Stuff in the News: Foreign laws in Domestic Courts, Israeli Embassy, Labor, Business Start-Ups, Homes for Heroes

Congressman Diane Black (R-TN-06) introduced H.R. 3052, legislation to safeguard the integrity of our Constitution and U.S. laws by affirming that federal courts must follow and uphold our laws rather than deferring to those of foreign nations. The legislation follows a February 2015 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) which found that “In recent years, foreign or international legal sources have increasingly been cited by the Supreme Court when considering matters of U.S. law.”

U.S. Representatives Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Gene Green (D-TX) have introduced H. Con. Res. 62, expressing the Sense of Congress that the United States Embassy in Israel should be located in Jerusalem. In 1995, the United States Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act requiring the President to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The legislation was passed to secure American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Successive administrations have used a Presidential waiver authority, included in the bill, to delay that transfer due to national security concerns.

Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) in a U.S. House floor speech applauded Democrat presidential candidate’s goal of increasing American family incomes but noted that her “trickle down federal government dictates solution, while splendid rhetoric, misses the target entirely.” Brooks then detailed how the tsunami of illegal alien workers coupled with a second tsunami of lawful immigrant workers combine to explode the labor force and take job opportunities from, and suppress wages, of Americans.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL, has announced the introduction of bipartisan legislation that would make it easier and less costly for an entrepreneur to start a new business. Buchanan’s “Support our Start-Ups Act” (H.R. 2524) would quadruple the amount of start-up costs small business owners can deduct from their federal income taxes, raising it from $5,000 to $20,000.

The bipartisan Homes for Heroes Act of 2015, which passed on July 14, 2015, establishes a Special Assistant for Veterans’ Affairs and an annual report on veterans’ homelessness. The Special Assistant will coordinate all the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) programs and activities relating to veterans and serve as a HUD liaison with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It also will direct the Secretaries of HUD and VA to report annually to Congress with respect to veterans homelessness and housing assistance. According to the National Coalition for Homelessness, on any given night in the United States, 49,933 veterans experience homelessness. Additionally, approximately 12 percent of the homeless adult population are veterans.