WASHINGTON (KETK) – The U.S. tax filing deadline will be extended three months to July 15, according to Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.

Earlier in the week, Mnuchin and President Trump had mentioned during a press conference in the video above that the deadline could be moved for those that owed the IRS money on their 2019 tax returns.

This announcement appears to extend that initial idea to all tax return filers in the country.

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding his request to read the revisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act:

"Last night some of the elected members of Congress heard that substantial changes were being made to H.R. 6201, the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” that the House passed in the wee hours Saturday morning without being afforded the luxury of time to read the final bill before we voted.  I read the 9pm version but was given no time to read or compare the midnight version. 

Once again, because the Saturday morning bill was rushed so hysterically to passage, it requires more pages of changes, supposedly about 46 pages of 'technical corrections,' some of which are truly substantive and not just “technical” corrections to a bill that was 110 pages long. The last draft of the 'technical changes' I saw was 87 pages long. The Democrats are writing the so-called 'corrections' as we speak. Having someone here in DC prepared to object forces the Democrat leadership to at least have the law changes drafted before they are approved by a Unanimous Consent vote. I cannot in good conscience give my consent to something that has not been finished or made available to Members of Congress before it is up for a vote.

This coronavirus is doing enough damage to people without Congress compounding the problem to rush through a bill and another corrected bill just to say we did something. We should be attempting to minimize the damage, not piling on. My constituents did not elect the California delegation to represent them, they elected me—and that’s what I am trying to do. 

I will not give my consent without first reading these very serious changes that will hopefully minimize bankruptcies caused by the virus rather than causing more. The final draft has still not been finished. I have spoken with Kevin McCarthy and the President who both understand my concerns. Its easy to talk to the President when we completely share the same driving desire to make America even greater."

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement on his vote against H.R. 6201, "Families First Coronavirus Response Act":

"In the wee hours of Saturday morning the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a bill to address economic issues that the Coronavirus may cause. There is so much we do not know about what this pandemic will do, but I am extremely grateful to our President for his unwavering, steadfast efforts to tackle this pandemic head on. There was a great deal more money in the original bill this week going to things that had nothing to do with our Coronavirus national emergency – including a provision that provided for federally funded abortions.

Our President stood firm on things that needed to be in there and to take out things that did not. As a good leader does, he left the specific language of the bill to the so-called experts in Congress. However, the actual wording is too often done by staff members who have never run a business, filed a quarterly tax report, or ever had to cut expenses to stay in business.

As a judge, I was often frustrated by careless wording of a statute which initially looked all right until there was a controversy. Without business experience, staffers worded laws without a thorough review and revision so damages were created that no federal, state or local government could ever make whole again. When I ran for Congress, I was determined that, if elected, I was going to try to see that we did not vote for such careless wording that has real consequences to real people. 

Then on arriving in Congress, it was appalling how often on very critical bills, the main concern was getting something done so we could say we passed a bill, rather than spending the time necessary to protect people and their businesses with carefully considered and constructed legislation.

I was proud of the work the President did negotiating, especially calling the Speaker’s bluff when she demanded a vote on Thursday because she was going to leave and not be there on Friday. Then she said she would not be here on Saturday so we had to vote right away to pass a bill before we knew what was in it. But with this bill, President Trump made clear that he did not want to destroy small businesses in our effort to help those who could not help themselves in this crisis.

As the bill kept changing, we were having trouble getting copies of the latest version. I was reading the version I got around 9 pm Friday or shortly thereafter. I had noted some concerns in that version that might do more harm than good. The Rules Committee that has to vote on the rules to bring the final bill to the floor had to recess to await the language of that final bill. But they never got the bill or had a hearing on it.

It is also important to understand that when a bill is drafted, it normally has many pages of striking certain language and substituting other language, or adding additional language, or sometimes just deleting words or provisions of a current law. In order to truly understand the effect of a new bill like the one last night, one really needs to look at the underlying laws being changed and read them with the new language added and old words deleted. The language of the new law is not present in the bill, only the changes that are being made to the original law. There was no time for any of that careful review for the bill last night. 

Final text of the bill was publicly released at apparently 11:57 pm. The new bill was 110 pages, while the 9 pm version was 108 pages. I did not even have time to do a side-by-side to see what was different. 

An example of concerns, this caught by Congressman Dan Bishop, is that it looks like a worker will be worse off under this bill by getting paid up to 10 weeks of wages at the bill’s mandated 2/3’s rate as “public health emergency leave” instead of receiving workers compensation because workers comp is non-taxable though employer paid leave is taxable. That provision hurts the worker. Another issue that may tell you who did the lobbying, is that the sick leave and public health emergency leave mandated in the bill will largely substitute for workers compensation payments which would result in the payments being shifted away from the workers compensation insurance company and now be borne by the small business owner. We will find more of these problems as people now have time to see what we have done. 

