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raja krishnamoorthi
House Dems Urge Biden to 'Swiftly' Appoint Postal Board Governors
"Five price hikes since 2020, continual service delivery problems, and constant declines in mail volume are all indicators that the business model of the Postal Service needs careful attention."
Feb 01, 2024
Scores of U.S. House Democrats on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to "swiftly" nominate two members to the Postal Service Board of Governors to fill empty seats amid delayed deliveries and higher customer prices.
"Given the fundamental role that the Postal Service plays in the lives of countless Americans, there must be great care taken to choose those who influence its direction," Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said in a letter to Biden signed by 80 other Democratic lawmakers.
"Unfortunately, the Postal Service currently suffers from slow rates of delivery service and increased costs," the lawmakers asserted. "Despite the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act, the Postal Service still faces a litany of challenges. Five price hikes since 2020, continual service delivery problems, and constant declines in mail volume are all indicators that the business model of the Postal Service needs careful attention."
Noting the vacancy left by the expiration last month of Postal Govs. Lee Moak and William Zollars, the letter asks Biden to:
- Swiftly nominate two new members of the board to ensure no disruption in service to the American people; and
- Choose two candidates who will be wholly committed to lowering costs for everyday Americans and restoring the Postal Service as a public good to be enjoyed by all and not only those who can afford expensive specialty services.
"Now more than ever, it is important [to] have a full, diverse, and future-oriented Postal Board of Governors in place that will uphold its mission of public service," the lawmakers wrote.
Last October, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) asked the head of the Postal Service's accountability unit to launch an investigation into the impacts of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's 10-year austerity overhaul plan. Critics argue the plan is ultimately a privatization scheme championed by Republicans including former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner. DeJoy donated at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump's 2016 campaign prior to his appointment.
A Thursday
statement from Krishnamoorthi's office took aim at the USPS chief.
"Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, far too many Americans, including rural Americans, small businesses, seniors, and tribal communities, have experienced increased costs and diminishing service," the statement said, "harming those who depend on the USPS for both personal and business correspondence."
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Human Rights Defenders Blast Biden's 'Shameful' Red Carpet Welcome for Indian PM Modi
"We have taken the view that geopolitics and countering China is more important to us right now than the values-based diplomacy the Biden administration came in saying they would prioritize," said one critic.
Jun 18, 2023
Human rights defenders this week condemned President Joe Biden's upcoming state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—who was once banned from entering the United States for supporting violent Hindu supremacists who massacred Muslims—as part of an ongoing U.S. "whitewash" of the right-wing leader's extremism.
Modi—who represents the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—is set to meet with Biden and speak before Congress this week in a visit the White House says "will strengthen our two countries' shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific."
However, rights groups and activists are condemning Biden's embrace of Modi while underscoring the grave human rights violations committed by the prime minister, his party, and their allies.
"Increasingly in recent years, BJP leaders have used toxic and hateful speech targeting religious minorities, inciting violence or discrimination against them."
"For almost a decade now, human rights activists and others have regularly brought to the White House—Democrats or Republicans—that Modi's regime is authoritarian, it's right-wing, it's anti-Muslim, and it's anti-minority" Suchitra Vijayan, author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, toldHuffPost.
"The fact that they continue to whitewash him by giving them a platform is very worrying," she added.
Vijayan noted that "despite who is in the White House, the U.S. has a long history of propping up authoritarian regimes for its own personal ends."
\u201c\u201cDespite who is in the White House, the U.S. has a long history of propping up authoritarian regimes for its own personal ends.\u201d\n\u201cWhat happens in a country of a billion people will have global ramifications,\u201d\n\nImportant piece by @Rowaida_Abdel \nhttps://t.co/W1arZrWd1W\u201d— Suchitra Vijayan (@Suchitra Vijayan) 1687103295
John Prabhudoss, chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, told HuffPost that Indian pastors and their families live in constant terror.
"Their family could be jailed or even the worst, killed. The fear is real," he said. "For the president to bring [Modi] to the White House... is shameful. Mr. Biden, shame on you."
In a June 8 letter to Biden, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Modi's visit "an important opportunity for the U.S. government to raise concerns—both privately and publicly—about India's worsening human rights situation."
\u201cIt's bad enough the Biden will give Modi the prestige of a state visit despite his HIndu nationalist attacks on Muslims and his censorship of journalist and civil-society critics. At least Biden should speak publicly about these human rights violations. https://t.co/cJdpM6iBu3\u201d— Kenneth Roth (@Kenneth Roth) 1686916859
The letter stated:
There are numerous areas of concern. Increasingly in recent years, BJP leaders have used toxic and hateful speech targeting religious minorities, inciting violence or discrimination against them. BJP-led authorities have tightened restrictions on free speech while ramping up censorship and using overbroad and vague laws to investigate and prosecute critics. Modi's government has also demonstrated blatant bias in protecting BJP supporters and affiliates accused [of] a range of crimes, including murder, assault, corruption, and sexual violence. At the international level, Modi's government has often proven unwilling to stand with other governments on key human rights crises, abstaining or refraining from condemning grave human rights violations elsewhere.
HRW and Amnesty International are set to host a private screening of a BBC documentary on Modi and his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The film, India: The Modi Question, was banned by the government, which raided the BBC's India offices over what officials called a tax probe but critics condemned as retaliation in line with Modi's attacks on press freedom.
Reporters Without Borders ranks India 161st out of 180 nations in press freedom, behind Afghanistan and just ahead of Russia.
\u201c#EconWatch: In @RSF_inter\u2019s 2023 World Press Freedom Index, India ranks a HORRIBLE 161st out of 180 countries.\u00a0This is a dismal state of affairs in the world's so-called largest "democracy."\u201d— Steve Hanke (@Steve Hanke) 1687094700
Modi, who was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat at the time of the 2002 slaughter, blamed Muslims for torching a train full of Hindu pilgrims, an attack that killed around 60 people. Hindu mobs then murdered at least hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Muslim men, women, and children in a retaliatory rampage, with many women raped and mutilated.
More than 250 Hindus were also killed during the violence, which displaced an estimated 150,000 people.
A U.K. government probe found that Modi was "directly responsible" for the "climate of impunity" surrounding the massacre.
While Modi was accused of deliberately allowing the violence, a special investigation commissioned by the Indian Supreme Court cleared him of complicity in 2012. Still, Modi's alleged role in the massacre led to a U.S. visa ban, first instated during the George W. Bush administration in 2005. The ban was lifted by then-President Barack Obama's administration in 2014 after Modi became prime minister.
Violence—sometimes deadly—against religious minorities and others has continued, and increased, under BJP rule.
\u201cIndia\u2019s Bnei Menashe community in crisis as ethnic violence burns synagogues and displaces hundreds\n\nhttps://t.co/rSW8P8IllH\u201d— Suchitra Vijayan (@Suchitra Vijayan) 1687023521
As the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) notes:
The U.S. government and numerous internationally recognized organizations have condemned Modi for his and his political party's attacks on core democratic freedoms, as well as their roles in enabling violence against Indian minorities. The 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom by the Department of State highlights hate speeches by leaders of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which have contributed to anti-Muslim and anti-Christian violence; the BJP's criminalization of religious conversion; BJP-led demolitions of Muslim-owned properties; Hindu supremacist rewriting of school curricula; arbitrary arrests of Muslims; and denial of bail for jailed Muslim activists. For four years running, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has designated India as a Country of Particular Concern for its egregious violations of human rights and religious freedoms, citing similar abuses.
"To fail to note Modi’s violent, anti-minority, authoritarian tendencies, and his corrupt mismanagement of the Indian economy, is not only to ignore the U.S. government's own findings but a strategic blunder with the potential to jeopardize global stability," IAMC said.
\u201cThis video shows Muslims being publicly flogged in Gujarat, India, following violent protests against a demolition order for a Muslim shrine \u2935\ufe0f\u201d— Al Jazeera English (@Al Jazeera English) 1687102200
"The turmoil Modi and the BJP have sown within Indian society is a profound threat to regional stability and has the potential to substantially undermine any joint initiatives," the group argued.
Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst with the Rand Corporation, said in an interview published Saturday by the Financial Times, "The question is, are we propping up an increasingly illiberal democracy here?"
"In my view, we are," he asserted. "We have taken the view that geopolitics and countering China is more important to us right now than the values-based diplomacy the Biden administration came in saying they would prioritize."
\u201c\u201cWe have taken the view that geopolitics and countering China is more important to us right now than the values-based diplomacy the Biden administration came in saying they would prioritise,\u201d says @DerekJGrossman\n\n https://t.co/YCih1scbT0\u201d— Indian American Muslim Council (@Indian American Muslim Council) 1687100543
Some congressional Democrats have also faced criticism for their varying degrees of support for Modi and the BJP.
When then-President Donald Trump embraced the Indian leader at the raucous 2019 "Howdy Modi!" rally in Houston, six Democrats took to the stage to greet Modi: then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.); Rep. Danny Davis (Ill.); Rep. Tom Suozzi (N.Y.), an erstwhile critic of Indian human rights abuses in Kashmir; and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.).
Krishnamoorthi has attended the World Hindu Congress, a notorious platform for Hindu nationalists including Mohan Bhagwat, leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist-inspired political and paramilitary movement whose brand of Hindu supremacy heavily influenced the rise of the BJP. Modi is a former RSS regional director.
\u201cWashington Post Editorial board on Modi\u2019s visit to the United States. \n\n\u201cMr. Modi should be encouraged to brake the spiral of communal violence and toxic hate directed at India\u2019s roughly 200 million Muslims and other minorities\u201d https://t.co/lqsTdiuTO4\u201d— Rana Ayyub (@Rana Ayyub) 1687077689
Others, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), have been unwaveringly critical of Modi's policies and practices.
Then there is the curious case of Rep. Ro Khanna. Invoking the name of his grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar, a figure in India's independence movement who served multiple terms in parliament, the California Democrat in 2019 declared that "it's the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, and Christians."
