John Shadegg, Master Of The Empty Gesture

Apparently, John Shadegg realizes that after not supporting Harry Mitchell's modern G.I. Bill (288 cosponsors and counting, but no Shadegg), he has some bridges to repair with the veterans in his district.

Too bad for him (and for his veteran constituents) that his attempt to do that was all sizzle and no steak.


Thanks to PolitickerAZ for the heads-up on this one...

On Thursday, the House passed H.R. 5818, the Neighborhood Stabilization Act. The bill would establish a program to purchase foreclosed properties and sell them to low- and middle-class buyers at a reduced cost. Since the bill would help Americans, President Bush has threatened to veto it.

Before final passage of the bill, the Republicans, in the person of our own John Shadegg (R-AZ3), made one of their standard motions to recommit (aka - 'kill') the bill.

From the Politicker AZ piece -

Rep. John Shadegg (R-3), however, offered a motion to recommit that would have barred drug dealers, sex offenders and those who've committed mortgage fraud. Instead, said Shadegg, priority should be given to disabled veterans.

"...the least we can do is give those who have served our nation the highest priority in receiving housing assistance," said Shadegg on the floor of the House.

Sounds good, right? Where's the 'empty gesture' here?

From CQ.com (note: Politicker AZ used the same quote; I just went to their source) -

But House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the motion to recommit could stall the bill. He noted that an amendment from Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., adopted Wednesday by voice vote, added priority treatment for veterans and members of the armed forces.

My curiousity was piqued - *surely* a long-time Congressman such as Shadegg wouldn't have missed something like that, particularly when the amendment was offered by a fellow Republican, such as Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI11). Surely Rep. Frank was putting a partisan spin on the facts, right??

From the House webpage chronicling its floor activities on Wednesday, May 7 -

10:39 P.M. -

On agreeing to the McCotter amendment Agreed to by voice vote.

10:27 P.M. -

DEBATE - Pursuant to the provisions of H. Res. 1174, the Committee of the Whole proceeded with ten minutes of debate on the McCotter amendment.

Amendment offered by Mr. McCotter.

An amendment numbered 6 printed in House Report 110-621 to direct States using federal loans and grants for housing rehabilitation to give priority to veterans, members of the Armed Forces on active duty, members of the National Guard or Armed Forces reserves, school teachers, and emergency responders when reselling the rehabilitated property.

Note: The entire McCotter amendment, courtesy the House Rules Committee, here.

In any event, Shadegg's motion to recommit failed by a 210 - 216 vote (from AZ - Renzi, Flake, Shadegg, Franks, Giffords, and Mitchell, aye; Pastor and Grijalva, nay) while the underlying bill passed 239 - 188 (Giffords, Mitchell, Pastor, Grijalva - aye; Flake, Franks, Shadegg, Renzi - nay).

Shadegg seems to be conceding the whole supporting veterans issue to his opponent for the CD3 seat, Bob Lord -

- Lord's campaign website has a page dedicated to supporting actual troops and veterans and guiding his supporters to organizations that directly and specifically assist active-duty troops, veterans, and their families.

- Shadegg's campaign website has a page supporting General Petraeus.


Anybody have questions about which of the two actually cares more about the people actually serving our country?

Later!