The Weight of History

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter

During my tenure in Congress, the preservation of historically and environmentally significant land has been an important concern for me. My legislation to expand the Battlefield Acquisition Grant Program, which passed in the House, is awaiting action in the Senate. The bill would help organizations acquire funding to preserve Revolutionary War and War of 1812 sites in the United States. Hundreds of battlefields and associated sites need to be preserved, many in New Jersey.

Rep. Rush Holt receives the Preservation Leadership Award from Jim Lighthizer, President of the Civil War Trust, and Civil War Trust Board Member Bill Vodra

I was recognized this week by the Civil War Trust for my work on preservation. The Trust presented me with a plaque and two artifacts from the Civil War: a brass breastplate engraved with the Union Eagle, and a New Jersey officer’s uniform button engraved with the Great Seal of New Jersey. The breastplate was unearthed at the Chancellorsville Battlefield in Virginia, where 24 New Jersey regiments fought from May 1-5, 1863, and suffered 1,700 casualties.

To hold these two relics from a key moment in our American story is to feel the weight of history and understand the need to protect our historical sites.




Common Sense Reform

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he would be stepping down after almost six years as our nation’s top law enforcement officer. He has some important actions and positions to point to. During his tenure the Department of Justice has fought to uphold the civil liberties of LGBT citizens, has defended the right of all Americans to vote, and has protected immigrants from harassment. While I felt he could have done more on issues like the NYPD’s warrantless surveillance of Muslim Americans, he has “done much to make real the promise of our democracy” as he said when announcing his resignation.

Just this month, the Attorney General announced that for the first time in 34 years, the federal prison population has actually decreased by 4,800 inmates. While the United States encompasses five percent of the world’s population, we imprison almost 25 percent of the total global prison population. An important factor in this change has been the Attorney General’s efforts to reduce mandatory minimum sentences, which I have long opposed because they discount mitigating factors in crimes and are discriminatory towards people of color.

We must also take other sensible steps to reform our broken criminal justice system. Senator Cory Booker has introduced the REDEEM (Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment) Act to give individuals convicted of non-violent crimes a second chance.

The Most Powerful Instrument Devised By Man

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson said that "the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice." September 23rd commemorated National Voter Registration Day. Here in New Jersey the deadline to register to vote in the general election in November is October 14th. If you have not yet registered to vote, I encourage you to click here.

We must all remember that our duty does not stop with registration. Voter turnout is about 14 percent lower in non-Presidential election years (like this one) than when the office of the President is on the ballot. I understand that citizens are often busy and distracted, and sometimes unsure or confused about the candidates, or just plain cynical, but we must try to get all to exercise the most basic part of citizenship. Also, we in government must work to ensure that all eligible voters have good access, and that all votes are counted reliably and verifiably.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Privatization Is Not The Answer

From the E-Newsletter of Congressman Rush Holt:

In 1935, being old generally meant being poor.  Yet today, only one in ten American seniors lives in poverty.  Indeed, seniors today are less likely than Americans in any other age group to live in poverty.

What is responsible for this turnaround?  The answer, of course, is Social Security, which marked its 77th anniversary last week.  In its nearly eight decades of existence, Social Security has lifted tens of millions of Americans out of poverty – including about 13 million today.  Social Security also assists many with disabilities and many children who survive the loss of a parent, as I did.

Although you would not know it from the hyperbole in Washington today, Social Security has never missed a payment and remains in pretty good financial shape. According to the two independent trustees overseeing the Social Security and Medicare programs, without any changes at all, the Social Security program can pay all benefits through at least 2036.  Even after that, it could still pay out about 77 percent of scheduled benefits.  

(Congressman Rush Holt)

This modest long-term shortfall in Social Security is a good reason to take steps to shore up the program.  Yet those who would use these challenges as an excuse to privatize Social Security, as Rep. Paul Ryan and others have proposed in recent years, are simply fear-mongering in hopes of advancing their impractical ideology.  Worse still, they are threatening the guarantee that is at Social Security’s heart.

As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said shortly after Social Security was created, “None of the sums of money paid out to individuals in assistance or in insurance will spell anything approaching abundance. But they will furnish that minimum necessity to keep a foothold; and that is the kind of protection Americans want.”

Ethnic Profiling Remains Ineffective and Offensive

In May, I wrote to you about the New York Police Department’s wide-scale, warrantless surveillance of innocent Muslims in states across America.  Muslims in New Jersey have told me that they felt the chill and intimidation from such profiling.

