Message to Wyoming senators: Do your job, impeach Trump

An e-mail I sent to Sen. Barrasso this morning. I sent one to Sen. Lummis with slightly different wording:

Dear Sen. Barrasso:

I hope you are paying attention to the Senate proceedings of the Trump impeachment. Did you see the rampaging mob as it beat up Capitol police and carried the Confederate banner into the House of the People? Did you hear them call out for your GOP colleague V.P. Pence? They wanted to punish him for having the temerity to challenge Dear Leader’s tortured fantasies about the election. The mob’s goal was to do harm to people who disagreed with Trump and stymie America’s political process. They only partially succeeded, but people did die and the Capitol was ransacked.

I urge you to vote to impeach Donald Trump. Words and actions have meaning and Trump’s went into feeding a lie that the election was rigged. He sparked the riot and needs to pay the price. If not, he will get away with it and the next demagogue elected to the presidency will be smarter and more ruthless. Next time the mob will come for you.

You have a conscience and can change your mind. The electorate saw it during the votes to certify the election, during the hubbub surrounding Rep. Cheney’s vote for impeachment. You know what to do. You do.

Sincerely,

Michael Shay, Wyoming voter

Wyoming Democrats respond to Rep. Cynthia Lummis's comments about the Affordable Care Act

This was posted on the Wyoming Democratic Party web site today:

Yesterday during a hearing about the Affordable Care Act in the House Oversight Committee, Wyoming Representative Cynthia Lummis suggested that issues enrolling in the Affordable Care Act were partly to blame for her husband’s death.  

The following is a response from Pinedale's Ana Cuprill, Chairwoman of the Wyoming Democratic Party: 

“Wyoming's Code of the West reminds us to be “tough, but fair” and to “know where to draw the line.” Representative Lummis missed the mark on both accounts yesterday. Rep. Lummis voted more than 50 times with her Republican colleagues to repeal Obamacare. The real consequence of those votes is time and effort wasted by the administration defending the law instead of addressing “glitches” that would make the process of enrolling go more smoothly. I will agree with Rep. Lummis that there is no time to be glib about the problems with healthcare. Now is the time to find solutions that will have real impact on people's lives. While we are sorry for the tragic loss of Rep. Lummis’ husband, we are glad for the thousands of people in Wyoming and millions of Americans with access to quality, affordable care. We’re relieved for families who no longer face bankruptcy, can’t be dropped from coverage when they get sick and don’t face lifetime maximums when a sick child needs care. We’re still concerned for the thousands of people in Wyoming who make important health decisions based not on the best available care, but whether or not they can afford to have any care at all. We believe using her truly unfortunate situation to attack the Affordable Care Act was disingenuous and call on our Congresswoman to join us in finding ways to improve the Affordable Care Act."

Well said, Ana Cuprill. And amen.

Putting the blame where it belongs for national park shutdown: Wyo's lone congressional rep

Jim Stanford on Oct. 1 at JH Underground:

Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks are being barricaded today, and all public access closed, thanks in part to Wyoming’s lone congressional representative, Cynthia Lummis.

Lummis is part of an extreme faction of the Republican Party seeking to hold the federal government hostage over implementation of the 2009 health care law. She voted repeatedly this weekend and last night to send a budget bill to the Senate that was dead on arrival.

Without funding, all federal agencies, including the National Park Service, were forced to close.

On her website, Lummis said she did so to protect Americans from “the onslaught of Obamacare.”

Onslaught of Obamacare?

Read the entire column here. 

Republicans say it loud and scary: BENGHAZI!

As a fiction writer, I enjoy e-mails from Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis. The Republican from Cheyenne never ceases to amaze with her fabrications and half-truths and spin -- can't forget the spin. As a member in good standing of the Republican cabal in the House that gives gridlock new meaning, she can be trusted to always be on the FAR RIGHT side of each issue. This time, she is even asking questions at one of the many hearings that House Republicans are holding on BENGHAZI! I capitalize and emphasize the Libyan city's name because that's how the Republicans do it. BENGHAZI! Or like this: 

BENGHAZI!

It was funny to read today that 39 percent of those Americans polled who believe, as does Rep. Lummis, that BENGHAZI is a cover-up, don't know what country it's in. From Public Policy Polling's latest national survey (thanks to Crooks & Liars):

"One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history is that 39% of them don't actually know where it is. 10% think it's in Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia with 4% not willing to venture a guess."

