Brian Darling is Director of Senate Relations at The Heritage Foundation. He is responsible for educating Senators and their staffs about Heritage's latest research and policy recommendations.
Darling monitors political developments in the Senate -- as well as its relations with the House of Representatives and the White House -- to assess the likely impact on policy decisions. He frequently comments about matters before Congress to the media and is quoted by major newspapers and news Web sites. Darling also has appeared on ABC News, CBN, CNBC, CNN, Fox and MSNBC.
In 2008, Darling became a columnist for Human Events, giving the newspaper's 154,000 weekly readers the inside scoop on Congress and the ups and downs of the conservative agenda.
Before joining Heritage in 2005, Darling served as counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL). Previously, he served as general counsel to former Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), and, in that capacity, he staffed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
While with Smith, Darling was a chief strategist for legislation that allowed commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in flight. In January 2000, Darling accompanied Smith on a visit to the home where Cuban refugee Elian Gonzales was staying – and later crafted legislation to grant him permanent residency.
Darling co-chaired the Conservative Working Group, a weekly legislative strategy meeting of conservative staffers from both the House and Senate offices. He also served as a counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and as an aide to former Sens. Paul Coverdell (R-GA) and Steve Symms (R-ID).
In the for-profit arena, Darling worked for two years as a partner in a Washington lobbying firm. He received his law degree in 1996 from New England School of Law in Boston
Brian Darling
Unconstitutional Procedure Being Used to Pass Unconstitutional ObamaCare
by Brian DarlingHouse leaders are preparing to ram through ObamaCare this week without a vote. Not only is the legislation unconstitutional, but the process being used to pass it is unconstitutional. The House is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate-passed version of ObamaCare passed in the House even though members would never directly vote on it. That would violate Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution.
Here is how the trick would work: In the House, the Rules Committee sets up the parameters for debate on legislation. House leaders are considering a complicated rule that would be structured so that a vote on the rule setting down the structure for the ObamaCare debate would allow the Senate’s version of health care reform to pass without a vote. First, there would be a vote on a rule. If the rule is passed by the House, then the House would vote on a health care budget reconciliation measure that is an amendment to the Senate passed ObamaCare bill. If that reconciliation measure passes, then reconciliation goes to the Senate and the ObamaCare legislation is deemed passed without a direct vote. The plan for the legislation is unclear. House leadership will either structure the rule to either immediately present ObamaCare to the President for his signature or they will hold the bill and deliver it only if the Senate passes a health care reconciliation measure. Either way, the Constitution and the American people are the losers.
Understand that this procedure is drafted in a way so your average American can’t understand it. The simple way to understand the situation is that the House is trying to pass a bill without a vote.
The Constitution states that the House and Senate are supposed to pass identical versions of a bill before the President can sign it into law. One of the reasons for this tricky procedure is to provide cover for moderate Democrats who don’t want to vote for the Senate-passed ObamaCare bill because it includes the federal funding of abortion.
Michael McConnell, Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, explains it this way at the Wall Street Journal today:
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
ObamaCare Strategy Sabotages Bipartisan Summit
by Brian DarlingPresident Barack Obama’s highly anticipated Blair House Summit was sold as a bipartisan negotiation on ObamaCare between House and Senate leaders of both parties. The White House claims that this day long meeting is an opportunity for the American people to witness a negotiation between Republicans and Democrats. If you tune into this event, you will not see any negotiation. You will witness a desparate President trying sell a warmed over version of ObamaCare. Even for a President well known for his exceptional ability to communicate, the Administration’s attempts to sell a plan that is offensive to a substantial majority of Americans has proven to be an epic failure.
The fact of the matters is that in anticipation of this so called negotiation, the Democrats are crafting a reconciliation strategy. Reconciliation is a fast track partisan strategy for the Democrats to change the rules of the game so they can avoid a filibuster in the Senate. I call this new strategy to pass Obamacare the Health Care Nuclear Option because it will blow up what remains of bipartisanship in the Capitol and put the United States on a pathway to European style government run health care.
Furthermore, the American people explicitly reject ObamaCare and don’t want it. So much for consent of the governed. This Summit is going to be a day long press conference for President Obama and the ObamaCare Cheerleading Squad to try one last time to sell the President’s health care plan that includes unpopular mandates, higher taxes and cuts to health care providers. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Leftists Continue War Against Filibuster
by Brian DarlingYet another leftist has attacked the Senate filibuster. The chorus from the left is growing and one can only assume that this coordinated attack is evidence that liberal Senators are readying a challenge to the Senate’s filibuster. The left absolutely hates the fact that they have to deal with that pesky Constitution that protects and promotes transparency, debate and dissent. They are intent on tossing aside the idea in the Constitution that we are a democratic republic with States being represented by two Senators with the right to extended debate and unlimited amendment.
This conspiracy by left wingers has a specific goal — to abolish dissent in the Senate, exterminate Republican participation in the democratic process, and marginalize moderate Democrats. It seems the left is willing to stomp all over the Senate’s rules to get a public option, regulate Wall Street into the Stone Age and pass global warming legislation before the end of one of the coldest winters on record in American history.