I did know that the exemption language for businesses on the bottom of page 28 said: “Section 101(4)(A)(i) shall be applied by substituting ‘fewer than 500 employees’ for ‘50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year’ ” had moved to the top of page 29.  That is the manner in which most of the bill spoke.

That language, like most of the bill, really needed to be examined in context with existing law, but we, as elected officials, were not afforded the time to see what this language would do.  Apparently, we will leave that to some judge like I used to be to figure it out. But that will only come after some government bureaucrats use their own interpretation that could cause massive damages sufficient to cause a lawsuit, or that causes an affected business to go out of business.

House Rules would have required that the bill go through the Appropriations Committee, Ways & Means Committee then to the Rules Committee for examination by the Members of the Committees of Jurisdiction, holding hearings by each with an opportunity to amend mistakes. However, this is a crisis so some rules may have needed to be bypassed. We had already appropriated the billions of dollars needed to cover vaccines, medications, and medical care last week, so this was to address economic damages from the Coronavirus. The President has access to around $50 billion by virtue of his “National Emergency” declaration.  I did not understand why we had to shove this through in the wee hours of a Friday night/Saturday morning when the Senate won’t even return to start looking at this until Monday.

This newest bill adds billions of dollars to our deficit. We just needed to make sure we did not make our economic problems bigger. It might have been worth spending another 12 to 24 hours to make sure we did not do something to destroy small businesses that took lifetimes or even generations to build up. After all, a majority of employees and new jobs in America are in small businesses, although that has slipped with the Congress giving big banks and big businesses the means to drive out small banks and businesses, despite the intentions of most of Congress. 

There were a number of things that concerned me as I read through this bill. For example, if you had a business and wanted to go above and beyond any requirements for paid family leave for your employees that was even more than the two weeks paid family leave the bill required, you got punished by having to add another 14 days onto the days you already provided. That doesn’t make sense.

If you have not provided any paid family leave days, you only have to meet the new 14-day requirement. If that were the only concern, I might have had to vote for it anyway. Sure I get it that the requirement that 72 hours must be provided between the time a bill is filed and the time we vote on it must sometimes be ignored, but that 72 hours here might really make a difference in minimizing damage that Congress causes in these fraudulent cliff hanger situations. The President had time and as I stated earlier, the Senate will not return to look at this bill until Monday. What’s the rush?

We should have taken the time. This crucial bill was not even given the normal amount of time to debate it on the House floor. I rushed over to the floor hoping to get some questions answered during debate, or at least before we voted, but there was no time for answering all the questions or even properly examining the bill after it was filed. Just vote and be on our way. We voted, and I truly had wanted to vote yes, but could not for a bill that created so many concerns without time to examine whether some of our language did more harm than good. 

The bill does raise a new question: with the new requirements for businesses we were not able to adequately consider, will the government pay for people’s sick leave, family leave and vacation time after the business goes bankrupt and has to shut down and can no longer pay anyone for anything? I am very concerned that yet again, the drafters listened to the biggest businesses and may have helped them drive the little guys out of business. 

We have seen all of this before as Nancy Pelosi always wants us to pass bills to find out what’s in them. They wrote it, and we didn’t even have the language but for a very short time before we voted on it in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I trust our President, but I do not trust this Speaker at all. I have already been to this rodeo too many times. 

Unfortunately, now that it has passed the House, we will find out what this bill actually does. Hopefully, the Senate will take the time to clean up the damage our bill caused and not just rubber stamp it, so I can vote for the bill that they send back to the House. Unfortunately, there are editors and commentators who are more concerned with appearances or “just doing something even if it is wrong” who will condemn my trying to push the House to do the RIGHT thing instead of ANYthing. 

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement on his and Congress’ status regarding the Coronavirus:

“As reported earlier this week, I attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. on February 27th.  A person who is confirmed to have attended the opening festivities of the conference the night before which I did not, and who may or may not have been present when I was there to give a speech, later tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

After speaking at length last weekend with doctors from the Capitol’s Attending Physician and a top medical doctor at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), I heeded the advice to return to work in Washington because I was not exhibiting any symptoms whatsoever of the virus. Even though it is now not clear at all whether I had any exposure to COVID-19, it has now been over 14 days and I have remained completely asymptomatic. 

Here in D.C. I was examined by the Attending Physician’s office and after consulting together, the healthcare professionals there declined to do the full COVID-19 test because I exhibited no symptoms.

