans, including Rep. Dean Heller and Rep. Joe Heck voted to pass a blatantly UNCONSTITUTIONAL bill! Calls to Speaker Boehner’s office today referred inquirers to Rep. Cantor’s office where they defended the bill as “showing the Senate and the public that they are doing something.” I’m sorry, but what this action tells me is that the GOP is willing to throw the U.S. Constitution under the bus just to get their way.