FederalDaily - February 9, 2007
Bill Would Repeal Expanded Executive Power over Guard
With the support of the nation’s governors, the co-chairs of the 80-member Senate National Guard
Caucus filed a bipartisan measure to repeal recent changes to the Insurrection Act that expanded presidential
authority to declare martial law and federalize the National Guard during emergencies. The bill, sponsored
by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., caucus co-chairs, would repeal those changes, which
were included late last year in the Defense Authorization Act. That expansion of authority, Leahy said,
discarded “a useful friction” in the law that has helped make such presidential takeovers
rare. The Leahy-Bond bill would restore the Insurrection Act to its original form. “Expanding
the president’s powers under the Insurrection Act,” said Leahy, “was a sweeping,
ill-considered and little-noticed grant of authority to the executive branch, at the expense of the
National Guard and the governors.” To see more, go to: www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.6c9a8a9ebc6ae07eee28aca9501010a0
/?vgnextoid=213b378127c90110VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel
=6d4c8aaa2ebbff00VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD.
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Group Leads Call to Free Convicted Agents
A conservative advocacy group went to Capitol Hill on Feb. 7 to deliver a petition asking that the
government free two former Border Patrol agents convicted in a 2005 non-fatal shooting of a suspected
drug smuggler fleeing toward the Mexican border. The group, Grassfire.org, said it took the petition—which
the organization said had more than 300,000 signers—to the office of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.,
for delivery to the White House. The group seeks the release of ex-Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso
Compean, who were convicted in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a legal resident alien, just
north of the border near El Paso. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and Compean received
12 years. To see more, go to: www.Grassfire.org.
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Senate Measure Would Correct Combat Pay Tax Glitch
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., on Feb. 7 introduced a bill to correct a discrepancy in the tax code that
penalizes some servicemembers serving in combat. Pryor said the tax glitch affects as many as 10,000
lower-income servicemembers who could be penalized by as much as $4,500 for officers and $3,200 for
enlisted members. “This is make-or-break money for our soldiers and their families,” said
Pryor. For more, go to: http://pryor.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=268755&.
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