Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is touting this sweeping legislation as a win for transparency and election integrity. But that could not be farther from the truth.

In fact, the worst kept secret in Washington right now is that H.R. 1 isn’t for the people at all, it’s for the politicians. House Democrats are leveraging legitimate concerns about election integrity to rush this dangerous bill through Congress. It won’t make our elections safer, instead it will give House Democrats an advantage in future elections by eliminating nearly every institutional guardrail that preserves the sanctity of the ballot box today. Pelosi is opening the floodgates for almost anyone to submit a ballot, or even multiple ballots, regardless of eligibility.

It is a new partisan low, even by Washington standards.

At a time when we need to restore faith in our elections, H.R. 1 is an unconstitutional federal power grab that will pave the way for a system rife with errors and abuse. Here’s how.

First, H.R. 1 would prevent election officials from maintaining accurate voter lists and make it harder for them to determine if voters are registered in multiple jurisdictions. This increases the likelihood that voter rolls are outdated and inaccurate or contain ineligible voters.

Second, the bill would dramatically expand automatic voter registration. People who never even provide their consent could be added to voter rolls. H.R. 1 goes so far as designating colleges as automatic voter registration agencies and making it easier to harvest ballots.

Third, H.R. 1 would make same-day voter registration the national standard. Ballots would be cast and counted before officials even have time to verify a voter is eligible or the information provided by them is accurate. The majority of states do not have same-day voter registration, but H.R. 1 would overrule them and mandate it anyway.

The bill would also prohibit commonsense voter ID rules, require no-excuse absentee and early voting, permit felons to vote, and allow people to vote at the wrong polling place.

H.R. 1 is a recipe for disaster. I would know, having prevailed recently in the race for New York’s 22nd District after an exhaustive count that went on for nearly 100 days. In the run up to the 2020 election, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rushed through a series of executive orders that mirrored some of the exact policies now proposed in H.R. 1. The result in the 22nd District was one of the most poorly run elections in the country.

New York’s election debacle reveals H.R. 1’s real-world consequences. If you weaken election oversight, fail to protect ballot integrity, and force unfunded mandates on our communities like this bill does, the errors exposed in my race won’t be the exception, they will become the new norm. Republicans and Democrats alike have concluded that the mistakes made in New York’s 22nd District likely replicated themselves in contests throughout the state. If H.R. 1 had been law, more mistakes would have been made in this and other races. The new bureaucratic nightmare created by H.R. 1 would have made fair and transparent counts impossible.

It is clear we need reforms to increase transparency and restore confidence in our elections, but what Democrats are proposing would move us in the wrong direction. Election reforms must be targeted and respect the primary role of states in administering elections. Most of all, unlike H.R. 1, they must be fair and not deliberately benefit one party. The American people are demanding a commonsense framework for election reform that strengthens security without compromising integrity. H.R. 1 is focused on protecting House Democrats, not our sacred democratic principles.

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A strange hubris has descended on a segment of our American society ― that they are the ultimate arbiter of truth, righteousness and justice. All those who fall short of their recently discovered but unquestionably pure virtues must be stricken down.

Now petitions and counter-petitions are circulating to tear down statues of Christopher Columbus in Syracuse and in my own home city of Utica. Absurdly, the Utica petition faults the explorer for causing the massacre of 100 million natives, and in Syracuse the statue is called “a symbol of Indigenous genocide and erasure.”

Putting aside such absurdly false claims, Columbus and his crews were not responsible for the crimes of subsequent conquerors and settlers, let alone the diseases which were the real root of much of the suffering of the New World’s inhabitants.

Facts seem to be no bother to the “history eaters” who devour the heritage and legacy of others as if completely meaningless.

History is our collective memory — it is the sum of our experiences whether they be triumphs or tragedies, common or extraordinary. We cannot control the events of the past any more than we can blot out the sun or drain the oceans. To pretend otherwise is more than folly, it is downright dangerous.

But that does not mean we must endorse the past as wholly good or ill. It was lived by imperfect beings, just like we are — frail and fallen. They achieved great things and committed terrible offenses.

Columbus’ dangerous and daring journey opened up the New World and laid the groundwork for the founding of our great country — the only nation ever founded on an idea that liberty and equality are man’s birthright from God. We have not always lived up to that high-minded ideal but we continue to strive toward “a more perfect Union” because we recognize our faults — we do not ignore them.

