H.R. 2410 is  another bill that came up while I was vacationing down south. Hence my tardiness.Here’s what happened.

On June 10th, the Foreign Relations Authorization for F.Y. 2010 and 2011 came to a vote on the House floor. This is the measure that funds the State Department, the Peace Corps, and U.S. contributions to the United Nations and other international organizations like the Organization of American States. The bill passed 235 to 187. So what caused Peter Roskam and the bulk of his Republican cohort to vote against funding the State Department in this time of multiple international crises? It was the bill’s support for some of the things Roskam and Republicans hate most:

  • Gay people
  • Women’s rights
  • The United Nations
  • Peace
  • A living wage

I highly recommend that you go read the Republican legislative digest for the bill. The bulk of the discussion of objections to the bill is devoted not to foreign policy questions but to culture wars stuff and  trying to pacify the 13% of Americans who still think the Republicans are doing a good job. It’s pathetic. It even specifically notes that extremist culture wars groups like Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America are against the bill. Crazy, no?  There’s  no mention of any evaluation by groups with expertise in say…foreign policy.

So what are the wingnuts  all worked up about?

  • The bill requires the State Department to work to repeal laws that criminalize consensual homosexual conduct or restrict freedoms enjoyed by gay people and gay organizations. (This runs contrary to the Republican aim to bring back Iran-style public executions  of gay folks here at home.)
  • It requires the State Department to track violence against or restrictions on persons based on sexual orientation and gender identity (the Republican digest equates these with prostitution, pedophilia and exhibitionism)
  • The bill affirms as authoritative the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This is a bill of rights for women adopted by the U.N. general assembly in 1979. The Convention defines discrimination against women as “…any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”  (The Republican digest calls it a “tool of radical social policy”.)
  • It authorizes payment of arrears in U.S. contributions to the United Nations and increases the cap on U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations. (Republicans want to do everything in their power to cripple the United Nations, preferring instead the Bush model of foreign relations).
  • It funds 2200 new foreign service positions and increases wages for foreign service officers as an aid to recruiting and retaining talented people. (Republicans, of course, during the Bush years attempted to emasculate the State Department and pursue military adventures instead of diplomacy, bringing our country to to the low state it is at today in terms of influence over world affairs).

After looking at this, its no wonder that Peter Roskam and his Republican brethren in Congress have a miniscule 13% favorable rating.