July 12, 2016

RNC Statement On Conclusion Of Platform Committee Meetings

CLEVELAND – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and Platform Committee Chair Senator John Barrasso released the following statement at the conclusion of Platform Committee meetings:

"I'm proud of the work the delegates have done in drafting our Party's platform for the 2016 Republican National Convention," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "This platform represents the input of grassroots Republicans from across the country who reaffirmed our Party's belief in limited constitutional government, family values, and a strong national defense. I thank them for their hard work and service to our Party."

"The gathering of the Platform Committee is a unique opportunity for us to consider the diverse views for the future held among the millions of Republicans across the country,” said Platform Committee Chair Senator John Barrasso. “With the approval of this document, we reaffirm the principles that unite us all: American exceptionalism, the Constitution, and the importance of limiting the burden of government.”
 
###

General
Family Research Council
July 11, 2016

Family Research Council Action, Conservative Coalition In Cleveland this Week to Ensure Conservative GOP Platform

CLEVELAND, OH - As Republican platform delegates gather in Cleveland today and tomorrow to finalize the language in the party's platform, Family Research Council Action staff are in Cleveland working in coalition with conservative groups and delegates to ensure the party's platform remains a solidly conservative document. FRC Action President Tony Perkins is serving as a platform delegate from Louisiana.

FRC Action is joined by Concerned Women for America, LAC, March for Life Action, and a consortium of Eagle Forum representatives along with platform delegates including Len Munsil (Arizona); Carolyn McLarty (Oklahoma); and David Barton (Texas).

Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins made the following comments:

"As in every other election cycle, the platform is an anchor that helps tether candidates to the core conservative principles that have long been at the heart of the GOP.

"The current RNC leadership continues to do a great job of ensuring the core values of life and family are protected. However, conservatives are prepared to defend the party's guiding principles against liberal interest groups that have called for a weakening of the platform.

"We continue to hear delegates express the desire to update the platform to address more recent problems created by the Obama administration -- for instance, by calling for an end to the Department of Education to address the ever expanding intrusion of the federal government into local education.

"Had the 2008 and 2012 candidates run strongly on these values, I believe the outcome would have been far different. Imagine how much better our country would be right now if it had been governed by these principles in the last eight years," concluded Perkins.

To schedule an interview, the onsite contact is JP Duffy


LGBT issues

Tony Perkins' FRC Action Update

July 13, 2016

LGBT Activists Attempt to Hijack GOP Platform

When the gavel fell in Cleveland yesterday evening, delegates at the Republican platform committee had succeeded in crafting one of the most conservative GOP platforms in modern times. Not all were celebrating the clearly enunciated conservative principles that underscored the party’s pro-military, pro-life, pro-natural marriage, pro-religious freedom stands. In the concluding moments of the platform gathering, a small group of delegates were engaged in an outright deceptive effort to derail the platform and potentially the convention. After repeated efforts to redefine marriage for the Republican party and interject special LGBT provisions in the platform, an effort was launched to create a Minority Report promoting items for an LGBT agenda, under the guise of creating a preamble for the platform from the 1860 Republican platform.

As soon as the proceedings concluded, the initiators of this effort announced to CNN that 37 delegates had signed on to a call for a Minority Report that would circumvent the process and put the platform onto the floor of next week’s convention and potentially derailing the GOP gathering. David Barton was one of the delegates that was misled into signing the resolution. He wrote a letter to delegates last night explaining what took place and urging others who may have been lied to, to remove their names from the resolution.

The use of such deception is not surprising, given the tactics of LGBT activists. Social media, fueled by anti-Christian organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been abuzz that I added language to the GOP platform that has embraced “reparative therapy” for homosexuals. Nothing provides a clearer example of both their dishonesty and their self-absorption. Here is the exact language that I added to the platform under the subsection of “Protecting Individual Conscience in Health Care:”

“We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent to transport their daughters across state lines for abortion.”

The subcommittee adopted the language without any opposition -- even from a LGBT activist who was on the subcommittee and leading the effort for Paul Singer, the wealthy Republican donor.

Despite the deceptive and desperate attempts by those who want to undermine the Republican Party’s longstanding support for the traditional family values which have made America the envy of the world, the GOP’s stand for these values is stronger than ever.

Here is a bit more information that I am pretty confident you will not read in media reports. Those attempting to change the party’s stand on marriage and morality repeatedly claimed that they represented the next generation, and that the party could not hold these views and survive. What was interesting is that with the exception of maybe one delegate making those claims, they were my age or older. But in contrast, those who passionately and successfully advanced natural marriage and traditional values in the platform were mostly conservative millennials. Once again, I challenge you not to believe what the media and the Left claim about the next generation. Keep training them up to stand firm in the truth.