And that is what the pursuit of historical truth requires — that the good, the bad, and the ugly be laid bare and we seek to do better.

My community which erected that monument to Columbus is not blind to his faults but it refuses to judge him only by his sins and erase his great feats. Central New York and the congressional district I served, and seek to serve again, have some the of the largest concentrations of Italian-Americans in the country. They are rightly proud of a man of their heritage that changed the world and opened the door for their ancestors’ and their own opportunities in our land of promise.

I, too, refuse to ignore the true facts. Instead, I seek to understand, appreciate, and improve.

The French statesman Alexis de Tocqueville famously wrote, “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

To do that, we must remember. Those who want to force us to forget leave no room for the wisdom of the past to shine through or the revisions of the future to be written.

That these would-be statue-smashers might not have the full, immutable truth in their grasp is lost on them. So, they destroy — without hesitation and without self-reflection.

I choose not to live by such haughty, oblivious terms. As Americans, we should live up to our charge — and make our nation more just and free.

The plight of Native Americans — who these erasers claim to speak for — is one place where I have devoted a substantial amount of my time and free legal skills to make a difference in the now. I have advocated for a full-blooded Oneida Indian tribal leader, Melvin Phillips, for over a decade to secure his ancestral Treaty land against eviction by corrupt casino interests. Phillips seeks to honor and preserve the land and culture of his ancestors from powerful and wealthy native interests who seek to cancel their noble history. Like Phillips, who is disabled and lives modestly, the fate of millions of proud but powerless people is so often forgotten by the powerful and the supposed “social justice warriors.”

I ask them — before they throw paint or hack at a century-old statue with a pick-ax — why don’t they build up instead of destroy. Help others who do not have power or privilege realize the promise of this country.

Killing figures like Columbus is simply erasing our imperfect history, instead we should be writing the next chapter in bold colors.

Remember our country is not perfect, but we earnestly strive to be.

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For the sake of our economy and more importantly our health and security, it’s time we brought that home.

China is a real and present danger to America and Americans.

Just as we try to stem the economic slide as personal lives and business come to a halt, the U.S. Treasury must borrow to finance the stimulus package. Before the crisis, China held 20% of all foreign-held debt – over $1 trillion.

That is a lot of leverage for Beijing. If they were to sell our bonds, they could exacerbate the crisis and the American government’s tenuous financial state. Our economy would be debilitated for years.

And they are already engaged in direct economic warfare. China steals $600 billion a year from American individuals and companies in intellectual property. That is the ideas and designs that American minds develop and provide to the market – from movies and fashion to computer systems and chemical compounds like pharmaceuticals.

In the last decade, China stole computer chips, a brilliant paint color, advanced corn seeds, and a revolutionary steel recipe. Each would grow our economy, enrich workers, and strengthen our manufacturing industries. But China now undercuts our business’s prices and steals American workers’ jobs.

But there’s a more immediate threat to America – and it’s a matter of life and death.

China makes 90% of all antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen, and over 70% of acetaminophen (Tylenol) available in the U.S. They also make many of the ingredients and do so in unsafe and unmonitored labs and factories.

In the midst of this crisis, Communist China’s government-run media threatened to choke off the supplies of these drugs to throw us into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a decorated Iraq war veteran, is advancing a bill to end China’s leverage over the American people and our economy over these vital medicines. It encourages American drug makers to manufacture here at home and blocks Chinese-made drugs and ingredients. This industry is too important to leave in the hands of the brutal and dangerous regime in Beijing.

Such incentives must be extended to the production of rare earth metals – used for thousands of electronics applications and military equipment – that only China produces even though we have the world’s largest reserves in the ground. The only American mine shut down in 2002, was re-opened briefly, and later sold off to a firm partially owned by the Chinese.

President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on the predatory Chinese for their unfair trade practices, and China once again threatened to cut off our rare earth supply.

When we come out of this crisis, we must move quickly to restore our industrial base, bring supply chains of national interest back to America, and punish Chinese theft and aggression.

Breaking China’s grip on our country is essential for our economic survival, military strength, and American’s very health.

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A man brutally beats his girlfriend in front of her two young children and arrested for child endangerment and menacing — only to be let back onto our streets.

A woman with a history of anti-Semitic violence punches a mother who was walking with her three-year-old yet is now moving freely among us.

None of this is normal.

