The House will vote today on H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill. In addition to its many efforts to radically change energy policy in our nation, the bill will create a system for trading and selling credits to emit so-called greenhouse gases. The Administration and House leadership are declaring that the Congressional Budget Office says the bill will only cost the average person the price of a postage stamp a day.

There are two problems with their analysis. First, they are only estimating the direct costs added to the system by the emissions credit trading program. In other words, this is the money that it will cost simply to run a program to buy and sell the emissions credits. It does not include the actual increased costs of energy, products, and services. It also only looks at the year 2020, before the bill’s tighter restrictions kick in. The Heritage Foundation calculated the full costs passed onto consumers and concluded that the Waxman-Markey bill will cost the average family of four $1,870 in 2020 and $6,800 by 2035.

If you agree that the House should not pass H.R. 2454, please contact your congressman today.

Here are some quick facts on this dangerous bill:

• H.R. 2454 will cost the average family of four $1,870/year by 2020 and then become even more expensive.
• The bill will not significantly reduce greenhouse gases worldwide or significantly impact the climate.
• The United States will be put at a competitive disadvantage with other nations that do not mandate greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
• The bill favors some businesses over others in the distribution of credits.

If you agree that the House should not pass H.R. 2454, please contact your congressman today. There is no time to spare on this. Below is a list of House Republicans and Democrats who appear to still be undecided. If you live in their district, please call their offices and express your opposition to H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill. Even if your congressman is not on this list, please consider making a call anyway. Every member of Congress is under incredible pressure to pass this bill. We must counter that pressure. Also, please consider forwarding this to the folks on your email list and asking them to make their voices heard.

These are the undecided House members on H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade legislation. You can reach them, and any other congressman, by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your congressman.

Democrats, District

Bright AL-02
Griffith AL-05
Berry AR-01
Ross AR-04
Mitchell AZ-05
Giffords AZ-08
Cardoza CA-18
Costa CA-20
Schiff CA-29
Harman CA-36
Baca CA-43
Sanchez CA-47
Salazar CO-03
Boyd FL-02
Bishop GA-02
Marshall GA-08
Barrow GA-12
Scott GA-13
Boswell IA-03
Minnick ID-01
Donnelly IN-02
Ellsworth IN-08
Hill IN-09
Moore KS-03
Chandler KY-06
Melancon LA-03
Kravotil MD-01
Michaud ME-02
Childers MS-01
Taylor MS-04
Shuler NC-11
Pomeroy ND
Arcuri NY-24
Wilson OH–06
Space OH-18
Altmire PA-04
Thompson PA-05
Murphy PA-08
Carney PA-10
Holden PA-17
Herseth-Sandlin SD
Davis TN-04
Cooper TN-05
Gordon TN-06
Tanner TN-08
Cuellar TX-28
Matheson UT-02
Nye VA-02
Perriello VA-05

Republicans, District

Buchanan FL-13
Cao LA-02
Ehlers MI-03
Frelinghuysen NJ-11
Gerlach PA-06
Johnson IL-15
Kirk IL-10
Smith NJ-04

We appreciate your partnership.

In His Service,

Richard Land

The power to save untold thousands of lives from experiencing disease and premature death from tobacco use is within reach.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on a bill to provide oversight on the tobacco industry. Currently, Big Tobacco packages and promotes its products with virtually no meaningful checks. This results in some 400,000 tobacco-related deaths each year. And much of the industry’s $13 billion in annual marketing is directed at children to allure new consumers to replace dying ones. This should not be permitted to continue.

If you want to end this lack of oversight, please tell your senators to vote “yes” on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (S. 982). You can reach them through the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them.

The House has already passed the bill—by nearly a 3-to-1 margin. If the Senate kills this bill, many more men, women, and children will almost certainly begin lifelong tobacco addictions and die prematurely.

For more information:

Richard Land testimony to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

Thank you for doing your part to help protect others from the dangers of tobacco addiction.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on whether to confirm Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS)—a radically pro-choice nominee who appears to have deep ties to the abortion industry—as the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Sebelius’ extreme and well established record on abortion speaks for itself. Among her accomplishments as Kansas governor, she has vetoed legislation that would tighten parental notification law, strengthen late-term abortion law, and require basic sanitary conditions in abortion clinics. And just last week, the HHS nominee padded her radical resume even further by vetoing a widely popular bill to require abortionists to provide reasons for performing late-term abortions.

