October 2020 – Page 3

FAMILY: Data-Driven Studies Show Fathers Are Massively VIP To Kids

When federal policymakers named one of the most important social welfare efforts aimed at helping feed children in poverty, they dubbed it the “Women, Infants and Children” (WIC) program.

Fathers somehow were left out.

Father and daughter. Priceless. (Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

At one level, that title simply reflected the depressing reality that millions of fathers sire children, then fail to support them financially, much less emotionally or in any of the multiple other ways revealed by data-driven studies highlighted earlier this week by Dr. Patrick Fagan on Marripedia.

For congressional staffers in positions to influence federal policymaking on families, these studies offer strong evidence of why the greatest failing of present government social welfare initiatives may well be the glaring lack of coherently integrated efforts to support fathers and encourage them to be there for their families. Continue reading “FAMILY: Data-Driven Studies Show Fathers Are Massively VIP To Kids”

THINK ABOUT THIS: Friday’s Poached Egg

Then Jesus said:

“Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles and He will be mocked, insulted, spit on; and after they flog Him, they will kill Him, and He will rise on the third day.” — Luke 18:31-33

And C.S. Lewis said:

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

STAFF NEWS: Look Who’s Movin’ On Up The Hill This Week

Courtesy of Legistorm:

Morgan Nunnery (Screenshot from Facebook)

Moving up to Staff Assistant from an internship with Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN) is Morgan Nunnery. Morgan earned his BA in economics this year from the University of South Carolina.

Also moving to a Staff Assistant position is Hailey Webre, joining the operation of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), following internships on the House side with Representatives Clay Higgins and Garrett Graves, also of Louisiana. Hailey graduated last year from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BA in organizational communications.

Rachel Alger is the new Community Liason for Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA). Previously, Rachel was a Communications Specialist for two Washington State legislative committees.

Owen Reilly has joined the staff of Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), serving as a Legislative Assistant. Owen previously worked for two years (2014-2016) in the office of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). He graduated from the Indiana University School of Law in 2014 and the State University of New York at Fredonia with a BA in English and Philosophy in 2006. So if you ever need to talk Chaucer and Causal Fallacies, you know who to look up!

LOOKING FOR A HILL JOB?

Check out this five-part HillFaith series by Bret Bernhardt, former chief of staff for Senators Don Nickle (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Bernhardt has a wealth of experience, insider insight, how-tos and obscure terms (know what a “golden reference” is on the Hill?), plus lots of helpful links.

The Best Resources for Finding a Job On the Hill

Where Your Best Job Lead is on Capitol Hill May Surprise You

Getting in the Door on Capitol Hill

Here’s Nine Valuable Tips for Interviewing Well on Capitol Hill

Working on Capitol Hill is the World’s Best Job (Or at Least My Best Ever)

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? When Somebody Claims That Voting Just Isn’t Important

If history is any guide, nearly half of all voting-age Americans will fail to vote on election day, November 3, when the country picks its 46th president, a new Congress and scores of other officials for state and local governments.

Colson Center’s Joseph Backholm in ‘What Would You Say?’ (Screenshot from youtube)

But for those working on Capitol Hill, voting might as well be like drinking water, there is no life without it because we do live in a democratic republic in which the people, the voters, are sovereign.

Sadly, there are quite a few folks who think voting is a waste of time because it won’t make any difference, elections are all rigged, politicians never do what they promise, and so on and so on and so on.

In the following Colson Center video, Joseph Backholm provides three excellent responses for the next time somebody lays one of those pathetic excuses for not voting on you in a conversation:

WORKING ON THE HILL: 123 Hill Aides, Contractors Have Now Tested Positive For Covid Or Are Being Presumed Positive

A total of 123 congressional aides and contractors have either tested positive for the Covid virus or are being presumed to have the disease, according to Roll Call, quoting Ashley Phelps, a spokesman for Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Administration.

“The count includes 46 Capitol Police employees, 42 Architect of the Capitol employees and 35 contractors working on the Cannon Building renovation project. These numbers reflect total cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. As of Oct. 5, there are 22 Capitol Police employees who are on paid administrative leave,” Roll Call reports.

