Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which he voted against this afternoon, due to the rejection of the Hartzler Amendment by the U.S. House of Representatives: 

“Today the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018. Though there were some additional matters that I sincerely hoped would be changed, I made clear to our Whip Team that I would indeed vote for the NDAA as long as the Hartzler Amendment language had been added. Sadly, this amendment was narrowly defeated last night by a vote of 214-209; and therefore, the amendment language was not included in the NDAA on the House Floor today.”

“For context, this nation is engaged in an undeclared war with some of the most ruthless, evil, heinous, malevolent, tortuous, destructive enemies in the world’s history. It even appears they have taken some of their tactics and killing methods from others of the historically most evil. They absolutely must be defeated and destroyed. There is no middle ground with people religiously inspired to do the most despicable things.”

“Additionally, President Obama left our military weaker than at any time since before World War II, even as the world has become far more dangerous. A difference in now and before World War II is that the nation was morally far less divided, and no one was going to be in the military if they were suffering from gender confusion. As a result of decades of the most extremely ardent political lobbying, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for providing appropriate terms for diagnosing conditions, transgender individuals are still considered to be confused. Transgender Dysphoria, (synonymous with “anxiety, depression, melancholy, restlessness” per Thesaurus.com), is the newest term of diagnosis.”

“Before and during World War II, the military had a singular focus. A commander did not spend his or her day compiling reports on such things as transgender sex change request status, sexual harassment status, equal opportunity developments and status, ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ information status though President Clinton’s original policy has significantly changed, all rather than solely being most singularly focused on defeating an evil enemy who is plotting and planning our demise. 

“Commanders have advised that if a military member approaches them and wants a sex change operation, the commander’s career is over if they encouraged the man or woman to seek counseling or more information or even simply to give it more thought. They say that for the normal minimum two years of all the pre-surgery hormonal treatments, actual surgery and post-surgical rehab and adjustments that make the military member undeployable, they are not provided a replacement for that slot in their unit. Thus, the more who request sex change operations, the fewer military members there are available to fight and deter our enemies from killing us or taking our freedom. This will become a fantastic recruiting tool for those who want to get paid themselves as they live in free housing while going through the multi-year process of changing what Nature, Nature’s God, and the individual’s chromosomes say they are.”

“We were advised in a Republican conference meeting that the projected 10-year cost will be $3-4 billion that could be used to actually defend our homeland and liberty. That projected cost is before the military becomes known as the place to have an all-expenses paid sex change surgery, including meals and housing. Medical costs for just one gender reassignment surgery can average up to $130,000, including lifetime hormone treatments, in addition to their overhead and salary costs for the minimum two-year period when they are in a non-deployable status. Regrettably, this policy prevents others, willing and able, from fighting in their stead to protect this nation.”

“Even the first hospital in the United States to ever conduct same sex surgeries, Johns Hopkins, stopped the surgeries decades later because they did not appear to be making the changed person’s life better and they might have been making their lives worse. That concern was shown to be legitimate by the most thorough study, covering about 30 years, of people who had the sex change surgery. The study established the fact that after the surgery the patient was 20 times more likely to commit suicide. This all comes at a time when active duty military suicides and veteran suicides have been at an all time high.

“I do want to thank Rules Chairman Pete Sessions for making the amendment in order so we could at least have a chance to stop using the military as the sex change surgery place to go. He was very helpful in our efforts to stop the use of our limited military funds for this practice. I also am grateful to Chairman Mac Thornberry for his tireless efforts to try to put together the best budget authorization that would allow our military to do their jobs in protecting America. He could not control what the vote on any issue would be. Both Chairmen, in fact, voted FOR the Hartzler Amendment as well, and we are grateful.  

“It is nonetheless an exceedingly sad day for this experiment in self-government called the United States of America. My heart continues to break for this previously God-blessed country.”

In the realm of the rights of each individual State, nothing should be more sacred than a State’s right to make its own laws regarding its own lawsuits, pending in its own State courts. Activities that occurred wholly within the State’s own borders, involving people that are all residents of that specific State, fall under the State’s own jurisdiction. That would normally be what informally is called a “no-brainer.” But, not so fast – not while the United States Congress is in session.