In any event based on a significant amount of information from some of the best physicians and healthcare providers in the country, it is still very good advice for anyone who has any pre-existing health conditions, especially lung conditions, to be careful to limit public exposure, to observe very constant hygienic protocols such as regular washing or sanitizing of hands, as well as limiting contact with people if you yourself exhibit any symptoms at all of the COVID-19. 

Last week Congress appropriated approximately $8 billion to address the need for current and future healthcare needs including vaccines, medications, and all forms of healthcare itself to address, mitigate, and hopefully eliminate problems with and from COVID-19 for the next few years. 

At the current time, the Democrat majority leadership in the House has taken very limited input from its own Members and virtually none from the Republicans and wants to spend perhaps one hundred billion dollars or more for a government takeover of personal as well as private business decisions and control. 

Hopefully, we can get at least some of the good stimulus ideas the President has proposed including the income tax holiday I proposed 12 years ago as an alternative to avoid rewarding Wall Street firms whose policies brought us to the brink of ruin since I wanted to send help where it was needed. That plan simply allows people to keep their own tax money rather than send it to Washington for a limited period of time, and my plan was paid for from funds already appropriated. 

Since we have appropriated money to deal with the healthcare aspects of COVID-19, some of us suggested we should stay in Washington until we can work out an appropriate solution for economic issues the virus may create, which should not include a government takeover of the personal lives of our citizens. Whether that will be done remains to be seen. The Speaker has indicated she does not plan to be in Washington tomorrow/Friday regardless of whether an actual solution is reached.” 

As a reminder of what we have been told by healthcare professionals, these symptoms of Coronavirus (respiratory illness caused by a new virus) may appear 2-14 days after exposure:

• Fever

• Cough/sore throat

• Shortness of breath

We have also been told that if anyone exhibits symptoms of the Coronavirus, call your doctor or healthcare facility before traveling to their location, so you can receive instructions on what is the best course of action for you to take. For most Americans who may contract this virus, it is not fatal. It will cause the individual to feel miserable as with a respiratory flu. But check with your doctor if you have any symptoms.

 

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding reports that he was exposed to COVID-19:

"Saturday night, I got a call from the House physician advising that I had possibly been exposed to the COVID-19 virus at CPAC on February 27th, and that a top CDC physician in Atlanta would call me to discuss what should be done going forward. After CDC physician called me Sunday evening, and we discussed all the specific circumstances of which he was aware along with my circumstances, including that I was and am asymptomatic, he said that all things considered, I was cleared to return to Washington. He said he would return if he were me and advised that my staff and I should just be careful to observe proper hygiene protocols.  I took the advice of the expert and returned to work. No one is panicking and we are observing the recommended precautions." Read More

Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement on his vote against H.R. 35, "To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act":

"Lynching is one of the most heinous forms of murder. It absolutely deserves to be treated as a capital crime, and those who directly participate in lynching should rightly be subjected to a harsh penalty. However, H.R. 35 makes conspiring to commit civil rights violations a federal crime without a proper nexus. Moreover, the maximum prison sentence allotted in the bill is 10 years. This is an outrageously low maximum sentence for such an odious crime. It almost trivializes such a heinous offense.

Previous versions of H.R. 35 contained much stronger language than that of the bill we voted on today. A version of the bill released on January 3 of this year stated that anyone who assembles with the intention of lynching or who causes death by lynching 'shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.' The bill we voted on today does not include this clause. Instead, the language of H.R. 35 that was brought to the House Floor for a vote contains diluted language that does not provide a proper avenue for punishment. Under Texas law, such an offense can and does merit capital punishment as the two most culpable killers of James Byrd received.

Such a hateful crime deserves a severe sentence, and I could not in good conscience vote on a bill that addresses lynching on such a low level. I commend Congressman Bobby Rush for the work he has done and the injustices he continues to fight, which I personally conveyed to him on the House floor. My personal statement publicly on the House floor can also be viewed giving more detail." (link to Floor speech:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofR0yr-R-tI&feature=youtu.be )

 

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) is the recipient of FRC Action’s True Blue award for the first session of the 116th Congress. The honor is reserved for lawmakers who earn a 100 percent score on FRC Action’s scorecard for unfaltering support for policies which defend faith, freedom and family. 

“It’s an honor to receive this award rooted in American principles which most people in Texas’ First District hold dear to their hearts. Family Research Center and it’s legislative affiliate, FRC Action, have been steadfast in their mission to advocate on behalf of policies which embrace freedom, promote family values and uphold the sanctity of life and I am proud to be the recipient of the True Blue award and all that it represents. For years, I have consistently received a 100% rating for FRC’s scorecard and simply will not waver in my dedication to the Constitution and the liberty of all Americans. It is my promise to east Texans to continue to fight in Washington, DC, for values we in east Texas hold dear.” 