The safety of our citizenry in New York today stands at the mercy of a state government controlled by far-left New York City politicians who enacted bail reforms that are sending criminals back into our communities.

It’s time the federal government stepped in and fulfilled its role of promoting public safety and the rule of law.

As a conservative, I am a firm believer in state powers. I am loath to ask for federal intervention. But when state politicians, in the furtherance of a radical, left-wing agenda, enact policies that endanger our children, place law enforcement in harm’s way, put pedophiles back onto our streets, and allow the furtherance of hate crimes, we must ask our federal government for help.

Critics will surely lambaste the idea of federal intervention and claim it has no role in this fight — leave it to the state to figure its way out of this mess. In theory, that makes sense, but what happens when the politicians who created this mess ignore the problem and refuse to act? It’s the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.

The Justice Department has many tools it can use. For example, the department can open an investigation as to whether these “reforms” are in violation of federal statutes that protect certain classes of individuals — hate crimes and actions against our most vulnerable.

Are these reforms in violation of any grants given to New York state? Likewise, the department can step up its intervention into cases such as that of Tiffany Harris, referenced above, who is accused of hate crimes. It could expand its intervention to those cases where children are abused or endangered.

If the DOJ can launch an investigation into conditions at prisons in Mississippi, surely it can spare the time to examine legislation that is literally putting law-abiding citizens in grave danger.

This is not to question the intentions of some who believe our criminal justice system needs reform. But in an era where we are supposed to protect victims, this law could require a woman who is raped to allow an alleged perpetrator back into her home to collect evidence if that’s where the rape occurred.

Firefighters and emergency personnel who respond to the scene of a crime are required to give their personal information to free-roaming criminals.

Law enforcement officers are overwhelmed attempting to comply with bureaucratic obstacles that include reams of paperwork, which means less time protecting the public.

Where does this end? Unfortunately, for the people of New York, it is only beginning. According to the New York City Police Department, 482 people so far this year were released only to re-offend. Among their alleged crimes was a murder that would not have happened had the offender been behind bars.

We are past the point of whether this is a Republican or Democratic issue. This is about common sense. This is about public safety and protecting our children. It’s about restoring the basic tenets of living in a society where we feel safe and free of fear, knowing that when people commit the most heinous of crimes, they are arrested and not released back onto our streets just so they can do it again.

If the politicians in Albany don’t understand that or refuse to understand that, then it is time the federal government investigate.

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The so-called experts and Chinese officials are angry that the President-elect is no longer kowtowing to the Communist regime.

But Trump is right and they are wrong: China can no longer be allowed to rip off America – especially on trade secrets. It is costing us jobs, wealth, and endangering our national security. And we are not going to take it anymore.

Make no mistake, China is stealing from the U.S. economy on a staggering scale.

According to a senior U.S. intelligence official, the Chinese stole trade secrets worth about $360 billion through hacking alone. That cybertheft figure represents the entire trade deficit we have with China and is worth three times what we sell them.

The figure climbs by billions of dollars more per year if you add in how much intellectual property old-fashioned Chinese spies steal. Half of the 165 private companies surveyed by the FBI were victims of economic espionage or trade secrets theft. Fully 95 percent of the attacks come from China. And the problem is only getting worse, with industrial spying and sabotage up 53 percent in 2015 over 2014.

Then there is China’s huge industry of counterfeit goods like knock-off watches, handbags, DVDs and smartphones. That costs foreign companies, many of them American, another $20 billion every year.

In other words, the Chinese steal much more from America than they trade with us.

It may well be, in Trump’s words, “the greatest theft in the history of the world.”

And Congress and the administration must act because American jobs, competitiveness, wealth and national security are at stake.

First, intellectual property theft deprives American workers of some of the best paying job opportunities. According to one recent study, industries that rely on intellectual property pay low-skilled workers 40 percent more than industries that are not reliant on I.P., and hire them even during economic downturns. The Department of Commerce estimates that 45 million American workers — almost one in three U.S. jobs — rely on intellectual property protections.

Second, Chinese intellectual property theft also robs American companies of the incentive to innovate. U.S. Steel announced in April that it discovered Chinese-backed hackers stole decades’ worth of research on advanced steel-production technologies, and turned those discoveries over to Chinese competitors. American steel companies rely on their advanced technologies to stay in business. Why pour millions into developing them, only to have the Chinese steal them and undercut their prices?