Here’s what the founders agreed upon in the 10^th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The founders wrote this provision to round out the Top Ten Amendments called the “Bill of Rights,” with the hope that the federal government would be one of limited power, subject to the will of the people – not the massive, meddling, domineering, all-powerful bureaucracy that controls today. James Madison contoured the Bill of Rights in order to fulfill the promise that, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

In discussions over the questionable propriety of the United States Congress taking complete control over state court lawsuits, I and others stressed that we should not be doing this.

Republican Members of Congress asked, “Louie, don’t you want other states to have the good tort reform that Texas had?”

My answer has been, “That is completely up to each state.”

“No, Louie, we need to help them!”

And we know what Reagan said about the federal government being here to help you.

As a result of the Republican controlled Congress coming to “help” states with their own tort law, we are stepping in where even liberal Democrats have feared to tread because it was so clearly intruding into state law.

You may wonder what is the nominal basis for this intrusion. The federal nexus, we are told, is that if there are federal dollars used in any aspect of the healthcare, then our newly created federal state law reforms supersede your state laws. We are supposed to be comforted by the provision that if your state legislature has made your state’s tort laws more conservative than the federal law, then our federal creation will not supersede your state law.

The danger warnings are sounding loud and clear for some of us. The subliminal warnings that Republican leaders are not hearing are saying:

IF REPUBLICANS PREEMPT STATE LAWS TO MAKE THEM MORE CONSERVATIVE, THEN IMMEDIATELY UPON DEMOCRATS GETTING A MAJORITY AGAIN, THEY WILL STRIP OUT ALL STATE TORT REFORMS IN EVERY STATE!

In Texas, those reforms were the result of a long, difficult battle that will not likely be won again.

You probably wondered – what is the incentive to put all the state tort reforms at risk, since conservatives have worked so hard to get them in so many states?  The answer is: MONEY.

According to the (usually wrong, but never in doubt) Congressional Budget Office (CBO), there is an illusory amount of hundreds of billions of dollars that will be saved. This is despite the CBO margin of error for their score on Obamacare ultimately being somewhere above 260%, plus or minus. With the horrendous lack of accuracy by CBO, their assessments should not be worthy of serious consideration.

The United States Congressional Republicans often point to the tort reform passed in Texas as the model to replicate. However, now that Congress has shown that it is OK to marginalize states’ rights in their own state courts, those reforms will be killed and removed just as soon as a Democrat swings the gavel again in Washington.

Repealing state tort law in state courts around the country is a night into which we should not go gently, but the United States House of Representatives just went there.

As for any other areas of law specifically reserved to the states and the people, Washington Republicans have now established that if you can find any federal money anywhere in the system (which you always can now), the United States Congress has a superior right to take over your state and local laws.

Ding Dong – the 10th Amendment is dead . . . almost.

Congressman Louie Gohmert is the Vice Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and the Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. He is also a member of the House Freedom Caucus. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals.

URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/29/dont-let-congress-seize-control-of-state-malpractice-laws/

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding the Trump Administration’s release of a proposed rule that will kill the Obama Administration’s “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) Rule by re-codifying the Clean Water Act as it existed prior to 2015:

“Washington bureaucrats in cubicles should not be deciding the fate of our waterways, nor should they be allowed to completely and arbitrarily control the economic fate of landowners even to the point of ending their ability to make a living. Unelected bureaucrats have, for years, been enviously dreaming of the day they could control American landowners' property by the backdoor methods of completely controlling everything involving water on or near the land.”

“Repealing the Obama Administration’s WOTUS Rule is essential in getting the federal government out of everyday farming operations. It is neither right nor fair to subject producers and landowners to jurisdictional protocols and extraordinary levels of compliance charges. Today the EPA took a giant step forward in safeguarding the water rights of hard-working Americans and ending the federal power grab the Obama Administration engineered. It is a victory for those who love liberty and something called private property.”

Congressman Gohmert is the Vice Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals.