BENGHAZI!

Wherever the hell it is.  

Oogalee Boogalee! Are you scared now?

Here's Rep. Lummis's e-mail (the links are hers):

Dear Friends, This past Wednesday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee heard from three men, all of whom are public servants and all of whom have firsthand experience with the Benghazi attacks of September 11th, 2012 that claimed the lives of four Americans.

From the testimony we heard it’s clear there was a conscious effort to provide misleading and conflicting information on the Benghazi attacks. The question now is how far up in the administration did this cover up go?

People died. There are four deaths. Concealing the facts and impeding efforts on behalf of Congress to investigate this situation is simply deplorable.

Wednesday’s witnesses had illustrious careers. But when they had the gumption to correct the inaccuracies being spread about this attack some of their careers became fodder for revenge. It is inexcusable what this administration has done to these citizens, particularly in light of what these men have done for our country.

I walked away from this week’s hearing with more questions, more rabbit holes and without concrete answers for the families of these victims. Clearly it was the tip of the iceberg, but I’m glad to hear truth being shed on this unfortunate situation. The Committee will continue our investigation until concrete answers can be delivered.

I want to thank witnesses Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson and Eric Nordstrom, for having the courage and strength to come forward and set the record straight on these horrific attacks.

Watch my questions HERE.

Sincerely, Representative Cynthia M. Lummis 

Interesting to note that Republicans in the House have yet to convene numerous committees to investigate how George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lied us into the Iraq War. Or the many diplomats and embassy staffers who were killed during the Bush presidency. After all, PEOPLE DIED!

Note to Wyoming Sens. Enzi and Barrasso and Rep. Lummis: NO CUTS!

Overpass Light Brigade posted this: From the San Diego Labor Council's candlelight event outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's downtown office to avoid cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs; instead to pressure Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans. NO CUTS!

And we thought that Republicans had binders full of women

What about Wyoming's lone rep Cynthia Lummis? Couldn't John Boehner find a place at the top of the House Finance Committee for a Republican woman who served as Wyoming's state treasurer for eight years? This delicious blurb (and photo array) comes from Daily Kos: It didn't take Jennifer Bendery at Huffington Post long to figure out what 100% of the new GOP House committee chairmen have in common, as she reports in House Committee Chairs Will All Be White Men In Next Congress.

Bucking Jenny questions Rep. Lummis and her vote on Senate version of Violence Against Women Act

Bucking Jenny is one of the members of the WY Progressives' blogroll, a loose confederation of Wyoming prog-bloggers (see right sidebar). Author of the blog is Sarah Zacharias and she has penned a fine open letter to Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis. Sarah wonders why Rep. Lummis is not supportive of the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act. The Liberals Unite site has reprinted the letter and it's getting a lot of online attention. Go read it at Liberals Unite or at Bucking Jenny. While at Bucking Jenny, please make a supportive comment and contribute a couple bucks to the cause. Here's a sample of the letter:

Miss Lummis, I understand that your party pressures you to make absurd votes like this. I understand that our system doesn’t always make it easy to do the right thing. The fact is that you have to stop and ask yourself what motivation you have to vote against the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act. Are you afraid of stepping away from the party line?

Fine letter, Sarah. It will be interesting to see the reply, if there is one. 

Sam Western explores the future of AML funding in Wyoming w/update

Sam Western, Sheridan author and correspondent for London's The Economist, spoke last night at the Roosevelt-Kennedy dinner held by the Wyoming Democratic Party.

In a bit of kismet, a column by Sam appeared this morning in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. In it, he explores the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Trust Fund (AML) legislation, how it's helped and hurt Wyoming.

AML legislation was first passed in 1977 and mandated that a percentage of each ton of coal was designated to clean up abandoned mines. Strip mines of the West, like those in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, were taxed at $.35 per ton while underground mines of the East were taxed at $.15 per ton. Since most of the reclaimed mines were in the East, most of the $3 billion in taxes on Wyoming coal (the largest amount from any state) should have gone elsewhere. But the law also mandated that 50 percent of the taxes collected in a state would go back to that state. So it did. But since Wyoming had so few abandoned mines to reclaim, that money went to new ag facilities at Sheridan College and new classrooms at UW, facilities that normally would be paid for by its citizens.