Much more of this theft is unreported and largely unknown to the authorities – let alone to the public – because embarrassed and victimized companies have little recourse and only see downsides to revealing that they were robbed by the Chinese.

And Congress and the administration must act because American jobs, competitiveness, wealth and national security are at stake.

First, intellectual property theft deprives American workers of some of the best paying job opportunities. According to one recent study, industries that rely on intellectual property pay low-skilled workers 40 percent more than industries that are not reliant on I.P., and hire them even during economic downturns. The Department of Commerce estimates that 45 million American workers — almost one in three U.S. jobs — rely on intellectual property protections.

Second, Chinese intellectual property theft also robs American companies of the incentive to innovate. U.S. Steel announced in April that it discovered Chinese-backed hackers stole decades’ worth of research on advanced steel-production technologies, and turned those discoveries over to Chinese competitors. American steel companies rely on their advanced technologies to stay in business. Why pour millions into developing them, only to have the Chinese steal them and undercut their prices?

Much more of this theft is unreported and largely unknown to the authorities – let alone to the public – because embarrassed and victimized companies have little recourse and only see downsides to revealing that they were robbed by the Chinese.

Beijing must learn that the United States will defend American jobs and businesses from outright theft through cyber-attack and industrial espionage. Donald Trump appears committed to communicating that message as president.

The damage such crime does to the U.S. economy is real, and Trump is right to focus on it.

When China is stealing more than it buys from us, it is time to stand up and say: The days of China ripping us off are over and we mean it.

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For the creatures of the sewer and swamp, success is often measured not by serving your constituents and taxpayers well, but by how much you can personally benefit from your elected position.

Take exhibit A: Sheldon Silver.

After serving nearly 40 years in one of New York’s most prestigious institutions, the state Assembly, he was invited by a jury of his peers to spend another 12 in a federal one – prison.

The jury found him guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, and covering up his own crimes and those of others in 2015. However, Silver’s first conviction for his $4 million bribes-and-kickbacks scheme was voided by a federal appeals court to conform with a 2016 Supreme Court decision that reversed the public corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Most Americans would assume that taking nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks in return for a series of “official acts” would be unequivocally illegal. But in the halls of our state capitol, tragically, that’s business as usual.

The Supreme Court case, McDonnell v. United States, defined “official act” so narrowly, as to make it perfectly legal for an elected official to act as McDonnell and Silver did: accepting bribes in return for setting up official meetings, organizing high-level donor events, and talking to other elected officials on behalf of donors.

This ruling left a loophole making it perfectly acceptable for the wealthy and well-connected to buy politicians’ influence — something nearly every American would consider a clear act of bribery.

So much for draining the swamp.

Just two weeks ago, federal prosecutors re-filed charges and secured yet another conviction. Silver faces 130 years in prison at his sentencing this month.

But, once again, Sheldon Silver is one of many corrupt politicians who could be let off the hook.

Until this loophole is closed, politicians like Silver will continue to get away with using their elected office to personally enrich themselves.

To put an end to this state-sanctioned corruption, I am introducing the “Upholding the Integrity of Public Officials Act.” My legislation makes it clear that if an elected official accepts bribes in return for acting in their official capacity, whether it be setting up meetings, organizing high-level events, or contacting other elected officials, they’ve committed a crime.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, this legislation is necessary to ensure Silver and the scores of other corrupt politicians pay for their crimes against the public trust.

And with the federal corruption trials of Gov. Cuomo’s close associates and aides on the horizon, closing this loophole is now more important than ever.

The consequences of political criminal activity have held New York and its people back for years. It’s time to give the Albany sewer a deep clean and drain the swamp by passing the “Upholding the Integrity of Public Officials Act” (H.R. 4218).

A public servant should never personally benefit from public office, and, when they do, they should pay the price. Allowing corrupt politicians, like Sheldon Silver, who have been convicted in a court of law to go free, is an insult to the people of New York. It undermines the very pillars of oversight and transparency that are vital to our democracy.

It is a simple and fair standard that we should expect all “public servants” to uphold.

Power, influence, and access should not be reserved for those with the money to buy (or steal) it. The black market in political favors and gifts ends now. Our great democracy is not for sale.

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It is a day where we as Americans look to the future as we continue our great experiment, while reflecting on the sacrifices it took to get here.