Stay tuned. I’ll have more from Cleveland as the FRC Action Team continues to represent you and the values that make America -- America.

Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

Freedom for All Americans
July 11, 2016

Proposed Republican Platform Enshrines Discrimination against LGBT Americans

WASHINGTON – This afternoon, the Republican National Committee released its proposed platform that will be voted on by delegates attending the GOP’s convention next week in Cleveland, Ohio.  If passed, the current platform, which is meant to be a statement of what the Republican Party believes, will advocate for discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

“It is clear that an extreme and far-right minority has a stranglehold over the platform process, and is pushing the Republican Party away from the majority of Americans who support protecting LGBT individuals and their families from discrimination,” Matt McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans said. “Donald Trump has said that he is a friend to the LGBT community; he needs to demonstrate that commitment by fighting to have the discriminatory planks stripped from the platform.”

Amongst the planks proposed by the committee is a measure targeting transgender Americans for discrimination by hailing states that have filed a lawsuit over the Obama Administration’s recent directive calling on schools that receive federal funds to allow transgender students the freedom to use the facilities and participate in activities that match their gender identity. The proposed language is modeled on North Carolina’s widely derided and discriminatory HB2 and includes language requiring that an individual’s sex corresponds with their birth certificate, creating a new “biological sex” definition.

Another proposed plank would have the Party endorse the so-called First Amendment Defense Act, which will be heard in a U.S. House committee tomorrow. The legislation will allow businesses, organizations and taxpayer funded nonprofits to legally discriminate against LGBT Americans and their families.  The bill is similar to a measure that a US District Court judge in Mississippi struck down two weeks ago, claiming it clearly violated the First and 14h amendments to the US Constitution.

It is also similar to a law signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in 2015. The measure was met by immediate public backlash with businesses and conservative leaders calling for full repeal of the measure.  Since being signed into law, the Hoosier state has lost hundreds-of-millions of dollars in business and saw important jobs and conventions leave the state.

A recent CNN/ORC poll found that 57 percent of Americans oppose laws legalizing discrimination against transgender individuals. And 75 percent of Americans support nondiscrimination protections in employment, housing and public services for transgender individuals.

Earlier today, Freedom for All Americans and partners launched an ad that will air during the Republican Convention. The ad highlights the very real challenges that transgender Americans face every day and can be viewed at FairnessUSA.org.

“Now is the time for Donald Trump and Republican leaders to stand up to extreme right-wing enemies of equality,” McTighe added. “It’s time for both major parties to support equal rights under the law for every American, including LGBT Americans.”

Freedom for All Americans is the bipartisan campaign to secure full nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people nationwide. Our work brings together Republicans and Democrats, businesses large and small, people of faith, and allies from all walks of life to make the case for comprehensive nondiscrimination protections that ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally.

###
Log Cabin Republicans
Date:

A Message on the GOP Platform from Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo

Dear Friend,

There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.

Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.

Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.

This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s! When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.

BUT…now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Log Cabin Republicans has been officially credentialed for the Republican National Convention, and when it convenes in Cleveland in a mere 6 days’ time I want to be able to take a stand, but we’re going to need your support to do it.

Cleveland is rightly making the most of their time in the spotlight, and prices for advertising in area news outlets are sky-high.

That’s why I’m writing to ask for your help.

Please give today and give generously — $500, $250, $100, or whatever you can give would go a long way to ensuring we don’t go quietly into the night.

Take back the Platform. Take back the Party. Stand up today and let the folks on the Platform Committee who paved the way to this foolishness know you’re not going down without a fight!

Sincerely,

Gregory T. Angelo
President


National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

Statement on the 2016 Republican Platform

Washington DC, July 18, 2016—This week’s Republican National Convention is likely to ratify what has been described as the most anti-LGBTQ platform in its history. The platform, which has shocked some of the GOP’s most ardent supporters, endorses so-called conversion therapy, calls for the banning same sex marriage, rejects LGBTQ families and bans transgender and gender non-conforming people from using restrooms that match their gender identity. The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is making the following statement about the Republican Platform:

“The Republican Party’s 2016 platform is designed to destroy LGBTQ lives, families and futures. It’s a smorgasbord of debunked practices and failed policies, prepared by extremists who clearly need a reality check,” said Russell Roybal, Deputy Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund. “LGBTQ people are here — we can’t be ‘converted’. We can get married — it’s a constitutional right. We build families — we exist in every community in our nation. We go to the bathroom — it’s a physical imperative. We are people of color – deserving to be protected by laws not harmed by them. We are people of faith — we are welcomed by thousands of faith communities across the nation, who object to faith being used as an excuse to discriminate. And, as we have seen in poll after poll, the vast majority of the public believe that discrimination against LGBTQ people is wrong and that everyone should be able to access the promise of America. It’s hard to see anything that advances freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people in this document.”