That darn federal gubment.

In Republican Paul Ryan's Draconian budget plan, all that coal tax money would disappear. Remember, the GOP doesn't like taxes on wealthy corporations or people. The budget failed, but not before Wyoming's entire Congressional delegation, Republicans all, voted for it. Meanwhile, the 50 percent rate of return for AML funding has dropped to 48 percent, which means Wyoming loses out on millions every year. Our Congressional delegation now is backpedaling as fast as it can to save the AML funding.

Thus, this isn't a story about the AML. It's about the the reluctance of Wyoming to accept a new reality: Revenue from minerals, such as AML money, is easy to snatch, and Congress will probably use it for whatever it pleases.

The dilemma also reveals Wyoming's one-dimensional sense of entitlement. It's our money, we yelp, and we want it back. Now.

The reality is that over the years, Wyoming has received tens of billions of non-mineral-related money from taxpayers who don't live in the Cowboy State. In the trade-off department, Wyoming has gotten an awfully good deal.

The old era is fading. What were once Wyoming plums are now low-hanging fruit for a cash-strapped Congress to pluck for other purposes.

The matter is complicated by the unwillingness of Republicans to work across the aisle to reach a compromise on issues which would benefit the state. The doctrinaire thick-headedness of Barrasso, Enzi and Lummis, only make it inevitable that Wyoming will continue to lose federal funds. Not only will they not compromise with Democrats, they also finds compromise tough with members of their own party running for vice president.

What a dilemma.

And Wyoming will be the loser.

This is a summary of an excellent article loaded with details. I recommend that you read it. I would send you to the WTE web site to read the entire column, but it's a terrible web site and Sam is nowhere to be found. If you get the paper, read it on the op-ed pages. If not, try the library.

You can read more of Sam's excellent work (journalism, essays and fiction) at www.samuelwestern.com

10/1/12 UPDATE: Sam's column is on wyofile. Go to http://wyofile.com/2012/09/feds-can-restrict-flow-of-mineral-revenue-to-wyoming/  

House Republicans, including Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis, vote themselves health care for life while voting against health care for the rest of us

This article comes from Michael McAuliff in the Huffington Post. Make sure to watch the video in which Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is asked by a reporter: "Why did you just vote yourself health care for life?" Lummis screamed response: "What?" Lummis is one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Congress:

Democrats are mocking Republicans in the House of Representatives for voting to repeal the health care reform law and keep their own enhanced medical care. 

When Congress passed the health care law, it required members of Congress to get their insurance on exchanges with the rest of the public. But in voting to repeal that law, Republicans and a handful of Democrats were also voting to go back to the old system where the lawmakers get a sweeter deal than most of the rest of the country..

They also voted against a Democratic motion that said members of Congress who support repealing the health care law must also repeal the good stuff they get, such as lifetime care and insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Democrats tried to demonstrate how Republicans distanced themselves from voting to protect their own deal by capturing a slew of GOP members on video saying they didn't vote to protect their own care, as seen below. The clip features a number of Republicans in tight races this year, as well as GOP budget guru, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“House Republicans refuse to admit they voted to give themselves taxpayer funded lifetime guaranteed health care instead of having the same health care as their constituents,” said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to the fact that members of Congress are eligible for retirement benefits after just five years.

“House Republicans didn’t just vote to protect insurance company campaign donor profits this time, they’re even helping themselves to lifetime taxpayer-funded government health care and now they need to be honest with their constituents and admit it,” Ferguson said.

Bad company: Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan and Cynthia Lummis

What do Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan and Cynthia Lummis all have in common? A lot, as it turns out. Read Rodger McDaniel's new blog post at http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-do-ayn-rand-paul-ryan-and-cynthia.html

Four years after: In the afterglow of the 2008 Wyoming caucuses, all things seemed possible

On this day four years ago, I mused about the possibilities that presented themselves to Wyoming Democrats. We were all aglow following record turnouts at county caucuses. None of us expected the eventual presidential candidate to win Wyoming, but we were hopeful that Jackson’s Gary Trauner could clinch the state’s lone U.S. House seat. He had come within 1,000 votes of unseating wildly unpopular Republican Barbara Cubin in 2006. As it turned out, John McCain enjoyed his second-largest vote margin in Wyoming, coming in right behind Oklahoma and just ahead of Idaho and Utah. Trauner was trounced by newcomer Cynthia Lummis, who continues to be a party-line Republican. 

