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: July 12,
2016
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-
CONTACT:
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
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
Statement on GOP Platform on Public Transportation by
APTA Acting President & CEO Richard A. White
Page
Content
“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.