Harold Meyerson groused in the L.A. Times that the Senate has yet to follow the House in establishing government run health care through the establishment of a Public Option for ObamaCare:
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
The Filibuster Is Constitutional and Essential for Freedom
by Brian DarlingLeft wingers (including but not limited to the New York Times, Mother Jones, Think Progress, Washington Monthly and Ezra Klein) are trying to eliminate dissent in Congress by engaging in a coordinated attack on the idea of the Senate filibuster. Clearly, the left hates extended debate and they are advocating that Vice President Joe Biden eliminate the filibuster by decree as President of the United States Senate. They have no shame.
If you hate big government, you should love the Senate filibuster. The filibuster serves the good government purposes of slowing legislation. This allows citizens to understand and participate in the legislative process, provides scrutiny for complicated legislation and slows the process to confirm nominees. The left absolutely hates the filibuster, because the filibuster prevents liberal Democrats from steamrolling moderate Democrats and Republicans when trying to pass legislation or confirming extremist judges with minimal debate. A veteran Senate staffer tells Big Government that “the filibuster is a tool to slow down and make people really consider things. For those that believe in freedom and limited government the less the Congress does the better.” Of course the left’s goal is to exterminate the filibuster from the Senate rules by setting the table for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to argue that a filibuster is unconstitutional, then for Vice President Biden to order that the rule be ignored. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
ObamaCare Transparency Promise Broken
by Brian DarlingTransparency be damned. It seems as if many of the elites in Washington, D.C. were for transparency before they were against it.
President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all promised and pledged transparency as part of a covenant with the American people to allow them to take power. Those promises have been broken. One Senior Congressional Staffer tells Big Government that “for elected officials that promised the most transparent Congress ever, I never believed them, but it is stunning how fast they are going back on their promises as if they think the voters are too dumb to remember things they said 3 years ago.” (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Earmarks Buy ObamaCare
by Brian Darling
Do you want a good laugh? Check out this press release from January 18, 2006:
Democrats from across the country today unveiled their Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. In the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, were joined by Senator Barack Obama and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and their Senate and House colleagues to shine a spotlight on the Republican “pay for play” politics that put special interests first at the expense of the priorities of the American people and signed a pledge to restore honest leadership and open government.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
ObamaCare’s Do or Die Moment in the Senate
by Brian DarlingSaturday is a big day in the Senate for ObamaCare. Congressional Quarterly reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will unveil his manager’s package of changes to the Senate version of ObamaCare on Saturday morning and immediately file cloture to shut off debate on the package. This package of changes to the bill and special interest projects were crafted by Reid to buy the support of members wavering in his caucus, including Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jim Webb (D-VA).
Nobody knows if any acceptable compromise is possible at this point in the debate. Liberals in the Democrat Caucus are mad because the public option has been scrapped and moderates are concerned that this bill has become so politically unpopular that a vote for any version of ObamaCare is the functional equivalent of political suicide. If the Reid Amendment passes, then the President will be one step closer to victory. If ObamaCare goes down in flames, then Monday may prove to be the President and Senator Harry Reid’s health care Waterloo.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Race-Based Government Established at Expense of Troops?
by Brian DarlingThe House and Senate are wrapping up work on the last appropriations bill of the year and rumors are swirling that the controversial Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, also known as the “Akaka Bill,” will be included in the Defense Appropriations bill. The defense measure is proving to be controversial, because House and Senate appropriators are using it to carry non related matters like a $1.9 trillion debt limit increase, an extension of unemployment benefits and the Native Hawaiian measure.
The Native Hawaiian bill, a long time priority of Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), would set up a race based government of “indigenous, native people of Hawaii.” Opponents argue that this bill is unconstitutional and unwise. National Review Online sounded the alarm bells today and sources on Capitol Hill confirmed to Big Government that a version of the Native Hawaiian Bill may end up in the Defense Appropriations bill. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Obama’s Individual Health Care Mandate is Unconstitutional
by Brian DarlingThe Senate is debating the future of American health care, yet one very important issue has yet to get a full and fair debate. Is the individual mandate that forces citizens to purchase health care insurance a constitutional power of the federal government? When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) was asked this question, she answered with the non sequitur “are you serious?” Conservatives who respect the idea that the constitution maps out a federal government with limited powers would answer with a loud — “Hell No.”
The Heritage Foundation and the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) recently released legal analysis calling into serious question the constitutionality of the Congress’s plan to force all citizens to purchase health insurance. These conservative institutions argue that the unprecedented idea, a mandate that all Americans be forced into a contractual agreement with a private party for health insurance, is not a constitutionally permissible activity by the federal government. My sources tell me that this issue will be raised during the Senate debate on ObamaCare very soon and may open another front in the war against ObamaCare. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Congress Creating Big Brother for Wall Street
by Brian DarlingSenator Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) approach to overhaul financial industry regulations is scheduled to be debated next week in the Senate Banking Committee with a mark-up of the bill starting in early December. This bill is sold as an effort by the federal government to seize control of financial institutions with the potential to cause a financial market meltdown. Sources in the Senate tell me that the true effect of this bill will be to lock in the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), give special treatment for the trading partners of financial institutions facing bankruptcy, and grant more power to the Federal Reserve Board in Washington over monetary policy. This financial regulatory reform effort will create a massive new bureaucracy that will oversee financial institutions that will effectively serve as a Big Brother for Big Business.