In 1776, the Continental Congress gathered in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There they would author perhaps one of the most profound documents in the history of mankind. Together, our founders set out to create a new nation, one conceived in liberty, where individual rights were to be absolute and where freedom would reign supreme. These men believed that government was instituted by people, and that it derived its just powers from the consent of the governed.

On July 4, 1776, these ideals became a reality with the creation of the United States of America. In an extraordinary act of bravery and patriotism, 56 men later signed the Declaration of Independence.

Our founding fathers knew of the great challenges before them. In the midst of a war against the most powerful military in the world, the United States endured a long and arduous conflict to keep a fledging nation alive.

One that took part throughout the 13 colonies with pivotal battles — the Battle of Oriskany and the Siege of Fort Stanwix — fought right here in upstate New York. The United States went on to win the Revolutionary War, establishing itself as an independent nation and free society for centuries to come.

Today, we think of these decisive moments in our nation’s history and thank the brave members of the United States Armed Forces who fought for us, for the American idea. Who, despite incredible odds, stood strong in our quest to uphold the beliefs of our founding fathers. As the mother of an active duty U.S Marine, I know all too well that the service and sacrifice of these men and women is a debt that can never be repaid.

Throughout our nation’s history we have dealt with challenges both foreign and domestic, yet as Americans we continue to persevere. We stand together in our common patriotism, a deep love for our country and all it stands for.

We remember our nation’s journey, and remember that despite our differences, we are unified as Americans. Our nation is a city upon a hill, in which the eyes of the world are upon us.

On this Fourth of July we celebrate our great nation and all that we have accomplished over these 241 years. We celebrate the bravery of our founders, for in 1776, despite venturing into uncharted territory, the United States began its journey as the first nation to declare its independence.

So, the next time you see our flag gallantly waving in the breeze, remember these wise words by Thomas Jefferson, “the cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.”

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Dozens of other so-called public servants in Albany have been convicted, fined or implicated in crimes against the public trust.

To add to this disgusting spectacle, every one of these convicted felon politicians and their moneymen will keep their taxpayer-funded “gold watch” — generous state pensions. The disgraced speaker will take home almost $80,000 a year while Skelos will get over $95,000 even when he’s behind bars.

But the corruption, we now know, goes right to the feet of Gov. Cuomo and New York City Mayor de Blasio. In a true farce, Cuomo announced last week that he’ll investigate his own office for conflicts of interest and improper lobbying by his own staff.

Downstate, de Blasio is accused of criminal campaign-finance shenanigans — funneling cash to friendly candidates for state Senate.

Corruption is endemic. Career politician syndrome and its cousin, pay-to-play politics, are at the root of this.
And they must end. Here’s how.

First, we need citizen-legislators. That starts with commonsense reforms to enable those who seek to serve others, not enrich themselves, achieve high office.

Silver and Skelos held office for a combined 70 years. Reasonable term limits would shake things up.

Plus, the generous taxpayers of New York will be paying these criminals for their “service” with hefty pensions until the end of their natural lives, despite being behind bars. Holding elected office is an honor and a duty; it shouldn’t be a retirement plan.

No politician should receive a guaranteed pension. Convicted pols like Silver and Skelos should lose theirs. And for everyone else, like most private-sector employees, politicians and their staffs should have to contribute to their retirement and manage their investments in a 401(k).

In addition, politicians shouldn’t earn an average salary of $90,000 for six months of work, almost twice what the average New Yorker brings home. Pay should be slashed in half to make it less appealing to the otherwise unemployable who seem to fill the ranks of public office across the state.

The legislative session should be halved as well to make it possible for regular citizens to represent their constituents and maintain careers. Even though the Legislature sits for six months, most of the work is done over a few days, anyway.

The legislative process itself needs to be more transparent as well. This would include due notice of final bill text, full committee approval of all language and the right of all members to offer bill amendments directly on the floor so all members know what they are voting on and have the ability to make changes with the consent of the full house.

We also need to make it harder for politicians and their aides to push through the revolving door between lobbying and politics. There should be a lifetime ban on elected officials and staff working as lobbyists.

Public service shouldn’t be a training ground for the next generation of influence-peddlers.

We should also bar individuals and corporations seeking state contracts from contributing to candidates for public office. A simple fix would be to bar candidates from accepting any entity’s or individual’s contribution in the five years before a contract is awarded and in the five years after a contract’s conclusion.

Pay-to-play politics is rooted in the fact that companies give generously to career politicians both before and after contracting and budget allocations. It’s no wonder that the lobbyists and cronies who give the most to politicians land lucrative contracts and special carve-outs.

