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Babin Opposes Restrictions on Confederate Flag | Denounces False Information
Washington,
July 10, 2015
CONGRESSMAN BABIN: “I did NOT vote to ban the Confederate flag and I OPPOSE any efforts to do so.” Here are the facts: In recent weeks, there have been several proposals here in Congress pertaining to the Confederate flag and its place in our national parks and the halls of Congress. I have prepared a detailed summary of each of these votes, but the bottom line is that I have strongly supported every effort to block any legislation from moving forward that would restrict or remove the Confederate flag or the Mississippi state flag from our national parks, cemeteries, and the halls of Congress. In addition to my votes on these issues, I am also providing the positions taken by other members of Congress from the Houston and South East Texas region on all of these votes. VOTE #1 – Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) – 6/25/2015 On June 25th, Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) proposed House Resolution 341, which if passed by the House would have required that the official state flag of Mississippi be removed from the grounds of the Capitol. Although Mr. Thompson is a Mississippi Congressman, he personally disapproves of his state’s flag because one corner of it features a symbol of the Confederacy. I believe that as a sovereign, co-equal state, the people of Mississippi have every right to fly their state flag in the halls of Congress, so I strongly opposed Congressman Thompson’s proposal. The vote we took on this matter was an up or down procedural vote to refer the resolution to the Committee on House Administration. Here are the facts: every single Democrat, including Congressman Thompson and Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi, voted AGAINST referring the bill to committee. I, along with almost every single Republican (except for one member from Florida who has clearly stated he supports efforts to remove the flag) voted FOR referring the bill to committee. If the Democrats had succeeded and the motion had been defeated, the H.Res. 341 would have been considered immediately on the House Floor and then put to an up or down vote. I have absolutely no doubt that at least 50 liberal Republicans would have then joined with all the Democrats to approve the resolution and remove the Mississippi state flag from the halls of Congress. By sending the bill to Committee instead, we effectively ended debate on this legislation. Click here to see the final roll call vote on the motion to send H.Res. 341 to the Committee on House Administration: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll385.xml VOTED TO SEND THE BILL TO COMMITTEE: Weber, Gohmert, Babin, Poe, Olson, Culberson, McCaul, Brady VOTE #2 – Rep. Ken Calvert (R-California) – 7/8/2015 The Department of Interior appropriations bill (H.R. 2822) contains a number of provisions that utilize the Constitutional power of the purse to dramatically restrict funding to the EPA, such as defunding the “Clean Power Plan” that is central to President Obama’s War on Coal and blocking any funds to implement the proposed “Waters of the United States” scheme. Unfortunately, this bill was hijacked by liberal Democrats who pushed through several amendments that imposed major new restrictions on the display of the Confederate flag at our national parks. I strongly oppose these amendments. Defunding the EPA’s overreach is one of my top priorities in Congress, but I made it clear to House Republican Leadership that unless these amendments to ban the Confederate flag were removed, I absolutely could not support the bill when it came up for a final vote. Shortly after, House Leadership cancelled votes and withdrew the bill from further consideration, effectively ending the debate. To be clear, there has not been a final vote on removing these amendments or on final passage of the bill, but if there had been, I would have voted YES to remove the amendments, and unless that effort succeeded, I would have voted NO on passage of the bill. That will remain my position if this bill is brought back up. VOTE #3 – Nancy Pelosi (D-California) – 7/9/2015 After voting on the Interior Appropriations bill was cancelled, House Democrat Leader and Ex-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered a House resolution very similar to the one proposed by Rep. Thompson (D-MS). Pelosi’s resolution was just more shameless opportunism. Once again, I joined with nearly all of my Republican colleagues to refer this resolution to the Committee on House Administration, rather than allow it to come up for an up or down vote and most likely be passed by a coalition of all Democrats and 50 or more liberal Republicans. This referral effectively ended debate on the legislation. Click here to see the final roll call vote on the motion to refer H.Res. 341 to the Committee on House Administration: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll426.xml VOTED TO SEND THE BILL TO COMMITTEE: Weber, Gohmert, Babin, Poe, Olson, Culberson, McCaul, Brady |