Category: Coalitions – Business Leaders

Call to action – Senators Toomey and Casey Scheduled to Vote Dangerous Bill That Threatens Religious Freedom and Conscience

pa family council

 

 

November 1, 2013
Senators Toomey and Casey Scheduled to Vote
Dangerous Bill That Threatens Religious Freedom and Conscience

Employers know best what qualities or characteristics are relevant to performing a particular job, not the federal government. So why does Congress want to inject itself into business owners employment decisions?
This is the question that needs to be asked as the Senate moves to vote on the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would prohibit businesses from taking into account any conduct related to “actual or perceived sexual identity or gender identity” when making employment decisions even if it violates their religious beliefs or if it is inappropriate for their workplace.
ENDA would force religious business owners and workplaces such as Christian bookstores, religious publishing houses, pre-schools and religious television and radio stations to accept as normal any employee who has had a sex-change surgery, any employee who has changed or is “transitioning” their public “gender identity” (regardless of whether they have had surgery or hormone treatments), transvestites (people who dress as the opposite sex on an occasional basis for emotional or sexual gratification), and drag queens or drag kings (people who dress as the opposite sex for the purpose of entertaining others).
Making matters worse, “perceived gender identity” status does not require sex-change surgery, so ENDA would allow some biological males (who claim to be female) to enter and even appear nude before females in bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers. Situations like this have already been reported in several states with ENDA like laws such as Maine, Colorado and California.
ENDA offers no guidance on how employers should deal with these situations and opens them up to costly lawsuits by inviting disgruntled employees to sue for “discrimination” over a characteristic (in the case of sexual orientation) which is not even visible and of which the employer may have been unaware. This has already been seen in the case of public employers (which are explicitly covered by ENDA) where such laws at the local and state level have led to large settlements being paid at taxpayers’ expense.
Please contact US Senators Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, Jr and urge them to oppose S. 815, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as it imposes on employers freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of conscience and the free market economy.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY!

CALL YOUR U.S. Senators and ask them to please Vote NO on S. 815, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Congress should not tell private employers whom to hire or make sexual orientation or gender identity a protected class. It’s a matter of protecting the right of conscience and religious freedom.

Call Pat Toomey at 202-224-4254
Call Bob Casey, Jr at 202-224-6324
Or contact them both by using our Citizen Action Center.

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/link/target/pafi/46yKW3589.aspx

PLC Quarterly Briefing will focus on labor power issues and the freedom to work in Pennsylvania

PLC 2014 logo

State Representative Steve Bloom (R-Cumberland) will speak at the Pennsylvania Leadership Council’s upcoming Quarterly Briefingon Tuesday, October 15th from 10 A.M. until Noon at the PMA Building, 225 State Street, Harrisburg.

Open to all past attendees of the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, the PLC Quarterly Briefing will focus on labor power issues and the freedom to work in Pennsylvania.

Representative Bloom has introduced a number of bills that would enhance freedom in the workplace.  He will join State Representative Bryan Cutler (R-York) as featured speakers at the briefing.

Additionally, radio’s Capitol Watch crew (www.lincolnradiojournal.com): David Taylor of the PA Manufacturers Association, Matthew Brouillette of the Commonwealth Foundation and Kevin Shivers from the PA Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) will provide a live panel discussion on how organized labor is blocking the conservative agenda in the General Assembly.

There is no charge to attend the PLC Quarterly Briefing, but registration is required.

To register click on www.paleadershipconference.org.

 MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

2014 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference

April 4-5, 2014

Radisson Penn Harris, Camp Hill PA

Conestoga Woood Specialities, Pa. family business, asks full Third Circuit to protect religious freedom

Pa. family business asks full Third Circuit to protect religious freedom
Court of Appeals declined to halt enforcement of abortion pill mandate

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — The Independence Law Center representing the Mennonite-owned company, Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. has asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to rehear its case after a three judge panel of that court declined to halt enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate.

The case, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius, involves a mandate by the federal government that all employee health insurance plans include coverage for FDA approved contraception. Consistent with the FDA labeling, however, many of these forms of contraception work to change the lining of the uterus so that an embryo could be destroyed after conception. For the Hahn family, Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the government mandate confronts a matter of religious faith since it would be contrary to their faith to in any way facilitate the taking of human life.