With the corrupt politicians still running the asylum, these simple reforms will take a taxpayer revolt to restore good government in the Empire State.

In the meantime, New Yorkers can only say: In Preet we trust.

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A cause for celebration? Main Street USA should think again.

The multinational corporations that finance the political class in Washington are lobbying hard for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or Fast Track, immediately followed by the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement with 11 other nations to open their markets to the “free” flow of goods and services.

Why do companies like Wal-Mart and Apple want free trade so badly with these Pacific Rim countries? The answer is simple: so they can export jobs and import cheap goods at the expense of the American worker.

Both the Fast Track and the TPP should worry average Americans who root their values in the Constitution and want an economy that works for those that work hard and play by the rules.

First, President Obama wants Fast Track authority to limit the power of Congress. According to Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution, Congress alone has the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations” yet Congressional Republicans want to cede that power to the president.

Although the president is granted broad negotiating powers for treaties, Fast Track guts the 2/3 requirement for Senate ratification, limits debate, eliminates amendments and requires a mere simple majority in both houses of Congress for the passage of any trade agreement under the allotted procedure.

Fast Track binds the hands of future Congresses by ceding the power of trade agreements beyond the two-year term of its current members. In other words, a popular revolt against Fast Track at the ballot box would be toothless since the sitting president would have to sign a new law repealing their own extra-Constitutional power to regulate trade without Congress’s consent.

Furthermore, the TPP and other trade agreements surrender American sovereignty to foreign bodies like the World Trade Organization’s court system, which has full jurisdiction for all trade disputes. Like previous trade agreements, TPP would bar Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) laws so Americans won’t know where the food they are eating is coming from. The TPP would even allow foreign courts to overrule US federal and state courts. This will be true for labor, environmental, tax, as well as COOL laws.

Next, if the constitutional concerns don’t give you pause, free trade’s record of destroying jobs should.

The oft-repeated claim that free trade means American goods go abroad and jobs grow at home is belied by the data. Since the U.S. signed NAFTA in 1994, the American trade deficit with the world has grown by almost 500% to $722 billion in 2014 and nearly 4 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have vanished in the post-NAFTA era.

The liberalization of trade by the United States is often a one-way street, as the U.S. knocks down trade barriers and tariffs while our supposed partners get special carve-outs or just plain cheat – dumping goods below production cost, manipulating currencies, and flat-out non-compliance with the rules they agreed to. From Chinese currency manipulation to Colombian anti-union murders, our so-called partners in “free trade” aren’t playing by the same rules.

We know how devastating the modern trade regime has been from personal experience. One of our companies was founded by Paul Revere in 1801 and is likely the oldest basic manufacturing company in the country. Revere produces copper and brass sheet, strip and coil which are shipped to other manufacturing companies mostly in North America. Since 2000, over 30% of the facilities Revere ships to in the United States have shut down and their production moved offshore. This mirrors the manufacturing job loss across the country.

These agreements pose problems for those who value free and fair competition, too. Although, American workers are the most productive in the world and earn their higher wages, they aren’t competing on a level-playing field as foreign nations manipulate their currencies to boost exports and prevent American competition. The Prime Minister of Japan, a TPP signatory and one of the most egregious currency manipulators, has made it clear Japan will walk away if currency issues are addressed in the agreement. President Obama and the Washington elite have obliged and vowed to squash any attempt to include effective currency manipulation in the TPP.

Another member of TPP, communist Vietnam, derives over a third of its GDP from so-called State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), or government-backed companies. The Vietnamese government is so intertwined with these companies it has every reason to cheat on their behalf. Malaysia, another TPP signatory, has declared publicly its intent to continue the practice of using state resources to back government-run industries.

Our trade negotiators assure us, these SOEs will be ‘reformed’ under TPP but American lawmakers won’t know if this is true until it’s too late precisely because the final deals are being made in secret.

But under Fast Track, once the deal is struck Congress cannot amend it. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and their multinational paymasters are unlikely to allow them to turn down the deal.

China is not one of the countries currently included in the TPP. President Obama suggests TPP will help counterbalance Chinese economic power. But the Chinese premier Mr. Li recently “expressed cautious enthusiasm for the TPP.” Perhaps this is because Li knows that Fast Track used to pass TPP includes a “docking agreement” in the TPP which will allow China to join this feast on American jobs without significant congressional review.

