AFA of PA ACTION ALERT

January 3, 2019

Issue

Ask President Trump to Veto This Bill

Details

Too often bad things happen during a lame duck session and this time it is no different.  

Some background:  Back in November 2017, Paul Ryan rammed through HR 4174 two days after introduction and the House passed it by voice vote.  The Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act was then sent to the Senate where, because of citizen outrage, it quietly lay until taken up on December 19, 2018 when the Senate passed an amended H.R. 4174.

The House then passed the amended version on December 21st.   There was hardly any debate on the bill and the House’s December 21st vote was the only roll call vote; all other votes were voice vote only, so there is no record.   Note:  Scott Perry was the only PA Republican to vote against the final bill; Lou Barletta and Bill Shuster did not vote.)  The bill now lies on President Trump’s desk. 

Some problems with this bill:

  1. The bill mandates linking and sharing of individually identifiable information among multiple federal agencies.  It would create a ‘unified evidence-building plan’ for the entire federal government — a de facto national database. 
  2. It will track individuals through most of their lives in the name of better information for the benefit of others.  Think cradle to grave date collection by the federal government.
  3. The federal government has already proven itself incapable of protecting the data it already possesses.  How will it protect the additional information it will glean if this becomes law?
  4. Joy Pullman writes, “One of the major intents of collecting education information is to integrate it into economic planning. You read that right: Republicans are helping accelerate the United States towards a planned economy, despite its well-known and horrific failures…”
  5. Attorney Jane Robbins writes, “In a free society, the government is subordinate to the citizen. If it wants to use his data for something he didn’t agree to, it should first obtain his consent. [The Ryan-Murray bill] operates according to the contrary principle – that government is entitled to do whatever it wants with a citizen’s data and shouldn’t be hindered by his objection.”
  6. This would place the government in a position to intimidate its citizens.

Action Steps

Click here to ask President Trump to veto HR 4174.

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