Also troubling is the growing evidence of her ties to infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller. Recent revelations show that the governor had failed to disclose some $27,000 of nearly $40,000 in contributions from Tiller, who also donated another $200,000 to a political action committee dedicated to defeating her pro-life gubernatorial opponent. In 2007, Sebelius held a reception at the governor’s mansion that included Tiller among her guests.

With this ardent pro-choice history and many questions still unanswered, Sebelius is clearly the wrong choice to head our nation’s highest health agency.

If you agree, please contact your senators immediately and tell them to vote “no” on Gov. Sebelius as the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for taking a few moments to share your concerns on this dangerous nomination with your senators.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

Back door attempts in Congress to push through a global warming tax are heating up.

It is our understanding that the Democrat Senate leadership is planning to move forward with a cap-and-trade bill, which would drastically limit levels of greenhouse gases that electrical, industrial, and transportation sectors can emit, tax them for what they do emit, and slap them with hefty fines if they exceed those emissions levels.

Such a bill would put the brakes on our already slowed economy, forcing industries and businesses to slash jobs and to pass their taxes onto individuals and families in the form of price increases on commodities and energy. This would make it even more difficult for America to climb out of its current economic troubles. Making this worse, the whole basis for the policy—catastrophic human-induced global warming—is not even settled among scientists, who are growing increasingly skeptical, especially since we have been experiencing a decade-long cooling trend.

With your help, we stopped this type of foolhardy legislation from passing last year. We need your help again.

Christians should take every reasonable step to care for God’s creation. But rushing into environmental policies based on questionable science that will create greater economic hardships on every American, especially the poor, is the wrong approach.

If you agree, please tell your senators to oppose any form of global warming cap-and-trade legislation. You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for taking a few minutes from your busy day to make your voice heard in Washington, D.C.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

David Ogden—a man who has represented Playboy and Penthouse before the courts, provided legal counsel to Planned Parenthood, and supported special protections for homosexuals—could soon be confirmed as deputy attorney general. He is scheduled to be voted on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second highest position in the U.S. Justice Department.

During his legal career, Ogden has argued against laws to protect children from pornography and sued the federal government to force the Library of Congress to publish a Playboy publication in Braille using taxpayer dollars. We will spare you the more offensive details of these and other cases he has defended in the courtroom. He has also said “the right to secure an abortion is fundamental,” and has opposed parental notification laws for girls as young as 14.

Does this sound like someone fit for a position to help protect our families? We don’t think so.

If you agree, please contact your senators immediately if they sit on the Judiciary Committee, and urge them to oppose the confirmation of David Ogden. Even if your senators are not members of the committee, it is important that they hear from you since the full Senate could vote on Ogden soon after the committee vote.

You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

For more information:

Justice Pick at Odds with Family Values

Thank you for doing what you can to help protect our families and future generations.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

We already need your help to stop this one-week-old Congress from passing bad policy.

Today, Congress is expected to consider legislation that would tarnish a decade-old health insurance program that has well served millions of children whose low-income families do not qualify for Medicaid. The bill, H.R. 2, would radically expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to include coverage for children from higher-income families at an estimated cost of $33 billion over nearly five years.

This proposal is teeming with problems. For starters, the government should first ensure that the many children who are presently eligible though not enrolled are added to the program before even considering a policy to add children whose parents can afford to provide them with health coverage. What’s more, H.R. 2 includes no cap on income eligibility, meaning coverage could be extended to children whose parents earn over $80,000. The money used by the government to insure these children would be taken away from other families who need to provide for their children. Ultimately, this misguided policy would drive families with private coverage into government-run coverage.

With your help, we fought and defeated a similar bill twice in 2007 by President Bush’s veto. We need your help again!

We fully support continuing the program that has helped millions of impoverished families provide health insurance for their children. But given the economic situation our country is currently facing, we need to make sure that our scare federal money is directed toward those most in need. H.R. 2 does not do that.

If you agree, please contact your congressman and senators immediately and tell them to oppose H.R. 2, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, or any other bill with similar objectionable provisions.

You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for taking time to make your voice heard. May God richly bless you.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

That’s why Congress must act now on the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act (S. 1780)!

Earlier this month, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a $550,000 fine imposed on CBS by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for airing the now infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004. According to the court, a “fleeting image,” such as Jackson’s bared breast, does not qualify as indecent content. This egregious decision ignores more than a half-million complaints to the FCC and leaves that agency virtually powerless to enforce a broadcast indecency bill passed by Congress with your help in 2006.