As I have said, profiling is a poor substitute for thinking, and it does not constitute good policing.  Now, there is evidence that the NYPD’s tactics were wholly ineffective.  As the Associated Press reported this week, the NYPD has acknowledged in court testimony that its six years of spying on Muslims never produced a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation.

Spending limited law enforcement resources profiling the innocent rather than investigating the guilty is not just wasteful; it presumes a separate class of Americans who can be placed under suspicion in the absence of reasonable, specific evidence, violating fundamental national principles of liberty and equality. 

Thank You to Congressional Interns for Summer 2012

This month, the latest group of Congressional interns in my West Windsor and Washington, D.C. office finished their service.  It was a pleasure to welcome these interns to my staff, and I was impressed by their intelligence, willingness to learn, and commitment to public service.

If you are a high school or college student interested in interning in my office, please visit my website to learn more.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

P.S. Just a reminder: I always want to hear from you, but to ensure a prompt response, please don’t reply to this e-mail.  Instead, please visitholt.house.gov/contact or call 1-87-RUSH-HOLT (1-877-874-4658).

Letter: Middletown Planning Board to Hear Proposed Expansion of Middletown’s Islamic Society of Monmouth County Whose Iman Supports Hamas Terrorist Group

My name is Ryan Mauro and I’m the national security analyst for RadicalIslam.org, the flagship website of the Clarion Fund. I am frequently on FOX News Channel and am a resident of Wall Township. 

I am writing you because I recently learned that the imam of Middletown’s Islamic Society of Monmouth County, Reda Shata, is a supporter of the Hamas terrorist group. You can read more about Imam Shata in my article, "The NYPD vs. The Hamas-Supporting 'Moderate.'" The ISMC is currently seeking approval for a large expansion to accommodate its growing membership.

The proposed expansion is on the agenda for the Planning Board hearing on June 6 and I will be coming to inform the officials and audience about this information. The event begins at 7 PM. It is not known where the ISMC falls on the agenda, so other proposals may be discussed before this specific issue is brought up.

The hearing will take place in the court room of the Town Hall building at 1 Kings Highway in Middletown.

I greatly appreciate any coverage you can provide.

Ryan Mauro

National Security Analyst, RadicalIslam.org / Clarion Fund
Founder, WorldThreats.com

Follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/RyanMauro

Putting Cops Back on the Beat

From the e-Newsletter of Congressman Rush Holt

The recession has severely strained police departments throughout New Jersey. Many have had to take cops off the beat; Trenton today has the same number of police on the rolls as it did in 1932, with troubling, dangerous effects.

For decades, the federal government has played a role in supporting police in our communities. Through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, it has provided $18 million to 34 communities throughout central New Jersey, putting at least 330 police officers and sheriff’s deputies on the street.

Yet the Majority in Congress, intent on scaling back federal programs, proposed eliminating the COPS program last year. Although that effort ultimately failed, they are trying again to reduce the COPS program in 2013 Justice Department appropriations bill.

On Tuesday evening, I joined a bipartisan coalition of members to say, “Not so fast.” Together with Republican Reps. Michael Grimm and Peter King, as well as Democratic Reps. Pedro Pierluisi and Bill Pascrell, Jr., I sponsored an amendment to increase support for the COPS program by $94 million next year. Our amendment was adopted by the full House, and the underlying bill passed on Thursday and now moves to the other side of the Capitol for Senate consideration.

Putting an End to Warrantless Spying and Religious Profiling

Late last week, I introduced a resolution into the U.S. House condemning the New York Police Department’s ethnic and religious profiling and warrantless surveillance of Muslim Americans.

As first revealed in extensive reporting by the Associated Press, the NYPD has conducted wide-scale warrantless surveillance of Muslims throughout the country, including at mosques, student associations, and businesses in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. In most instances, the surveillance occurred in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing – that is, organizations and individuals were surveilled solely on account of their religious affiliation. Muslims, of which there are millions in the US, tell me they feel the chill and the intimidation from such profiling.

Casting suspicion on people on the basis of their race, religion, or ethnicity without any legally valid reasons is not the way we behave in America, nor is it an effective means of gathering intelligence. As the historical record clearly demonstrates, profiling in policing is a substitute for thinking.

Our resolution condemns the unjustified surveillance and unlawful profiling of Muslim American Communities and demands that the New York Police Department cease any such warrantless surveillance activities within the United States and purge its database of information obtained in this unacceptable way.

Government Decisions Based on Evidence

Thomas Jefferson, from Notes on the State of Virginia, talking about government decisions based on evidence:

"The Newtonian Principle of gravitation is now more firmly established, on the basis of reason, than it would be were the government to step in, and to make it an article of necessary faith. Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them."

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress