SEN. TOM COTTON: CHANGES TO CITIZENSHIP OATH ‘UNDERMINES WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CITIZEN’

The Obama administration’s changes to the Oath of Allegiance for new citizens erodes its very meaning, according to 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

60%

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“The Obama Administration’s announced changes to the Oath of Allegiance undermines what it means to be a citizen of the United States,” Cotton said in statement.

Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was altering the eligibility requirements for modifications to the Oath of Allegiance. Namely, while immigrants seeking to become citizens are usually required to declare they will “bear arms on behalf of the United States” and “perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States,” the new guidance now allows for not only those with religious objections but also people with a strongly held beliefs to omit those portions.

Specifically the guidance says that citizenship candidates:

-May be eligible for modifications based on religious training and belief, or conscientious objection arising from a deeply held moral or ethical code.

-Is not required to belong to a specific church or religion, follow a particular theology or belief, or to have had religious training in order to qualify.

-May submit, but is not required to provide, an attestation from a religious or other type of organization, as well as other evidence to establish eligibility.

Cotton in his statement this week  highlighted his family and his personal experience with and in the military.

“Growing up in Dardanelle I learned from an early age that freedom isn’t free. I knew my dad and many of his friends had put their lives on hold to serve during the Vietnam War,” he said. “When they returned home they didn’t ask for glory or recognition; in their minds they were simply doing their patriotic duty. Their service is partially what inspired me to join the Army after September 11th and to volunteer for a second deployment to Afghanistan.”

According to Cotton, this sense of service should be universal to all Americans.

“All citizens of the United States—native or naturalized—should have that same of sense of patriotism and duty,” he said.

Via: Breitbart

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IAEA Tells Congressmen of Two Secret Side Deals to Iran Agreement That Won’t Be Shared with Congress

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Congressmen Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) issued a press release yesterday on a startling discovery they made during a July 17 meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna: There are two secret side deals to the nuclear agreement with Iran that will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the U.S. public. 

One of these side deals concerns inspection of the Parchin military base, where Iran reportedly has conducted explosive testing related to nuclear-warhead development. The Iranian government has refused to allow the IAEA to visit this site. Over the last several years, Iran has taken steps to clean up evidence of weapons-related activity at Parchin.  

The other secret side deal concerns how the IAEA and Iran will resolve outstanding issues on possible military dimensions (PMDs) of Iran’s nuclear program. In late 2013, Iran agreed to resolve IAEA questions about nuclear weapons-related work in twelve areas. Iran only answered questions in one of these areas and rejected the rest as based on forgeries and fabrications.   

Former Department of Energy official William Tobey explained in a July 15 Wall Street Journal op-ed why it is crucial that Iran resolve the PMD issue. According to Tobey, “for inspections to be meaningful, Iran would have to completely and correctly declare all its relevant nuclear activities and procurement, past and present.”

   According to the Cotton/Pompeo press release, there will be a secret, opaque procedure to verify Iran’s compliance with these side agreements. The press release says:

According to the IAEA, the Iran agreement negotiators, including the Obama administration, agreed that the IAEA and Iran would forge separate arrangements to govern the inspection of the Parchin military complex — one of the most secretive military facilities in Iran — and how Iran would satisfy the IAEA’s outstanding questions regarding past weaponization work. Both arrangements will not be vetted by any organization other than Iran and the IAEA, and will not be released even to the nations that negotiated the JCPOA [Iran nuclear agreement]. This means that the secret arrangements have not been released for public scrutiny and have not been submitted to Congress as part of its legislatively mandated review of the Iran deal.  

This means that two crucial measures of Iranian compliance with the nuclear agreement will not be disclosed to Congress despite the requirements of the Corker-Cardin bill (the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act), which requires the Obama administration to provide the U.S. Congress with all documents associated with the agreement, including all “annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements [emphasis added], implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical, or other understandings and any related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future.” 

Via: NRO

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Obama Turns to U.N. to Outmaneuver Congress

Last March, 47 Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote a letter warning Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that a future U.S. president could legally revoke any nuclear deal that had been negotiated by Barack Obama’s administration with the stroke of a pen. They clearly didn’t realize that the White House has a way of making that much harder to do.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, on Monday circulated a legally binding draft to the 15-member U.N. Security Council that, if adopted, would give the body’s backing to the landmark nuclear pact trading billions of dollars in sanctions relief for greater international scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear energy program. It also instructs states to refrain from taking any actions that would undermine the agreement. The 14-page draft resolution, obtained by Foreign Policy, is likely to be put to a vote by early next week.

The decision to take the deal to the Security Council before the U.S. Congress has concluded its own deliberations on the agreement places lawmakers in the uncomfortable position of potentially acting contrary to a resolution that is binding on the administration by voting down the deal. The strategy has infuriated some Republican lawmakers, who see the administration making an end run around Congress.

During a Tuesday phone call to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) pressed him to put off a Security Council vote. “I urged that the Obama administration not seek action at the U.N. Security Council on the agreement before Congress can review it in detail during the legislatively mandated congressional review period,” Royce said in a statement.

Congress is currently weighing whether to accept or reject the deal brokered by the United States, Iran, and five world powers. Under the terms of a U.S. law passed this year, lawmakers can prevent the president from lifting congressional sanctions on Iran, which would blow up the landmark nuclear deal.

Via: Foreign Policy

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[VIDEO] Tom Cotton Takes On Obama in Weekly Address, Saturday February 22, 2014

Republicans chose Rep. Tom Cotton, a Senate candidate in one of the hottest races this cycle, to deliver the party’s weekly address and go after President Barack Obama as “causing” the problems people face in Arkansas and across the country.

It’s the latest example of how leaders in both parties are showcasing Senate candidates to let their battles play out under the Dome as well as back home. Already Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and Cotton have been on opposite sides of legislative battles, including the farm bill. And Democratic leaders gave Pryor a ready-made political wedge issue recently on a topic related to veterans benefits.

The addresses posted on YouTube by both the White House and the GOP on Saturday mornings are hardly a major national platform, but the video did give Cotton an opportunity to point out his own Arkansas roots and boast that he is a leader on an issue that helps him back home.

“Arkansans, like most Americans, have had their grit tested over the last several years through a financial collapse, recession, and a stagnant, jobless recovery. Barack Obama’s policies aren’t solving these problems — they’re causing the problem,” Cotton said.

The Republican Senate hopeful singled out the health care law as the root of many of these problems, and said, of course, the GOP has the solution.

Obama’s policies, Cotton said, “are fundamentally flawed.”

“They’re wrong for Arkansas, and they’re wrong for America. And as a result, too many Arkansans, like people across the country, are still out of work — five years into President Obama’s economic ‘recovery,’” he said. “Republicans in Congress are committed to stopping the harms caused by the President’s policies, repairing the damage, and getting America working again. We’re advocating reforms that trust patients and their doctors — not Washington bureaucrats. And we’re working to get spending under control. That’s because we trust you to make the right decisions for you and your family.”

The Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call rates the Pryor-Cotton race as Tilts Republican.

Obama’s own weekly address focused on proposals to increase the minimum wage, anotherpolitical wedge Democrats are using in hopes of keeping control of the Senate and as they attempt to win the 17 seats needed to reclaim the House.

The president said that since he first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, six states have increased their own, but noted “only Congress can finish the job and lift Americans’ wages across the country.”

The bill to boost the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 would help 16 million Americans, Obama said.

“But even though a majority of Democrats, independents, and Republicans across the country support raising the minimum wage, Republicans in Congress don’t want to give it a vote,” he said. “Hardworking Americans deserve better than ‘no.’ Let’s tell Congress to say ‘yes.’ Pass that bill. Give America a raise. Because here in America, no one who works hard should have to live in poverty — and everyone who works hard should have a chance to get ahead.”

Get used to more messages like this in the coming months as the battle for control of Congress rages on.

Via: Roll Call

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Tom Cotton Responds To Obama’s State Of The Union

Representative Tom Cotton (R., Ark.)  joined KARK Wednesday morning to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union, saying the President should have apologized for the harm Obamacare has done to many Americans, and that the President should focus his use of executive action on a rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

“The one thing I thought missing, more than anything from the speech, was an apology by Barack Obama for what Obamacare has done to Arkansans,” Cotton said, citing canceled plans, rising premiums and deductibles, and loss of doctors for many of his constituents.

Asked about the President’s proposed “Year of Action” through executive orders, Cotton responded, “The only surprising thing about the President’s call for more unilateral executive orders and decisions is the fact he thinks he hasn’t done enough of it.” Cotton noted the President’s changes to the Affordable Care Act through executive orders and his reluctance to enforce parts of the both the healthcare law and immigration law.

“Unfortunately, the one place he could take executive action more effectively, overseas, he continued to sound the bell for retreat and defeat in the world,” Cotton said.

As for what he would like to see in 2014, Cotton focused on protecting Americans from various facets of Obamacare. Cotton listed initiatives passed by the House that would allow Americans to keep their insurance plans cancelled by Obamacare, and would eliminate the penalty if they could not afford a new Obamacare plan.

Said Cotton, “There’s a whole host of ways that we can try to solve the problems Obamacare has created, if only President Obama and the Senate Democrats would realize Americans do not want this law.”

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] Cotton Invites Obama To Visit Arkansan Obamacare Victims

Congressman Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) released a video Friday inviting President Obama to visit those who have been negatively affected in Arkansas.

“This week, President Obama announced a 23-day PR blitz to tout his signature program, Obamacare. I’d like to invite the President to bring his Obamacare roadshow to Arkansas, so he can see firsthand the devastating effects the law is having on Americans who live outside Washington DC.”

Cotton listed a number of demographics that have been hurt by Obamacare in his state: 50,000 families who have lost their insurance plans; workers who have been laid off or had their hours cut; families with higher premiums and deductibles; and seniors who have seen their doctor dropped from Medicare or their insurance network.

“The President can meet with them if had the courage to come to Arkansas,” Cotton said.

Cotton also referenced Sen. Mark Pryor, the Congressman’s Democratic opponent in the state’s Senate race, saying Pryor has called Obamacare good for America and an “amazing success story”. “Obamacare is not working,” Cotton asserted, “and it’s time for the President and Senator Pryor to admit it.”

Pryor and Cotton are currently neck-and-neck in recent polling.

Via: WFB

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