Hindutva—literally, "Hindu-ness"—is the modern political ideology espoused by Modi, the BJP, and many of their extremist allies advocating Hindu supremacy and the transformation of secular India into an ethno-nationalist state.
\u201cDid we beg for an invite? Congressional India Caucus' Co-chair Ro Khanna says, he pleaded with House Speaker McCarthy for securing an invite to PM Modi to address US Congress' Joint Session for 2nd time. There's no freebie in diplomacy. What'll be the quid pro quo for this favor?\u201d— Seema Sengupta, (@Seema Sengupta,) 1686320621
However, last month IAMC expressed its disappointment that Khanna asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to invite Modi to deliver a joint address before Congress during his state visit to Washington. Khanna's request—which was made with Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.,)—contended that "granting a joint address to Congress is a commensurate honor for the leader of the world's largest democracy and perhaps the most critical partner to countering China in the 21st century."
In response, IAMC cautioned that "the opportunity to speak before Congress will help to legitimize Modi's brand of Hindu nationalist politics and the systematic persecution of religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, under his rule."
"Khanna has previously and admirably criticized Hindu nationalism, Rahul Gandhi's expulsion from parliament, and disingenuous cries of Hinduphobia used to deflect legitimate criticism of the Indian government," the group added. "IAMC urges Rep. Khanna to continue this fight, cancel his request, and instead educate his constituents about the harms the Modi regime has done to India."
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US House Members Unveil Stock Trading Ban: Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act
"When members have access to classified information, we should not be trading in the stock market on it," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "It's really that simple."
May 02, 2023
Four members of the U.S. House of Representatives from across the political spectrum came together on Tuesday to introduce the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, which would ban federal lawmakers and their immediate relatives from owning and trading stocks.
Momentum for such a ban has been growing in the wake of various investigations last year, but Democrats—who controlled both chambers of Congress in 2022, but now only have a slim majority in the Senate—failed to pass any of the related legislative proposals, despite their popularity among voters.
"The fact that members of the Progressive Caucus, the Freedom Caucus, and the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, reflecting the entirety of the political spectrum, can find common ground on key issues like this should send a powerful message to America," said Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who is leading the new bill with Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
"We all view this as a critical first step to return the House of Representatives back to the people."
"We must move forward on issues that unite us, including our firm belief that trust in government must be restored, and that members of Congress, including their dependents, must be prohibited from trading in stocks while they are serving in Congress and have access to sensitive, inside information," Fitzpatrick continued. "This is basic common sense and basic Integrity 101. And we all view this as a critical first step to return the House of Representatives back to the people."
As Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center and former chair of the Federal Election Commission, explained last September, "Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act into law 10 years ago, but the STOCK Act did not decrease the appearance of corruption that arises when members of Congress engage in suspicious stock trades."
If passed, the new restrictions proposed by Fitzpatrick's diverse group would apply to all members of Congress as well as their spouses and dependents.
"The ability to individually trade stock erodes the public's trust in government," asserted Ocasio-Cortez. "When members have access to classified information, we should not be trading in the stock market on it. It's really that simple."
While the progressive "Squad" member has often clashed with Gaetz, their comments Tuesday made clear they agree on this topic.
"Members of Congress are spending their time trading futures instead of securing the future of our fellow Americans. We cannot allow the Swamp to prioritize investing in stocks over investing in our country," said Gaetz. "As long as concerns about insider trading hang over the legislative process, Congress will never regain the trust of the American people. Our responsibility in Congress is to serve the people, not hedge bets on the stock market."
Krishnamoorthi also agreed that "members of Congress must be focused on their constituents, not their stock portfolios."
The Hill on Tuesday highlighted some recent events that have fueled bipartisan support for a stock trading ban:
In 2022, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) husband sold millions of dollars worth of shares of a computer chip maker as the House prepared to vote on a bill focused on domestic chip manufacturing. A spokesman for Pelosi said at the time that he sold the shares at a loss.
Former Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who at the time was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also unloaded stocks at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently closed a probe of his trading activities without taking action.
The legislation unveiled Tuesday is supported by advocacy groups including the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
"When members of Congress own and trade stock in companies they regulate they undermine the democracy that they were elected to serve," argued CREW policy director Debra Perlin. "It is Congress' duty to rebuild the trust that it has lost by banning members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from owning or trading stocks. And that is precisely what the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act does."
The proposed "complete prohibition on congressional stock ownership demonstrates that in our democracy the public's needs, rather than members' stock portfolios, come first," Perlin added. "CREW commends Rep. Fitzpatrick for his work on this issue and strongly encourages Congress to pass stock ban legislation as quickly as possible."
Emma Lydon, managing director of P Street, the government affairs sister organization of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, similarly called on the House—which is now narrowly controlled by Republicans—to "take swift action to pass this critical, bipartisan anti-corruption legislation to restore public trust in our democracy."
"Elected officials should represent the interests of their constituents, not their own pocketbooks," declared Lydon. "It's a scandal that members of Congress are still allowed to own and trade individual stocks while casting votes that move markets and transform economic sectors."
This post has been updated to correct Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick's political party.
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