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“Traditionally most Americans have done all they can to protect the innocent among us. That has been an important part of my life’s work as well. So, it should come as no surprise that I have been and am pushing for legislation that promises to protect our most vulnerable in society – unborn children.”

“It is ultimately imperative that a caring parent, with the child's best interest at heart, should be a part of a decision-making process of this magnitude. It is simply astounding that a child cannot consent to have ears pierced or to take an aspirin without parental consent; however, in some states that very child can have a devastating, life altering and life-ending abortion procedure without any input or guidance from her parents and/or guardians.”

“Sadly, without a federal law in place, even in states with parental notification laws, parental guidance is taken out of the equation. This should not be the case. An important governmental role is to protect the lives of those who are unable to protect themselves.”

“Parents should have the legal right to stop an abortion from being performed on their minor daughter. This legislation, with the limited exception being the safety of the minor, will give back to the parents of minors their rightful voice in a decision that ultimately will forever alter a child’s life.”

Read the text of the bill, here.

Congressman Gohmert is the Vice Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals.

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Read the text of the bill, here.

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Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert unloaded on the media and Obama-era holdovers at the Department of Justice on Wednesday after the FBI announced that it was treating last week’s attempted mass assassination of Republican congressmen as “assault” rather than terrorism.

Gohmert said that the FBI’s refusal to label the attack as terrorism indicates that there are too many officials from the previous administration in the DOJ and charged that the left-wing shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, was conditioned by “hate-filled propaganda” from the media and some Democrats. (RELATED: NYT Uses GOP Shooting To Falsely Attack Sarah Palin With Debunked Conspiracy Theory)

“It is absurd to state that the shooting in Alexandria last week was, at a minimum, a hate-filled attempt at murder. This horrendous crime was clearly a premeditated, attempted multiple or mass murder,” Gohmert said in a written statement to The Daily Caller. “Sadly, the shooter was a product of the relentless conditioning of hate-filled propaganda pushed by the so-called mainstream media and certain supporters of the Democratic party.”

“This vicious rhetoric encourages followers to incite violence, which in and of itself is a crime. It sounds like there are still far too many holdovers in the Department of Justice from the Obama years, who detest Republicans,” Gohmert added. (RELATED: Shooting At GOP Baseball Practice Latest In Pattern Of Violence Against Republicans)

“At this time the FBI has assessed that the deceased shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, acted alone. We also assess that there was no nexus to terrorism. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an assault of a member of Congress and assault on a law enforcement officer,” said Vale. (RELATED: FBI Claims Attempted GOP Assassinations Are ‘Assault’ — NOT Terrorism)

The FBI also confirmed Wednesday that Hodgkinson had a list of six Republican lawmakers on his person at the time of the shooting. The list’s existence was first reported by TheDC. Hodgkinson also researched the Republican National Convention the night before the shooting, the FBI said.

“For those still wondering, he didn’t hate baseball or beautiful summer mornings in June,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said last week in reference to TheDC’s reporting on the list. “He hated Republicans.”

Hodgkinson opened fire on GOP lawmakers and staffers with a rifle and a pistol last Wednesday as they prepared for the annual summer baseball game between Republicans and Democrats. The shooter wounded four people, including Scalise and a staffer for Texas Rep. Roger Williams, before heroically being taken down by Capitol Police officers.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who was at the practice but escaped unharmed, said that if not for the two police officers — who were members of Scalise’s security detail — “it would have been a massacre.”

Hodgkinson’s social media profile revealed the 66-year-old was an angry left-winger who believed President Trump is a “traitor.” Hodgkinson also belonged to several anti-GOP Facebook groups, including one called “Terminate The Republican Party.” The members of that group celebrated Hodgkinson’s violent actions immediately after the shooting. He expressed his belief in one Facebook post that “It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was quick to disavow Hodgkinson after learning the shooter had volunteered on his 2016 presidential campaign. Law enforcement officials revealed on Wednesday that Hodgkinson visited Sanders’ Washington, D.C. office during the time he spent in the nation’s capital leading up to the shooting, which took place in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Hodgkinson did not meet Sanders during his visit to the socialist senator’s office, those authorities also said.