The FRC Action scorecard consists of votes on numerous pro-life and religious liberty, and family issues.

To view the scorecard, click HERE ((hyperlink: https://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?c=FRCA_SCORECARD&scorecard=scorecard_house>.))

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Each year, Americans for Limited Government recognizes a few Members of Congress for going above and beyond in the fight for liberty. This year, three Members are going to be recognized for their outstanding exploits.

Representative Louie Gohmert is a familiar face in the media as a defender of limited government values, and in his capacity as a Member of the House Judiciary Committee, in 2019, he has been one of the President’s most ferocious defenders against the abuses of power in the Department of Justice and the intelligence community as a whole.

But that is not the main reason why Gohmert was recognized.  The temptation for Members of Congress when their political party goes out of power is to either quit Congress or stop trying to accomplish big things.  That is not what Louie Gohmert did.

Instead, Representative Gohmert used his experience as a former Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Army to review the cases of and advocate for U.S. servicemembers who have been wrongly convicted for actions on the battlefield. Determined to ensure that those who have courageously served our nation receive the same basic rights which they have risked their lives to preserve, Gohmert is the founding co-chairman of the House Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus.

Gohmert and his staff’s effort and dedication to justice bore fruit when in November of 2019, President Donald Trump signed a full pardon for Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, Army Major Mathew Golsteyn and an order directing the promotion of Navy Seal Edward Gallagher to the rank of E-7, the rank he held prior to being tried and found not guilty of nearly all the charges against him.

Today, Representative Gohmert continues to courageously fight for our nation’s war fighters who have been unjustly accused and, in some cases, wrongly convicted.

There are many freedom battles to fight in Washington, DC, and Representative Louie Gohmert is in the middle of many of them. His fight for justice for our nation’s war fighters who have been cast into prison for doing their jobs and protecting their fellow servicemembers and our nation as a whole takes a special courage as he faces a military establishment more interested in reputation than the rule of law.

In the Bible in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus opens the scroll and reads from Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

In remembering and fighting to free our nation’s unjustly imprisoned warriors, Representative Louie Gohmert not only is upholding the sacred principle of innocent until proven guilty imbedded in our laws, he is also meeting the higher Christian calling to remember the least of these.

Due to this long-time commitment to freedom and justice for all, Americans for Limited Government proudly recognized Representative Louie Gohmert with our 2019 Defender of Liberty Award.

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding his vote against repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002:

“The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2002 is outdated, overbroad, and needs to be replaced. However, rather than working with Republicans for a bipartisan way to do that, Democrats raced to get a quick vote during the week of impeachment to strip the President of power to deal with terrorists and terrorist-supporting countries at the worst possible time. Completely repealing the AUMF without a replacement will seriously hamper President Trump’s authority to defend the United States from terrorist organizations. Even worse, this vote in the House is sending a message to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Russia, & China that our President is in a weakened position. To strip him of power to take action in Iraq also tells Iran that any attacks on the US should come through Iraq. History teaches a severe lesson that ‘Weakness is provocative.’ If you want more terrorist attacks on your people, your embassies, or your assets, let terrorists see Congress take this action.  Under the current rules, they launched rockets into the Green Zone striking our embassy just four days ago. I want a new AUMF, but this is a political stunt that puts Americans at risk through Democrats irrational efforts to hurt President Trump.”  

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today regarding his vote against the Democrats’ War Powers Resolution, H. Con. Res. 83, which will prevent the President from engaging in hostilities against Iran:

"Iran has been waging an actual war against the United States since 1979 after President Carter welcomed the Ayatollah back to Iran as a “Man of Peace.” General Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top terrorist commander, was responsible for the murder of hundreds of American troops and the maiming of many times more than that. Having been the subject of a previous U.N. travel ban, Soleimani had traveled extensively and on this occasion he was traveling to different countries organizing more attacks on Americans. It is incredible that some here in Congress have more apparent sympathy for a terrorist murderer than for the vast Americans he murdered.”

“This resolution presented on the House Floor today, H. Con. Res. 83, is designed to weaken our President at the very moment this nation should be standing in solidarity with him and against the terrorist aggression he is actually trying to stop. The sham impeachment has encouraged our enemies enough already.  Now, instead of working together in a bipartisan effort to amend the existing Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Speaker Pelosi has once again chosen to place her personal abhorrence for President Trump over our own national security. As great American leaders have learned, weakness is provocative and gets Americans tortured and killed.” 

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