-30-


C
ONTACT:

Jorge Amaro
Media and Public Relations Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 2016
Contact: Mallory Quigley

RNC Ratifies Most Pro-life Platform Ever

Platform Calls Out Democrat Extremism on Abortion, Includes New Policy Initiatives on Hyde Amendment, Born Alive, Late-Term Abortion

Washington, D.C.  – This afternoon RNC delegates ratified the 2016 Republican Platform. SBA List staff attended platform committee meetings last week in Cleveland to help craft the strongest pro-life platform in the Republican Party’s history. 

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser responded to the news saying:

“The Republican platform has always been strong when it comes to protecting unborn children, their mothers, and the conscience rights of pro-life Americans. The platform ratified today takes that stand from good to great. Firstly, it is reflective of Donald Trump’s pro-life policy commitments to appoint pro-life Justices, to advocate for and sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and to defund America’s largest abortion business Planned Parenthood.

“The platform committee went on offense to call out Democrat extremism on abortion, adding language calling for both federal and state laws stopping late-term abortions after five months, abortions based on disability, and abortions for the purpose of sex-selection. The platform also seeks to strengthen protections for babies born alive after a failed abortion and addresses dismemberment abortions, the baby body parts trade, and informed consent issues raised by the undercover videos released last year by the Center for Medical Progress. Notably, Republicans moved to advocate for the codification of the Hyde Amendment, longstanding bipartisan legislation which protects the conscience rights of taxpayers by ensuring public funds are not used for abortion on-demand. The new Democratic Party platform, on the other hand, supports repeal of this consensus policy.

“We are thankful to the hardworking committeemen and women who advocated for this language, and to Rep. Virginia Foxx and Governor Mary Fallin for their leadership throughout the process.”

Presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump has pledged to advance and sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, defund Planned Parenthood, and appoint pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court.

Susan B. Anthony List and its Political Action Committees, the SBA List Candidate Fund and Women Speak Out PAC, spent $16.71 million in the 2014 election cycle to defeat pro-abortion incumbents and elect pro-life candidates to federal and statewide office. The SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women.  The SBA List is a network of more than 465,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.

###


Sierra Club
Monday, July 18, 2016
Contact: 
Adam Beitman

GOP Platform Would Radically Undermine Environmental Protection & Climate Action

CLEVELAND, OH - Today, the GOP’s official 2016 platform brought the party one step closer
toward Donald Trump by outlining extreme policies which undermine environmental protection and climate action. Like Trump, the platform goes above and beyond to express contempt for the need to tackle the climate crisis, and even proposes a concrete method for eliminating the
EPA by turning it into a toothless “commission.”

 

In Response, Sierra Club Political Director Khalid Pitts Released the Following Statement:

 

“If this extremist platform were ever actually implemented, it wouldimperil clean air and clean water for all Americans. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and now the Republican Party has codified a radical and dangerous path to enable
Trump and his anti-environmental ideology.

 

“This double-dealing platform both praises NASA while simultaneously rejecting the scientific consensus on the climate crisis, which NASA has affirmed time and time again. The Republican platform has gone beyond partisan politics and extended into cartoonish absurdity. Any voter who cares about our climate has to help make sure that Donald Trump never becomes President, and that this platform never gets near a piece of legislation.”

###

American Public Transportation Association

July 19, 2016
Contact:

Virginia Miller

Statement on GOP Platform on Public Transportation by APTA Acting President & CEO Richard A. White

“On behalf of the 1,500 members of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) I strongly oppose the Republican platform that would phase out the federal transit program. I am extremely disappointed that the platform fails to continue the important federal role in supporting public transportation.  Since 1983, under President Ronald Reagan, fuels tax revenues have been dedicated to public transit through the Mass Transit Account of the surface transportation legislation.  This proposal would undo more than 30 years of overwhelming support for dedicated federal investment in public transit. 

Transportation is the backbone of an economy.  Mayors of cities across the country know that public transportation is crucial to helping make their cities competitive.  Additionally, public transportation helps people commute to work.  In fact, nearly 60 percent of all trips taken are for work commutes.  Last year, 10.6 billion trips were taken on public transportation, no small figure.

The public transportation industry is currently underfunded. Having no federal funds would be devastating, not only to the millions of Americans who use public transportation and to the employers who depend on it for their employees, but also for communities of all sizes that need it for a thriving economy and quality of life. 