It’s the first year in many that Congressman Louie Gohmert wasn’t on the Alexandria baseball diamond, practicing for the charity game that Republicans and Democrats play annually.

But many of his friends were, and Gohmert says that Thursday night, he’ll be in the stands to support his colleagues and their staffers, and all who were affected by the Wednesday morning shooting of four people. The gunman, James T. Hodgkinson, of Bellevillle, Illinois, later died of his injuries.

“I’m usually out there,” said Gohmert. “But after the last few years, my wife convinced me I don’t need to be playing. After one game (several years ago), I needed rotator cuff surgery, and in another game, after a collision at home plate, I tore my ACL. We got the run, which is what counted, but it hurt.”

Gohmert called Wednesday’s shooting “tragic” and said it seemed to be politically motivated.

“When you look at what we know about this guy (Hodgkinson), it sure looks like he hates Republicans,” Gohmert said.

Rep. Joe Barton, whose district has included portions of East Texas, was at the scene. He manages the Republican team.

“The suspect was shooting at members and staff on the field,” Barton said. “Officers of the Capitol Police returned fire and ran toward the shooter, risking their lives while saving others. The incident lasted for approximately 10 minutes.”

Barton’s two sons were there, as well. Members of Congress tried to shield Barton’s 10-year-old behind a bench in the dugout. He said his sons “were very brave.”

Gohmert agreed, and also praised the Capitol police officers who stopped the gunman.

“They ran toward the gunfire. It was 10 minutes of hell out there on that field,” Gohmert said. “Our prayers are with the injured, and we’ll be there tomorrow night to show our support.”

http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-News+Local/288353/east-texas-congressman-reacts-to-wednesdays-shooting#.WUHPs7aU-1M.twitter

Being one of two people asked to honor Dr. James Dobson, Jr. at Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Patriots Gala, Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01), was pleased to deliver remarks regarding his friend, Dr. Dobson, who received the ‘Winston Churchill Man of the Year Award’ at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual conference.

“To be one of the two invited speakers to pay tribute to Dr. Dobson was an honor of extraordinary proportions because he has been helping families grow, proliferate, and even stay together when they would otherwise have split,” said Congressman Gohmert.

“My friend, Dr. James Dobson, loves God, loves Shirley, loves his own children; loves everyone else’s children; and loves all families. In fact, he has always known that they were a gift of God.” 

Below are excerpts of the remarks delivered by Congressman Gohmert during the Patriots Gala at the Omni Shoreham in front of the large ballroom packed with conference attendees at the featured dinner:

“Back in 1983, my wife, Kathy, and I had our first child, a daughter, but she was born in a hospital that must have had budget problems because they never gave us a manual telling us everything to do every day to take are of our new child. We weren’t sure how to raise a child in the ways of God’s love, but we had heard of Focus on the Family and Dr. James Dobson. Thank God for his books and videos and their timely help, without even knowing us then.

Dr. Dobson has not only nurtured and helped Kathy and me raise our children, he has done so for millions and millions of other families. He has made an absolutely marvelous difference for the good of families in America and around the world. Through the moral crisis that faces this nation, Dr. James Dobson has been a true asset, steadfast in pursuit of God’s wisdom and blessing on us all. It has been such a great honor to be to come to know him as a very dear friend. What an honor to get to publicly extol this man’s virtues.”   

In 1977, Dr. Dobson founded Focus on the Family, which he personally led as a beacon of light, hope and understanding until 2003. He also founded Family Talk in 2010 as a non-profit organization, again using Biblical principles as he encouraged, taught, and ministered to a nation that needed the Lord’s hope and encouragement which was played on over 300 stations nationwide. Believing also there was a need for a non-profit organization centered in Washington, D.C. that could respond to the ongoing war against anything Biblically-based.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Sunday that he believes there is a conspiracy within the Department of Justice to destroy President Trump.

“We have a conspiracy remaining afoot in the Department of Justice that is out to destroy this president and they’ve got to be fired, if not worse,” Gohmert told Fox News.