On March 9, 2008, we were slightly optimistic that red Wyoming would morph into a shade of purple.

The message is clear. It takes a well-organized and well-funded campaign to win an election. Democrats in Wyoming have been down so long it looks like up to us. Many had just given up. It took a lot of effort to get them out of their lethargy – but they did come out. Almost 8,700 votes were cast statewide. In the 2004 county conventions, less that 700 votes were cast. The 2008 numbers are 12 times those of 2004. Some of those reflect people who switched parties, a Republican or Independent registering as a Dem and who will probably switch back before November. But most of those voters were either new registrants or newly-motivated Dems or people so fed up with the Republican Party that they switched and won’t go back. I know several of those in Cheyenne.

Read the rest of my March 9, 2008, post at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/dems-been-down-so-long-it-looks-like-up.html

Forget "the dirty dozen” – Wyoming Congressional delegation "the dirty trio”

This comes from Kate Wright, executive director of Wyoming Conservation Voters

Today [Feb. 7, 2012], Wyoming Conservation Voters joined the national League of Conservation Voters in releasing the 2011 National Environmental Scorecard, revealing scores for the Wyoming delegation in the first session of the 112^th Congress. 

The 2011 Scorecard reflects the most anti-environmental session of the U.S. House of Representatives in history, featuring unparalleled assaults on our nation’s bedrock environmental and public health safeguards.

The good news is that while the House voted against the environment a shocking number of times, both the U.S. Senate and the Obama administration stood fast against the vast majority of these attacks.  Indeed, not only did our cornerstone environmental protections emerge from 2011 largely unscathed, the Obama administration also made major progress through administrative actions to protect our air and water. 

 “We are disappointed in those members of the Wyoming delegation who supported the attacks on public health and environmental protections in 2011,” said Kate Wright, Executive Director of the Wyoming Conservation Voters. “It is deeply upsetting that the entirety of the Wyoming delegation, Rep. Lummis and Sens. Enzi and Barrasso, chose to put corporate polluters and other special interests ahead of the health and well-being of Wyoming families.” 

The 2011 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and a record 35 House votes on issues ranging from public health protections to clean energy to land and wildlife conservation. The House votes included in the 2011 Scorecard are simply many of the most significant votes taken in a year that saw the House voting more than 200 times on the environment and public health.

“In 2011, the House Republican leadership unleashed a truly breathtaking and unprecedented assault on the environment and public health, the breadth and depth of which have made the current U.S. House of Representatives the most anti-environmental in our nation’s history,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “LCV is grateful to the Obama administration for helping to ensure that the House Republican leadership did not succeed in gutting our nation’s cornerstone environmental and public health protections in 2011.”

Senator John Barrasso, 9%
Senator Mike Enzi, 9%
Representative Cynthia Lummis, 11%

For over 40 years, the National Environmental Scorecard issued by LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health and energy issues.

The full 2011 National Environmental Scorecard can be found at www.lcv.org/scorecard 

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, member-in-good-standing of the 1%, votes to raise taxes on middle-class Wyomingites

This press release comes from Jane Ifland, communications director of the Wyoming Democratic Party:

Today, on the heels of yesterday’s blatantly partisan vote by Republicans in the House to raise taxes on 160 million Americans in the middle of the holiday season, Chuck Herz, Chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, released the following statement: 

“Cynthia Lummis ought to be ashamed of herself. Her refusal to cooperate with anyone —including the Senate leadership of her own party— puts her in the ranks of the rankest extremists of her party. That’s bad for Wyoming people in and of itself. 

But worse is the fact that her uncooperative attitude will hit Wyoming middle class families where it hurts the most this holiday season: right in the wallet.” (The failure of Rep. Lummis and her fellow extremist House members to cooperate with the rest of our leadership will cost the average Wyoming wage earner more than $1,600 in actual cash next year.) 

“If you want to look from worse to worse yet,” Herz continued, “you can see that this incomprehensible disregard for the well-being of the middle class of Wyoming and America carries right up through the GOP leadership – if you can call it that – to the ineffectual John Boehner and the clueless Mitt Romney. 