Charles W. Proctor, III is lead counsel in the case, together with Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, and attorney Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom.

“Americans should be free to live out their faith in all areas of life—including the way they run their business,” said Wenger. “We are hopeful that the Court of Appeals or eventually the Supreme Court will understand the critical importance of our right to live out our religious faith—and the heart-wrenching violation of conscience that it would be to the Hahns to deny them that right.”

“The religious liberty of Americans is not something that should be withheld or dispensed by the government as it arbitrarily sees fit,” added Proctor. “Instead, our Declaration of Independence makes it clear that the Hahn family and all Americans are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights’ and the free exercise of religion is the very first right enumerated in our Bill of Rights.”

This has been a hard fought journey for Conestoga Wood and the Hahns. They filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Dec. 4 of last year asserting that being forced to provide and pay for insurance that covers drugs and devices that could result in the death of an embryo is contrary to their religious convictions. The District Court denied a request for a Preliminary Injunction on January 11, so Conestoga Wood and the Hahns appealed on January 14 and moved for an injunction pending appeal on January 22, which was denied on February 7. A three judge panel of the Court Appeals ruled against them on July 26, and they filed a petition this week seeking reargument before the full Court.

Conestoga Wood and the Hahns join many other family run businesses around the country seeking injunctions to protect them from the abortion pill mandate.

The Independence Law Center is a pro-bono, non-profit law center in Pennsylvania focused on protecting religious liberty.

http://www.pafamily.org/

PA HB 1154 Hearing on 8/22/2013 – Make PA Right to Work State!

A hearing on HB 1154 to close the loophole allowing union bosses to harass, stalk and threaten the use of weapons of mass destruction without fear of criminal prosecution will be held on Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 10:30 am at the State Capitol Building, Harrisburg Pa Ryan Bldg Rm 205

PA Right to work logo

101 Million Americans Received Food Aid Last Year

NFRW Political Briefing

U. S. Department of Agriculture statistics show nearly one-third of Americans received government-funded food aid in 2012. With roughly a dozen federal food assistance programs operating today, 59 percent of American households participate in one of the four largest food assistance programs – food stamps, school breakfasts, school lunches, and WIC – and end up receiving benefits from two or more programs.

In general, the federal government funds roughly 80 welfare programs including 12 educational assistance programs and 11 housing assistance programs at a cost of nearly $1 trillion a year.

For decades, the federal government has been pouring taxpayer dollars into an increasing number of welfare programs in an attempt to tackle poverty. Yet this system has proven ineffective at helping individuals and families reach self-sufficiency.

The size of today’s welfare system clearly demonstrates the need for both opportunity-based economic policies and critical positive reforms to promote self-sufficiency through work, personal responsibility and human dignity.

Glenn Beck to Speak at Audit the IRS Rally

audit the irs rallyl 6-19-2013Patriots, we have big news to share. We have just been informed that Glenn Beck has accepted an invitation to speak at our Audit the IRS rally on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 from 12pm to 3pm. There were rumors last week and even talk from Beck on his radio program that he would be showing up in DC this week. You can read more about his announcement here  Glenn Beck

PA Leadership Council Announces Quarterly Briefings

PLC 2014 logoThe Pennsylvania Leadership Council is pleased to announce a series of quarterly briefings that will be open to attendees of the 2013 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference.

The first PLC Quarterly Briefing will be held on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 from 9:00 A.M. until Noon at the PMA Building, 225 State Street, Harrisburg, PA.

Featured speaker will be Jonathan Williams of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), co-author of the Rich States/Poor States report on state business climates.  He will speak about the competitiveness of Pennsylvania’s business climate and what needs to be done to improve our economy.

Additionally, invitations have been issued to key legislative leaders to discuss the 2013-2014 Pennsylvania State budget and key legislative issues.

Seating is limited and pre-registration (at no charge) is required.

You can register for the briefing by visiting our web site at www.paleadershipconference.org.

Please click on the REGISTER NOW button in the masthead to be linked to EventBrite to register.

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