The Republican congressman took aim at fired FBI Director James Comey for not writing a memo detailing a meeting with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch during which she told Comey to refer to the Hillary Clinton email probe as a “matter” instead of an “investigation.”

Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that he wrote memos about his meetings with Trump.

“When he said that the president lied about him and he used the L-word, Comey was lying. How do we know? Look at all of the things he said. That was ridiculous to not have done a memo, and then I heard him say he had done the memo and then he talked with some of his colleagues,” the congressman said on Sunday.

Gohmert called for serious legal consequences for Justice Department officials Comey talked to regarding the memos.

“We need to round up everybody he talked to, because they were all conspiring against the president,” he said. 

The fact that America’s national security is being sacrificed by radical federal courts should spur Congress to act, says a conservative member of Congress.

Appearing Sunday on Fox News, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, remarked on how political correctness helps foment terror attacks like Saturday night’s tragedy in London — and how similar thinking in the United States judicial branch ought to be dealt with in light of the Constitution.

“There’s been a lot of P.C. here that has caused us problems,” Gohmert said, discussing such things as the Obama-era sterilization of FBI training documents and other issues. “And another problem – is a P.C. bunch of courts in the U.S. who have abandoned being United States courts and have taken on being world courts.”

“Their jurisdiction does not allow them to give Constitutional rights to people outside the United States. It does not give plaintiff standing,” he continued, “so, we’ve got some judges I think ought to be impeached and thrown out.”

With the tremendous amount of speculation surrounding how the second incarnation of the president’s partial travel moratorium will fare at the highest court in the land, Gohmert – a member of both the Judiciary Committee and House Freedom Caucus – said Congress should clearly exercise its constitutional powers over the judicial branch.

“At a minimum, we in Congress have got to make clear – we created those courts – every one except the Supreme Court – and we can take this travel ban issue right out from under their jurisdiction,” Gohmert explained. “They have no business ruling on that.”

Article III of the United States Constitution stipulates that Congress creates every federal court except the Supreme Court and controls their jurisdiction on almost all issues except the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, which is outlined in Section 2.

This means that Congress has the ability not only to impeach judges who rule contrary to the tenor of the document, but also to restrict federal courts from considering or ruling on specific areas of legislation or executive action – as is the basis of Conservative Review senior editor Daniel Horowitz’s 2016 book, “Stolen Sovereignty.”

“It is quite shocking how many people involved in politics, including elected conservative politicians, have no clue about the history of the judiciary,” Horowitz wrote in February of this year.

“Once Republican members of the legislative branch of government finally recognize the awesome nature of their power relative to that of the judiciary,” he continued, “they can finally appreciate that, as Madison said, “in republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today regarding President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord: 

"President Trump is entirely correct in withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. He has done what is best for the American people. Nothing is stopping any nation or business from voluntary participation in the standards agreed to by the previous administration that would have crippled our economy. Scores of nations around the world are again demanding that the U.S. must be part of this agreement for one main reason: the U.S. will be paying the rest of the world because we’ve been successful.”

“If people in America want to continue to be the most generous and charitable country in history, the crippling standards should remain voluntary. This agreement would not affect the environment in any significant way as the biggest polluters in the world would continue to pollute.”

“Whether we are part of this Accord or not, Americans will continue to make our environment better; so, it is grossly unfair to American citizens and businesses to sign an agreement that intentionally makes Americans far less competitive. In other words, it is the typical leftist agenda of mandating punishment for the most innovative and productive to benefit those who are not.

“It would be cheaper just to send all of the signatories a participation trophy and stay out of the self-punishing agreement. If we put America first, we can continue to be the most charitable nation in history. If we continue to hurt ourselves economically, there will be no nation left to be so kind and charitable. That is why I say sincerely, ‘Thank you, President Trump.’" 

Congressman Gohmert is the Vice Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and the Vice Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Prior to being elected to serve in Congress, he was elected to three terms as District Judge in Smith County, Texas and was appointed by then Texas Governor Rick Perry to complete a term as Chief Justice of the 12th Court of Appeals.

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