Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Sixth District company delivers defense technology
Read this story in the Anderson Herald Bulletin to learn more about what an Anderson-based company is doing to develop the defense systems of tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Richmond Boys and Girls Club gets new library
Congressman Pence attended last week's ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Quigg Family Foundation Library located in the Richmond Boys and Girls Club.
You can read more about the library in the Richmond Palladium-Item.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
National Review Online examines embryonic stem cell research
Click here to read the story.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Pence to appear on CNN's Crossfire today
Congressman Pence will appear on CNN's live debate show, Crossfire, today at 4:30 p.m. EDT, 3:30 p.m. Indiana time.
To learn more about the show, go to Crossfire's website.
Monday, October 18, 2004
Geneva, Ind. Fire Department Celebrates 100th Anniversary
Past and present members of the Geneva Fire Department were honored in a recent ceremony marking the department's 100th anniversary.
Read more about it in the Decatur Daily Democrat.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Congress votes to raise military pay
Monday, October 11, 2004
News clips from the weekend
Over the weekend, The Washington Times quoted Congressman Pence about legislation to overhaul the nation's intelligence services and implement the 9-11 Commission's findings. Click here for the story.
Wedding bells in the Pence office
One of the biggest joys about this job is not only getting to represent my fellow Hoosiers in Congress but also watching my staff mature. Today I'd like to draw attention to a staff member who hails from eastern Indiana and has become an invaluable member of our team--Ryan Fisher.
Ryan is our legislative director and a native of my hometown of Columbus, Indiana. He has the monumental task of directing, tracking and advising me on all the legislation that comes through my office.
It was the distinct privilege of my wife Karen and I to attend Ryan's wedding, even though we were in the midst of wrapping up our legislative session Saturday.
Hoosiers can be proud of Ryan as a local boy who makes them proud as he serves them.
On behalf of Karen and the entire Pence office, I wish Ryan and his new bride Tara many years of happiness together!
108th Congress finished...for now
Amidst a flurry of late session activity that included a number of late nights and even a Saturday session, the House of Representatives finished the work of the 108th Congress...for now.
Among our accomplishments just this weekend included passage of the American Jobs Creation Act, the 9-11 Recommendations Implementation Act as well as bills providing funding for the Defense and Homeland Security Departments. Of course, as sometimes happens in election years, we may end up coming back after the election for a "lame duck" session to vote on the conference report on the 9-11 bill.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Pence briefs district media on accomplishments of 108th Congress
To read the transcript of Pence's statement to the media, click here.
House is hopeful about implementing intelligence reform
Read about it in the Washington Times.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Today's agenda: Implementation of 9-11 Commission's recommendations
Today and tomorrow the House will consider important legislation based on the recommendations made in the 9-11 Commission Report. The improvements brought about by this legislation will be numerous, but I wanted to specifically mention a few of them.
Most importantly, the 9-11 Commission Implementation Act will create a National Intelligence Director with the authority to oversee all U.S. intelligence gathering and ensure the sharing of information between the different intelligence-gathering agencies.
Additionally, the bill will authorize officials to target and track so-called “lone-wolf” terrorists acting independently of any known terror organization. While Al-Qaeda certainly remains America’s biggest threat, we must not limit our ability to hunt down terrorists acting alone.
Recognizing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, this bill will also triple the number of immigration enforcement agents we have at our borders in an effort to prevent terrorists from entering our country and striking from within.
These key changes along with a host of others included in the 9-11 Commission Implementation Act will go a long way toward providing for the defense of our homeland.
- Mike Pence
The Hill: 'Pence says he won't serve two masters'
Congressman Pence explains his decision to step down from his position in the House leadership as Deputy Majority Whip in order to focus on his new job as Chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Today's agenda: Hurricane Relief for Florida
As Congress winds down its work for the fall before adjourning, just a few bills remain to be voted on...but they are extremely important bills nonetheless.
Today the House will consider a bill that would provide emergency relief to folks in Florida who have suffered damage from hurricanes.
I have been horrified at the images on TV the past few weeks of the devastation caused by these monster storms. My prayers are with the people of Florida as they work to rebuild, what for many are shattered dreams and lives. However, I do believe it is important to provide this necessary relief in a responsible way. My colleagues on the Republican Study Committee will be introducing legislation today that will help pay for this relief in other areas of the budget so no further debt is incurred on the backs of the American taxpayer.
Stay tuned for an update as we prepare to consider legislation that will implement many of the 9-11 Commission's recommendations and a bill to create more jobs.
--Mike Pence
House Votes Down Bill to Reinstate the Draft
Before I get to today's agenda, I think it's worth addressing something extremely interesting that happened in the House yesterday. By a vote of 402 to 2, the House soundly defeated a bill brought by Rep. Charlie Rangel that would have reinstated the draft.
Hopefully this puts to rest the baseless rumors that are flying around in some circles that President Bush has a "secret plan" to reinstate the draft. Ridiculous! Read more about this vote on today's Wall Street Journal editorial page.
--Mike Pence
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
The Hill looks at conservative strategizing on Capitol Hill
Click here to read the story.
Monday, October 04, 2004
House votes on Marriage Protection Amendment
Read more in the Agape Press.
Friday, October 01, 2004
Sixth District fire departments receive grants
Pence responds to critical Indianapolis Star column
Indiana University professor Sheila Suess Kennedy had a column in the Indy Star yesterday critiquing some of Congressman Pence's recent votes in the House.
Pence sent the following letter to the Star in response to Kennedy's column:
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to an editorial that ran on your pages Thursday, September 30 that was authored by a friend of mine, Sheila Suess Kennedy.
Unfortunately, Sheila used a tactic common to the far left, namely mischaracterize and then demonize the position conservatives like me have taken. Specifically, she wrote about legislation taken up recently in the Congress that attempts to ensure that the will of the people is heard on some of the most important social issues of our time.
The Constitution of the United States begins with the phrase, “We the people…” As much as it may surprise and irritate my friends on the far left, our founding fathers saw the people of this great nation as ultimately sovereign.
While the Supreme Court was vested with plenary authority over our system of justice, that power is restrained by checks and balances to ensure the people of the United States remain sovereign.
One such check and balance was written into the Constitution in Article Three, which reads in part, “the Supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.”
In plain terms, the people’s Congress has the express authority to remove issues from the jurisdiction of the federal courts. Over the life of our nation, Congress has limited the courts’ jurisdiction in many ways.
Even the most casual observer over the past 40 years knows that activist judges, who are not elected, have been busy redefining many aspects of our national life from prayer in public places to when life begins, and are now bent on changing the definition of marriage.
As Sheila observed, I have strongly supported efforts to protect marriage and the words “under God” in our pledge by limiting the jurisdiction of the courts.
I did so because I believe, as did President Abraham Lincoln when he denounced the 5-4 decision in the Dred Scott case of 1856, that “we the people” are sovereign. Not the Supreme Court.
In challenging the Supreme Court’s decision in the infamous Dred Scott case, a case that enshrined slavery in the new territories as the law of the land, President Lincoln said, “The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government…is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court…the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
In the wake of 40 years of judicial activism that redefines everything from our ability to pray in public, the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage, it seems we have moved dangerously close to vesting our most cherished institutions to the “eminent tribunal.”
I know my friend Sheila, a strong supporter of civil liberties, believes that President Lincoln’s willingness to confront the proslavery decision of the Supreme Court in 1860 was Constitutional. I am just not sure why she believes that the effort of modern conservatives to challenge more recent wrong-headed pronouncements is not.
- Congressman Mike Pence
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