Famously, Nancy Pelosi told the American people that Congress had “to pass the [healthcare] bill to find out what’s in it.” This time Congressional Republicans should bother to let the American people read the bill before sacrificing our sovereignty and countless jobs to foreign powers.

The post Selling Out the Constitution and Main Street on Trade appeared first on Claudia for Congress.

The charges against Silver? Engineering a massive $6 million pay-for-play scheme from the speaker’s office for the past 15 years. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara seized a whopping $3.4 million from Silver’s bank accounts as the ax fell. It’s enough to make Boss Tweed blush.

As a New Yorker and a member of the state assembly, I find Silver’s conduct disgusting but not surprising. He’s been a kleptocrat and tyrant for over two decades. He is a successful lawyer and a shrewd operator in Albany and New York City who knows the political and legal system inside and out.

For example, Silver’s power is so immense he has singlehandedly held up a tort-reform bill sponsored by his own hand-picked majority leader because his trial-lawyer buddies and paymasters want it blocked. He also uses his broad powers within the Democratic party to choose who the judges will be in New York’s trial courts, as judicial nominees are selected by political committees and run for election on partisan lines like non-judicial candidates — and Republican votes are scarce in New York.

In office, Silver is the embodiment of Albany’s fabled culture of “three men in a room” — the governor, the state-senate leader, and the speaker of the assembly (Silver). They cut deals in back rooms, trot them out as compromises, and then threaten and intimidate anyone who crosses them.

When the New York Times broke the news of Silver’s arrest this week, I was hopeful. It was a new day in New York State. The charges were so damning, Albany would wake up and stand together and finally do something to end the corruption. I urged my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats (including the governor), to call for Silver to resign. The New York Times editorial board even chimed in, calling for Silver to go.

As the morning progressed, I grew despondent. Governor Andrew Cuomo was silent. Even GOP senate leader Dean Skelos refused to condemn Silver. Then the assembly Democratic caucus met behind closed doors. The meeting dragged on. When they emerged, Silver’s deputy, Joe Morrelle, stood by Silver, saying his fellow Democrats had “faith” in the speaker.

I was floored, but then I remembered: It’s not their fault; they are seriously ill. With generous pay and benefits, lax ethics and law enforcement, and no term limits on state legislators, Silver and many other so-called leaders in Albany developed Career Politician Syndrome. One of Silver’s staunchest supporters in this corruption debacle, Richard Gottfried, embodies the syndrome perfectly. Now 67, he was first elected at age 23.

The disease afflicts Democrats and Republicans alike in Albany and metastasizes quickly. It starts with rewarding politicians for climbing the ranks of leadership, which entails going along to get along on pork projects, and often ends with an extended stay behind bars at a government-sponsored resort.

Sadly, we’ve seen the symptoms of this terrible disease for a long time. In 2012, it came to light that Silver had covered up the sexual harassment of young women by then-assemblyman Vito Lopez (D., Brooklyn) with cash payouts. I called for Silver’s resignation immediately, saying, “Speaker Silver’s complete disregard for the ethics rules and hard-working taxpayers of New York is a disgrace. He should step down from his speakership immediately. . . . The pattern of bad behavior, secrecy, corruption, and theft of taxpayer money suggests that these may not be isolated instances.” But Silver did not resign.

Then word came in December that Silver was to be indicted imminently on unspecified corruption charges. I stood up and was later joined by a few brave colleagues and again told Silver to go. Crickets.

To their credit, the GOP assembly leadership and one courageous assembly Democrat, Mickey Kearns of Buffalo, want Silver gone. But even after being handcuffed and fingerprinted, and facing decades in prison, Silver has so much sway in the Albany cesspool that his allies and enemies alike are afraid to come out against him.

I’ll make a prediction: He probably has something on most of them. If Silver turns informant, half of Albany will be going to jail.

Whether that happens or not, it’s time to restore Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of the citizen-legislator. We need to impose term limits on both leadership and all office holders, make the legislature a part-time job by slashing the legislative session in half, cut politicians’ pay and plush pension benefits, and do something unprecedented in Albany: give voters the chance to elect ethical politicians.

Out of this tragedy and farce comes a new opportunity for the voters of the Empire State to stand up and elect people who truly represent them, public-minded citizens and leaders who want to reform Albany and get New York moving again. Then it truly will be a new day in New York State.

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