It’s time to take back the airwaves while we still can!

If you agree, please call Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and urge him to do everything in his power to have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) bring the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act (S. 1780) to the Senate floor immediately.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV
(202) 224-6472

Sen. Rockefeller authored the bipartisan bill, which reaffirms Congress’ support to enforce existing indecency laws, but has not taken any steps to have it moved to the floor. The bill has already been passed in committee, and the Senate could vote on it today if it wanted to!

I realize that I just asked you to take action on another issue, but the need to restore the FCC’s power to fine broadcasters for airing indecent content is urgent. We need to let the Senate know that lip service to our values is simply not enough.

Thank you for taking steps to help prevent broadcast television from plunging our children into an unguarded media cesspool.

For more information:

Court throws out fine for indecent ‘wardrobe malfunction’

This could soon change—and I hope it will!

The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate the sale, marketing, and manufacturing of tobacco products. This commonsense bill would end special treatment of tobacco companies, empowering the FDA to subject the products to similar scrutiny required of foods, drugs, and safety devices.

Deceptive “light” and “low-tar” labeling of cigarettes and clever marketing at the tune of $13 billion annually are dubious trademarks of the tobacco industry. Such practices account for the roughly 400,000 American lives snuffed out each year due to tobacco-related illnesses. Much of these efforts are aimed at children, society’s most susceptible group of people. Studies show that children are three times more likely than adults to be influenced by tobacco marketing, and they become addicted to tobacco at a rate of 1,000 each day.

These trends must end!

If you agree, please tell your representative to vote “yes” on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (H.R. 1108).

You can call your representative by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail him or her a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for taking a few moments from your busy day to help end tobacco’s cruel cycle of death and disease.

For more information:

Click here to view my testimony on FDA regulation of tobacco before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

I need your help to stop this train before it leaves the station!

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on a bill to mandate massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by electrical, industrial, and transportation sectors in a vain attempt to reduce the unfounded threat of cataclysmic global warming.

The hype and good intentions driving this train would yield devastating consequences.

Energy costs would skyrocket, with residential electricity prices expected to escalate 40 percent by 2020. The U.S. would lose a projected 1.8 million jobs in 2020 and 4 million in 2050 to nations like China and India, which are not subject to emissions restrictions. Gross domestic product (GDP) losses could reach $4.8 trillion by 2030.

What is even more troubling is that poor people in this country and around the world would suffer the most as the rising costs of all goods make mere subsistence increasingly burdensome and millions of people in underdeveloped regions of the world would find it even more difficult to have the cheap and abundant energy they need to escape their desperate circumstances.

All this would come with an almost immeasurable reduction in global climate temperatures. This is a price too high for a policy based on science disputed more and more each day by thousands of scientists and climatologists.

Christians have a responsibility to practice environmental stewardship. But any action should first consider its impact on God’s most prized creation, human beings.

If you agree, please tell your senators to oppose the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 3036). You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for joining me as a voice of reason to stop this bill before it crushes livelihoods and liberties.

Click here for more information on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007

Click here to sign the “We Get It!” campaign on environmental stewardship

Several courts have been declared judicial emergencies, such as the 15-seat Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has only five judges serving.

Much of the problem rests on the shoulders of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must send judicial nominations to the full Senate for a vote.

Pressured by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others to kick the confirmation process into gear, Leader Reid agreed two weeks ago to vote on three circuit court nominees by Memorial Day.

While his commitment is welcome news, it only begins to address the crisis of vacancies on the courts. The American people and our overburdened courts deserve more than a bare minimum pledge. All this pledge does is put the Senate on track with recent historical averages of 15 to 17 circuit court nominees confirmed during the final two years of a presidency when an opposing party has controlled the Senate. Given the many vacancies in the federal judicial system, we need more than an average response by the Senate.

President Bush has carried out his constitutional duty to nominate well-qualified judges who are committed to the original intent of the Constitution. Now Sens. Reid and Leahy must fulfill their part to allow votes to confirm or reject them.

If you agree, please tell Sens. Reid and Leahy to move swiftly on—and go beyond—the commitment to give three circuit court nominees fair, up-or-down votes. You can call them at the numbers below. Or, if you live in Nevada or Vermont, click here to email them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Sen. Harry Reid, Majority Leader
(202) 224-5556

Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Judiciary Committee
(202) 224-4242

Thank you for your concern. Your action could make all the difference.