New Republican Senate Leaders Appointed

By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate Republican Leader, introduced two new GOP leaders on Thursday. Both were elected without opposition. 

Senator John Thune (R-N.D.), replaced Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) after Ensign resigned from his post as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Thune had previously served as the vice-chairman of the policy committee. 

Thune said that he and his committee will craft policy to counteract the Democrats in Congress, who he said are “proposing the largest tax-increase in American history, spending at unprecedented levels, exploding the debt, putting on a new energy tax, nationalizing one-sixth of the economy with the health care system, taking ownership interest in now over 500 companies, [and] calling for more unionization.” 

Thune also hopes to present a “forward-looking, positive agenda for America’s future.”  

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) stepped into Thune's vacated position to become Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, where she had already served at the leadership table. Murkowski emphasized the need to communicate the GOP message to the American people. 

Referencing the recent scandals surrounding the Republican Party, including the extra-marital affair that led Ensign to resign as chairman of the policy committee, McConnell said that he and the Senate Republicans will “do the people’s business; we don’t intend to be distracted by any other issues that may be out there.” 

GOP Wants U.S. to Be a Leader in the “Nuclear Renaissance”

Members of the Senate Republican Conference have adopted the challenge of creating 100 new nuclear plants in the United States in the next 20 years. The main objective of the proposal is to produce more American energy while using less.

“If climate change is the inconvenient problem of the day, then nuclear power is the inconvenient answer,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Senate Republican Conference Chairman.

Alexander said it is “hard to imagine” why the most urgent solution would not be how to produce more nuclear energy in the next 20 years. He said without nuclear power, the U.S. would not have a chance of a clean air economy.

David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Transport Council, discussed the building process of the 100 new nuclear plants. There is currently only one nuclear energy plant under construction in the United States, TVA’s Watts Bar unit 2.

Blee said that nuclear energy is the “most potent clean energy baseload power option, the most powerful stimulator of jobs per megawatt and enjoys record performance reliability, safety, economics and strong public support.”

However, nuclear energy was removed from the stimulus package and there is not a nuclear title in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s recently passed clean energy bill.

“To me this is almost a P.R. situation. I don’t think Americans are aware of the potential associated with nuclear power.” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Senate Republicans bash Employee Free Choice Act

The Senate Republican Conference held a hearing today strongly opposing the Employee Free Choice Act. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) opened by stating, “If properly labeled, the bill should be called the Employee No Choice Act, or even the Employee Forced Coercion act of 2009.” The main area of contention is the provision that Republicans say would allow for union creation without secret-ballot votes. Sen. Hatch explained, “It represents a sea-change in labor-management relations that has developed since the 1930s.... EFCA would effectively deny workers a secret ballot vote on the question of union representation, and there is no choice for workers to make in the matter.” He spoke of the economic devastation he fears would be an outcome of increased unionization: higher unemployment, outsourced jobs, and businesses which cannot compete.

Senator Bennet (R-Utah) reiterated the need to keep union votes secret, informed, and uncoerced. “When you have a secret ballot election, unions have won 68% of them, which means that by 2 to 1 circumstance, employees get what they want if they want a union.” He explained that this bill provides what union organizers want rather than what employees want.

Senator Risch (R-Idaho) expressed strong support for the current, longstanding legislation regarding employer-employee relations. “We have in place in America laws that have governed union organization and collective bargaining for many years. We have a fair system and we have a level playing field.... What we have in front of us is a bill that is unfair. It is a bill that unlevels the playing field, and it is a bill that overreaches. We don’t need this in America today.”

Testimony by lawyer Eugene Scalia raised the issue of the constitutionality of this legislation. Scalia explained that the Supreme Court recognizes a constitutional right to vote in certain circumstances, and lower courts have included in this a right to secret ballot. “I would argue that this act, given the enormous effects that it has on employee’s lives and given the state action involved through the government certification process presents concerns under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.”