With approximately 20,000 Hill aides and employees, 123 positives produces an infection rate of 0.615 percent. Republicans like Davis, who have been especially hard on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for not instituting mandatory testing for all Members and workers, are likely to question the accuracy of that infection rate precisely because it’s based on incomplete testing.

But Pelosi’s defenders are just as likely to point to the microscopically low infection rate as evidence that the Speaker’s approach to the issue — keeping as many Members and aides away from the capitol complex as possible — has worked extraordinarily well.

What do you think? Should some form of mandatory, regularly scheduled regime of Covid testing be instituted among Members of Congress, their personal and committee staffs, employees at Hill agencies like the Capitol Police and Congressional Budget Office and contractors?

WHAT IF: All Bible Prophecies Are Just As Accurate As These Five?

Your friend tells you a check for $1 million made out in your name will appear in your snail-mail box next Wednesday morning. Sure enough, next Wednesday morning rolls around and there’s the check.

That ought to get your attention, right? But maybe your friend had some way of knowing in advance that for whatever reason somebody would so favor you. Besides, it’s just one correct prophecy, so not necessarily evidence of your friend having an amazing prophetic skill.

But then over the course of the next four weeks the same friend delivers four more prophecies about you and your life —some good, some not so good — that prove to be dead-on accurate. You’re going to pay close attention whenever that friend speaks!

Would you do the same with a book containing five accurate prophecies about hugely important events in world history? What if it’s not just five, but hundreds of accurate prophecies made over more than 2,000 years? Check it out:

This Analysis Of Hill Staff Is Unlike Any You’ve Ever Before Heard

Bill Walton graciously invited me to come on his show recently and we talked for 25 great minutes about why Hill aides are among the least well-known, but most influential groups in the nation’s capital, Christian apologetics, HillFaith, journalism, and much more.

These two graphs from my response to Bill’s opening question set the tone for the rest of what proved to be a delightful conversation:

“If you were asked, who’s the most influential but least well-known group in Washington, DC, if you really understand how things work in this town, you would say immediately, ‘Congressional Staff.’ There are about 20,000 of them. They are mostly young men and women, highly educated, very motivated, and very smart.

“They have a passion for public service and politics, who are also routinely over-worked, underpaid, and almost nothing gets done in Congress without them. They have tremendous power by virtue of their positions to influence public policy in this country, yet they may well be the most invisible power center in the nation’s capital.”

Bipartisan Duo Of Former Hill Aides Say Mandatory Covid Testing Needed For Members And Staff

Kendra Barkoff Lamy is a former press secretary for then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). Doug Heye was deputy chief of staff for then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). There’s not much politically on which these two agreed.

But they both contend it’s past time for Congress to adopt a program of mandatory Covid testing for Members and staffers. Writing on the Opinion pages of the Washington Post, Lamy and Heye contend:

“Frequent testing, with rapid results, would cut the risk not only on Capitol Hill but in every related community across the country. With more testing, exponentially more American lives may be saved through reduced spread. Frequent testing would also set an example of transparency and taking Covid-19 seriously. Anything short of that fails all of us.

“We are not medical professionals, but we know that Congress can act swiftly to mitigate health threats, just as members and staff were quickly protected after letters containing anthrax were mailed to congressional offices in 2001. Congress should institute mandatory testing and make wearing a mask mandatory on Capitol grounds.”

Go here for the rest of the Lamy/Heye oped.

Justice Department Sides With Capitol Hill Baptist Church Against Bowser, D.C. Government

Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) is being unreasonably burdened by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. government with its anti-Covid regulations that effectively bar members of the congregation from exercising their First Amendment right to religious freedom, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Capitol Hill Baptist Church Senior Pastor Mark Dever (Screenshot from CHBC video).

“Here, Defendants (collectively, the Honorable Muriel Bowser and the District of Columbia) are imposing a substantial burden, within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), on Plaintiff Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s religious exercise by denying the church the ability to gather as a single body as required by its sincere religious faith,” DOJ said in a Statement of Interest filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The CHBC, represented by the First Liberty Institute, filed suit in the federal court last week against the regulations.