Romney, in particular, has repeatedly dismissed the payroll tax cut as a ‘little Band-Aid’ – reluctantly supporting an extension only after he realized the public overwhelmingly supported it. These tax cuts make a real difference to middle class families. Failing to extend them is bad for our people, bad for our state, bad for our country.”

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis: "She is the 1%! She is the 1%!"

Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis speaks as Rep. Eric Cantor looks on (from Rep. Lummis's Facebook page)

Depending in which year's Congressional financial disclosure you use, Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis is either the 25th-richest or 29th-richest member of the U.S. Congress. This, in itself, is not bad. But this status as a member in good standing of the 1% does help explain her voting patterns in support of big corporations, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (the 1%), cuts in federal programs for the 99%, drill-baby-drill, weakening of environmental regulations, anti-worker legislation, corporate personhood and all the rest. Read Greg Nickerson's excellent WyoFile article at http://wyofile.com/2011/12/wyoming-delegation-rep-cynthia-lummis-among-richest-members-of-congress/

EPA Chief: Pavillion tests are "of concern" and fracking may be the culprit

This just in from the Casper Star-Tribune:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says high levels of methane, benzene and chemicals found in two Wyoming water-monitoring wells are “of concern” and said hydraulic fracturing may be responsible.

In an interview set to air on the Bloomberg cable news channel Saturday and Sunday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency discussed results from two monitoring wells in the Pavillion area with state and local officials. The well data was released to the public last week.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/epa-chief-wyoming-water-well-results-of-concern/article_0aacd635-c62a-5eae-9f79-e6ae14eb1906.html#ixzz1e3vm0Cwo

I know that Rep. Cynthia "Kill the EPA" Lummis will pooh-pooh these findings to cater to her Know Nothing base, but the finding are the results of sound science and should be listened to. Do we really want to poison our fellow Wyomingites, such as John Fenton, a Pavillion rancher and member of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens? John and his family were featured in the documentary “Gasland” (go to www,gaslandthemovie.com)

GOP lawmakers (maybe even WY Rep. Cynthia Lummis) want out of tax pledge

GOP lawmakers want out of Grover Norquist no-tax pledge, according to TheHill.com

Rep. Cynthia Lummis may be one of them. She was quoted this way Nov. 3 in the Casper Star-Tribune:

"Grover Norquist is not in my district. I represent the state of Wyoming and its people."

We'll see how long this lasts... 

Rehberg and Tester and Baucus and Lummis and Enzi and Barrasso all have a "veteran problem"

My fellow Rocky Mountain prog-blogger Rob Kailey writes about Rep. Dennis Rehberg's "veteran problem" in an Aug. 20 post on "Left in the West."

Interesting to note that out of six U.S. reps and senators from Montana and Wyoming, only one -- WY Sen. Mike Enzi of Gillette -- claims military service. He has six years in the WY Air National Guard. This is military service but not overseas service, as you will note with the two Vietnam vets and their op-ed in The Missoulian::

For all the partisan talk in Washington, D.C., about standing your ground, Congressman Denny Rehberg is standing on shaky ground when it comes to honoring veterans' service. Rehberg might think he took a principled stand on the budget, but he's got the wrong principles.

Rehberg and some of the most radical members of Congress have taken a hardline approach to fixing our debt challenges. Here's the problem: They've drawn a line at protecting Montanans who fought for their country overseas.

Important lifelines like the Veterans Administration could have been gutted by as much as 25 percent in one of the plans Rehberg recently voted for. Veterans have already paid for access to the VA by serving our country in foreign wars, so it's completely reckless for Rehberg to put our benefits at risk because he won't get rid of tax loopholes for his millionaire friends.

Rehberg's disregard for the impacts of his decisions doesn't just affect veterans -- it affects Montanans who count on Medicare and Social Security, too.

Medicare and Social Security are also important guarantees that Montanans have already paid for by working and paying taxes our entire lives. And just as Rehberg can provide no guarantee that his plans protect veterans' benefits, he can't guarantee protections for Medicare and Social Security either.

The irony is Rehberg - along with many of his colleagues who stood in the way of a bipartisan debt solution - will drape themselves with the flag whenever a TV camera is around.

The tragedy is they haven't backed up their patriotism with action.

