Posted on 03/14/2016 5:56:16 AM PDT by HomerBohn
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
It's not like $500M is that big of a deal. Just tack it on to the $19,000,000,000,000+ national debt!
Via Fox News: Two Republican senators are accusing the State Department of misusing taxpayer dollars by green-lighting $500 million for a United Nations climate change program without first obtaining congressional approval. The senators now are demanding the department justify the “cloak-and-dagger” contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) – even threatening legal action.
Lawyers cannot replace the constitutional requirement that only Congress can appropriate money,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said, adding that he’s demanding a “full legal analysis.”
Gardner, in a statement to FoxNews.com, alleged the department was trying to “wave a magic wand and write a half-billion dollar check to a Green Climate Fund that they admit was never authorized by Congress.” He also vowed to “pursue legislative action that prevents cloak-and-dagger re-programming of money outside of congressional approval.”
At the center of the dispute is whether the State Department abused its authority in shifting funds between an existing program and the climate fund. The Obama administration – despite resistance from congressional Republicans — has committed the U.S. to contributing $3 billion to the fund, a program established by the United Nations to help poor countries adopt clean energy technologies to address climate change. Nearly 200 other nations have agreed to provide $100 billion per year by 2020, from private and public sources.
Along with Gardner, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., maintains Congress has not allocated any funding for what he calls the “international climate change slush fund” and has in fact “prohibited the transfer of funds to create new programs.”
The State Department acknowledges the funding was never explicitly approved by Congress – but argues the department was within its authority to shift funding to the Green Climate Fund, because Congress did not explicitly prohibit funding the GCF.
Under questioning by Barrasso at a March 8 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom told the committee the funds were diverted from the department’s Economic Support Fund — which provides economic funding to foreign countries — to the GCF after a full review by department lawyers.
State Department spokeswoman Katherine Pfaff also confirmed to FoxNews.com the source of the funding was the economic fund, but could not say from which exact program the money came. And she bluntly addressed the GOP senators’ accusation. “Did Congress authorize the Green Climate Fund? No,” she said, adding that department lawyers “reviewed the authority and the process under which we can do it.” The administration, meanwhile, has requested another $750 million for the GCF in its fiscal 2017 budget. Higginbottom also insisted they were not required to notify Congress about the transfer from the Economic Support Fund.
At the hearing, though, Barrasso said the first installment of the $3 billion pledge was “a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
This mess in the Black Hut must be challenged and taken care of NOW!
Interesting expression on the face of the black boy king.
Must be savoring thoughts of his last homosexual romp.
Well maybe the Senate should do something about it.
Congress “accuses” but does nothing. It is good to be King Obama.
This is Paul Ryan’s job.
All spending starts in the House.
If he can’t do the job, its time to fire him and find someone who will do his job.
Instead of the typical GOPe limp-wristed, pansified whining about the misappropriation of tax dollars, immediately reduce the State Department’s budget by $0.5 billion to offset the amount. Oh wait, that would actually require action and a set of balls... better stick to whining.
That’ll be the day...
The Senate needs to appoint a blue ribbon committee to find out how Obama got all his money.
Why does the Congress matter? They stand in the way of PRogressive action to make the world a better place.
/Sarcasm/
IMHO
Just MORE Kabuki theater for the masses.
The only hope for stopping this stuff is putting Trump in the Whitehouse.
JUST TWO OPPOSE? What kind of system allows an authorization like this to be made? This is kabuki theater!
Not legal?
Get off your butts and do something about it.
Stop whining while begging to be reelected.
Nothing but posturing here, if they were serious about ANYTHING other than Stopping Trump, The WITNESSES WOULD BE IN PRISON FOR CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS!
Congress has ALL the power in washington, the executive and judicial branch operate according to the whims of CONGRESS!
Congress can Remove the President
Congress can remove the head of every executive agency Congress can remove ALL of their employees
Congress can Abolish every agency they so choose
Congress can remove EVERY JUDGE IN AMERICA, including every supreme court justice.
Congress can abolish every federal court except the supreme Court
Congress can decide which cases the Judicial Branch can hear and decide
CONGRESS can Imprison ANYONE they want for any reason they so desire for as long as they wish.
Congress can declare WAR
No other governing body has even 10% of the power CONGRESS has!!
CONGRESS IS ALLOWING ALL OF IT!!!
Congress has the authority to arrest and imprison those found in Contempt. The power extends throughout the United States and is an inherent power (does not depend upon legislated act)
If found in Contempt the person can be arrested under a warrant of the Speaker of the House of Representatives or President of the Senate, by the respective Sergeant at Arms.
Statutory criminal contempt is an alternative to inherent contempt.
Under the inherent contempt power Congress may imprison a person for a specific period of time or an indefinite period of time, except a person imprisoned by the House of Representatives may not be imprisoned beyond adjournment of a session of Congress.
Imprisonment may be coercive or punitive.
Some references
[1] Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution, Volume 2, § 842 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/a1_5s21.html
[2] Anderson v. Dunn - 19 U.S. 204 - “And, as to the distance to which the process might reach, it is very clear that there exists no reason for confining its operation to the limits of the District of Columbia; after passing those limits, we know no bounds that can be prescribed to its range but those of the United States.” http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/19/204/case.html
[3] Jurney v. MacCracken, 294 U.S. 125 http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/294/125/case.html 73rd Cong., 78 Cong. Rec. 2410 (1934) https://archive.org/details/congressionalrec78aunit
[4] McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. 135 - Under a warrant issued by the President of the Senate the Deputy to the Senate Sergeant at Arms arrested at Cincinnati, Ohio, Mally S. Daugherty, who had been twice subpoenaed by the Senate and twice failed to appear. http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/273/135/case.html
[5] Rules of the House of Representatives, Rule IV Duties of the Sergeant at Arms - [] execute the commands of the House, and all processes issued by authority thereof, directed to him by the Speaker. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/HMAN-105/pdf/HMAN-105-pg348.pdf
[6] An analysis of Congressional inquiry, subpoena, and enforcement http://www.constitutionproject.org/documents/when-congress-comes-calling-a-primer-on-the-principles-practices-and-pragmatics-of-legislative-inquiry/
Only two senators are questioning it?
I agree. I have always been of the opinion the 3 branches were not equal originally. Congress was 1st, then Exec, then Judicial.
there smust be bitter punishment for the crime. Se Kerry must go to prison at the very minimum
Gee, that’s all well and good. Now, that the 100 bloviating Senators have said that the State Department misappropriated $500 million in taxpayer money, what are these gaggle pf morons going to do about it? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The U.S. Senate is individually and collectively worthless as teats on a bull.
suppose anyone from msm will ask cruz or rubio what their position is on the state dept funding the UN Green slush fund??
what's next?
or more importantly: "how much of more has already been doled out to UN Scams like this?"
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