Also, the platform position against any increase in the federal gas tax is not supported by APTA.  The federal gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and consequently, its purchasing power has gone down by more than 37 percent.

We need a well-funded transportation system that includes public transportation.  In 2013, the annual capital spending on public transit – from all levels of government – was $17.7 billion.  Of that figure, $7.4 billion came from the federal government.  According to a report by APTA and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), an annual investment of $43 billion for public transportation is necessary to improve system performance and condition.  And let’s not forget that the Federal Transit Administration has said that there is a one-time $86 billion backlog in deferred maintenance and replacement needs.”

 

#   #   #

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 public and private sector organizations, engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne services, and intercity and high-speed passenger rail. This includes: transit systems; planning, design, construction, and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; transit associations and state departments of transportation. APTA is the only association in North America that represents all modes of public transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services and products. .


American Federation of Government Employees
July 20, 2016
Contact: Cheston McGuire

Federal Union Leader: 2016 GOP Platform 'A Hostile Takeover of the Civil Service System'

Leader of largest federal employees' union blasts proposals to cut pay and benefits, privatize government services, and politicize the workforce

WASHINGTON - In response to the release of the 2016 Republican Party Platform, J. David Cox, Sr., National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, representing 670,000 federal and D.C. government employees across the country, issued the following statement:

"The 2016 Republican Platform makes clear the GOP has moved so close to the extremes that it opposes the very government it seeks to lead. The platform advocates such profound changes to the terms of government employment that, if enacted, it would bring to end the merit-based, apolitical civil service system. Without Constitutional due process rights and free unions to provide accountability and transparency to government employment, government employment would cease to be a professional civil service.  What would ensue is quite predictable and occurs wherever there is an absence of the rule of law: a government staffed with cronies and political protectors that will fail to provide quality services to the American people.  A spoils system staffed by those hired because who they know, not what they can do.

The platform's ignorance and misrepresentation of the facts about federal pay and benefits should be an embarrassment.  The truth is that federal pay lags the private sector and state and local governments by an average of 35% according the Federal Salary Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  And federal benefits only look generous when compared to the shameful practice of private employers who provide nothing or next to nothing for their employees in the way of pensions or insurance. Federal compensation has always been modest, but three years of frozen pay and substantial pension cutbacks enacted over the last several years in the name of deficit reduction have impoverished thousands of federal employees and their families. The notion of dragging a border patrol agent or a VA nursing assistant's living standards down even lower is despicable.

The Republican platform also shows a horrible irresponsibility for the public interest in its embrace of privatization.  Handing over the government's work to profit-hungry contractors at the expense of public safety and health is a guarantee of scandal. Dismantling the veterans' health care system by closing down hospitals and clinics and telling veterans to find their own care through a privatized insurance system is a disgraceful and outrageous abrogation of the promise our nation makes to those who have worn our nation's uniform.  Today veterans can walk into any VA hospital and access seamlessly integrated primary/specialty care in addition to financial, educational, housing, vocational, and other benefits. Closing down the VA would mean more than just dangerous degradation in their health care.  It would also mean missed opportunities for direct employment and job assistance, obtaining an education, and help with overcoming addiction or homelessness.

The platform's plan to privatize TSA would also be a dangerous and expensive disaster, throwing away a decade and a half of reliable airport security and returning us the pre-9/11 model that failed to such devastating effect. Instead of dismantling the TSA, the platform should demand that the agency receive the funding and staff it needs to do its jobs safely and efficiently, which a Republican-led Congress has failed to do for years."

# # #

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

For the latest AFGE news and information, visit the AFGE Media Center.

Anti-Defamation League

ADL Welcomes Republican Party Platform on Israel

Voices Disappointment with Departure from Two-State Solution

New York, NY, July 13, 2016 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the Republican Party draft platform for affirming the GOP’s unwavering support for Israel’s security and for its unequivocal rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. However, ADL expressed disappointment with the platform draft’s departure from longstanding GOP support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a position that differs from the stated position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prior GOP platforms.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:

We are pleased that the platform draft affirms the GOP’s unwavering support for a strong and secure Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and unequivocally rejects the BDS movement. Both party platform drafts reflect and reinforce the broad bipartisan consensus in favor of strong U.S. support for Israel that has endured for decades.

We are disappointed that the platform draft departs from longstanding support of a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict – and the shared vision of successive American presidents and prime ministers of Israel, including the current leadership in both countries, who believed it was the only viable way to secure Israel as both a Jewish and democratic state. We hope the delegates will reconsider and reaffirm this pillar of U.S. policy toward Israel in the final platform.