“This triggers strict scrutiny: Defendants must meet the high burden of showing that their actions support a compelling governmental interest pursued through the least restrictive means. Continue reading “Justice Department Sides With Capitol Hill Baptist Church Against Bowser, D.C. Government”

FAMILY: At-Risk Kids Get Life-Changing Help At Christian Schools, Study Finds

Most conversations, especially on Capitol Hill, about public versus private education focus, unfortunately, on the relative merits of the two systems in terms of test scores and job preparation, according to a new joint study by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Not that doing well on the SAT or getting a leg-up on the latest technologies and procedures in the industry of your choice are bad things, but the authors of the study point to other factors that ought to be considered in the comparison because they are at least important, if not more so, in assessing the comparative societal value of public and private schools.

“For instance, there is the opportunity to be formed into a woman or man of good character, a good citizen, or a good partner and parent. The effects of schooling extend to these other important domains of life,” the study said. Continue reading “FAMILY: At-Risk Kids Get Life-Changing Help At Christian Schools, Study Finds”

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? Late Term Abortions Are Rare, Limiting Them Will Only Hurt Women

It’s one of those axioms of contemporary conventional wisdom that partial-birth and late-term abortions are extremely rare, and thus not something with which policymakers at the federal and state level need be concerned.

Imposing limitations on these procedures will only hurt women and open the door to repealing womens’ rights across the entire spectrum of American freedom, according to the conventional wisdom.

Not so, argues the Colson Center’s Megan Almon. In fact, more than 77,000 later-term abortions happen annually, and often for reasons that have little or nothing to do with medical necessity. And Megan has much more in the way of facts and logic that ought to give all of us second thoughts about the rights of the unborn humans among us:

MY STORY: Jesus’ First Disciples Followed Him ‘Immediately;’ But Me, I Had To Be Fired, Twice

When Jesus called his first four disciples, He simply said “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” according to the Gospel of Matthew (4:18-22).

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Screenshot from youtube).

Note the reaction of the four men. Matthew tells us they each “immediately” dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. They left behind their way of making a living to follow an itinerant preacher, apparently without any extended thought.

This same Peter and 10 of the other 11 disciples Jesus ultimately called to His side during his three brief years of ministry before His trial and crucifixion went on, with Paul, to change the world and history in the years following the Resurrection. Continue reading “MY STORY: Jesus’ First Disciples Followed Him ‘Immediately;’ But Me, I Had To Be Fired, Twice”

THINK ABOUT THIS: Friday’s Poached Egg

Then Jesus said:

““I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” — John 14:6

And C.S. Lewis said:

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

STAFF NEWS: Look Who’s Movin’ On Up The Hill This Week

Courtesy of Legistorm:

Christopher Cox (Screenshot from Legistorm).

Got a question about Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) concerning her views on civil rights, native Americans, technology, health or families (and lots of other issues as well)? Then the person you need to talk to is Christopher Cox, Clarke’s new Senior Policy Adviser. He is moving up from being Clarke’s Senior Legislative Assistant. Christopher is a 2016 MPH graduate of Jackson State University in health policy and management, and he earned his BA in political science and legal studies in 2013, also from Jackson State University.

Sheresh Khan (Screenshot from Facebook).

Sheresh Khan is the new Legislative Director for Rep. Lou Correau (D-Calif.). Sheresh was previously Legislative Assistant in the Correau office. Sheresh started on the Hill as a Legislative Assistant for Correau in 2017. Sheresh is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego.

Also moving up to a Senior Policy Adviser position is Elizabeth Arevalo, working for Rep. Ted Leiu (D-Calif.). Elizabeth, who has worked for Leiu since 2015, was previously a Legislative Assistant. Elizabeth graduated with a BA in political science in 2014 from Notre Dame University. Continue reading “STAFF NEWS: Look Who’s Movin’ On Up The Hill This Week”