Our country is about commitment and responsibility. Not just to those of us who have risked the ultimate sacrifice for our country, but for every American.

To live up to his responsibility to veterans and all Montanans, Rehberg will need to work together to find real solutions to our debt challenges.

When we served our country we worked together with Americans from across the country of all stripes to get things done on the battlefield. We expect Rehberg to do the same in Washington, D.C.

Alex Taft is a retired transportation professional and candidate for Missoula City Council, Ward 3. Montana Sen. Cliff Larsen is a rancher and recently retired businessman and represents District 50 in Missoula County. They are both Vietnam veterans.

This seems really odd, but this peacenik Leftie in Cheyenne has more military experience than five out of six of the Congressional reps and senators that represent more than 245,000 square miles of American real estate (and thousands of veterans). And that experience amounts to 18 months as a U.S. Navy ROTC midshipman whose only active duty involved eight weeks on an aircraft carrier tracking Cuban and Soviet vessels around Cuba. And I also got to party hearty at Gitmo. Weird, eh?

And these people will be curtailing benefits for all those who did serve?

This isn't only a veterans' issue. Mr. Taft and Mr. Larsen make this point over and over again. It affects all of us.

WY Outdoor Council: House Reps Attempting to Dismantle the EPA

From the Wyoming Outdoor Council:

House Reps Attempting to Dismantle the EPA

And Rep. Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming's lone U.S. House member, is leading the charge to dismantle environmental regs that keep our water safe to drink and our air safe to breathe.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis votes against further cuts to the NEA

Stunned Wyoming arts advocates passed this along to me so I'm sharing it with you:

House Votes against NEA Funding Cuts; Strong Comeback for Arts Advocacy  

July 29, 2011

From: Thomas L. Birch, Legislative Counsel, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies 

The vote in the House of Representatives on July 28 demonstrated a strong victory for arts advocates intent on gaining legislative support for federal arts funding. The amendment offered by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), a freshman in Congress and a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), would have reduced 2012 appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to $125 million from the level of $135 million proposed in the bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee. Walberg sponsored a similar amendment last February to bring 2011 NEA funds down to $125 million. That amendment passed by a vote of 217-209. Yesterday's vote, recorded at 181-240, defeated the Walberg amendment. 

This time around, the voting patterns noticeably shifted. Even some of our champions in Congress were surprised at the size of the winning vote. In February, 22 Republicans joined all but three Democrats in voting against the arts funding cut. This week, all Democrats and 55 Republicans voted together to defeat the move to reduce the NEA funds. Conservative Republicans teamed up with moderates from their own party to carry the vote. Almost half the Republicans voting in support of the NEA's budget and against the Walberg amendment are, like Walberg, freshmen in Congress and RSC members. 

Clearly, forces combined to win that outcome. The advocacy of NASAA's members was strong and engaged. Personal contacts carried the day. Our colleagues in other arts organizations were equally involved through their grass-roots networks. Our bipartisan champions in Congress stood visibly against the proposed funding cut. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chair of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, had pledged earlier to oppose attempts on the House floor to cut the NEA budget. He was true to his word and his Democratic colleague on the subcommittee, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), was eloquent on the floor in defense of federal arts funding. The co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus played major roles during the floor debate. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) organized floor speeches with her colleagues to speak against the Walberg amendment. Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) whipped votes against the amendment from among his Republican colleagues. 

Here are the 55 Republicans who voted to hold the line on cuts to the NEA, opposing the Walberg amendment. Each of them deserves special thanks. Please let your representatives know how much you appreciate their position in support of the NEA budget and the important role the funding plays in your state. 

Republicans voting against the Walberg amendment:  

--clip--

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming. 

The House of Representatives plans to continue meeting through the weekend to finish work on the Interior Appropriations Bill—and to produce a plan for raising the debt ceiling—but their work is done on the arts appropriations.  

Many thanks again to all of you for your effective advocacy in turning around an important vote on the way to realizing the best possible budget for the NEA in 2012. Please take a moment to express your thanks to your own representatives who stood up in support of funding for the arts.

Thank you, Rep. Lummis. Don't get to say that very often.

Congressional Republicans just want to watch the world burn

From Meg Lanker . I know that Sen. Dr. Barrasso is in here somewhere with all these OWGs from the GOP.