From a Senate Banking Committee press release
“It is the job of this Congress to restore responsibility and accountability in our financial system to give Americans confidence that there is a system in place that works for and protects them,” Dodd said at the press conference. “We must create a sound foundation to grow the economy and create jobs.”
The problem is that the big government approach to the financial regulatory reform effort may harm economic growth and grants sweeping new political powers to the Federal Reserve over monetary policy. The big ticket item for the legislation is the creation of a new federal bureacracy called the “Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” The discussion draft of the legislation describes the new agency as “an independent watchdog to ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products, while prohibiting hidden fees, abusive terms, and deceptive practices.” The fact of the matter is that this new government entity distracts freedom loving Americans from many other disturbing aspects of this bill that will grow government and harm economic prosperity.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Historic PelosiCare Debate Starts Right Now
by Brian DarlingToday, a historic debate will commence on a bill that would impose big government health care on all Americans. Nobody knows if this bill is going to pass and many questions about the bill remain unanswered. All those who cherish the idea of limited government and a health care system driven by free market principles are hoping that good prevails over evil.
Yesterday, the House Rules Committee passed the rule to consider H.R. 3962 (PelosiCare), the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and this debate will be covered live on C-SPAN all day long. Today, the American people can watch the debate in the House of Representatives on legislation that would dramatically change the way health care services are delivered.
Who is the Next Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky?
The vote on final passage of the bill is going to be close and people looking to the 2010 congressional election cycle are going to watch this vote to see which Blue Dog Democrats, Democrats from conservative leaning districts, are going to be forced to Walk the Plank and vote for an unpopular bill. Dan Perrin of Red State has an excellent review of what happed to one term former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania. Perrin wrote “we are reminded of the case of Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-PA) who famously switched her vote to give then President Clinton his tax increase.” She lost her re-election the next year and became the poster child for the 1994 Republican sweep of Congress.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Senator Harry Reid’s Hide and Seek ObamaCare Bill
by Brian DarlingOn Saturday, I reported that all 40 Republican Senators signed a letter demanding to see the health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) claimed he sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Yesterday, Reid circulated a Dear Colleague letter in response – thanks to Christina Bellantoni of TMPDC for publishing the letter. Reid claimed in the letter that he does not have a bill, notwithstanding the fact he had a press conference a week ago to announce a deal.
Last Monday, Roll Call reported that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to announce on Monday afternoon that negotiations on the Senate’s final health care reform bill have concluded and that he is sending the measure to the Congressional Budget Office, according to Democratic sources.” At the press conference, Reid said “today’s development, my sending of, in the next few hours, to CBO a – number of – anyways the proposal we are sending them for their scoring will make us a step closer to achieving a bill this year.” Specifically, Reid asserted that he is going to include a public option with an opt out provision in the bill, then at the 1:24 mark of the video linked above said that the public option would be “included in the bill we submitted, that will be submitted to the Senate.” Sounds like Reid announced a deal on a bill, yet in the letter Reid backed away and stated that his bill “does not exist.”
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Senator Harry Reid’s Vapor Bill
by Brian DarlingAll 40 Republican Senators signed a letter yesterday demanding to see the health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Reid claimed he submitted the legislation for a CBO score on Monday. The letter from the Republican Caucus states that “our national debt stands at nearly $12 trillion, with a deficit of $1.4 trillion. The health care bill will likely be more than 1,000 pages long and is the single most important legislation we will consider and debate this year in Congress.” It is six days after Senator Reid said he sent the bill to the CBO. Where is the bill? Is this another Vapor Bill? Why are the American people prevented from reading the bill?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released an almost 2,000 pages of Obamacare, yet Reid refuses to release the Senate version of Obamacare. The Senators wrote that “with an issue this large and complex, we need full transparency at every stage in the legislative process. President Obama was elected, in part, on his promise to bring greater transparency to the workings of the federal government. The American people and every member of Congress should be allowed to read the bill that was sent to CBO.” The American people have a constitutional right to participate in this process and they can’t fully participate if they are not allowed to know the details of the bill.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
ObamaCare Box Score — Conservatives 1 – Liberals 0
by Brian DarlingThe first game in a long series of Obamacare battles is complete and the liberals lost Game 1 by 13 votes. The Senate voted against a procedural motion to debate the so-called “Doc Fix” bill Wednesday. Just as Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers has taken a beating in the media for leaving Game 5 of the National League Championship Series early to take a shower and hitting a mere .250 for the series, Senator Harry Reid has taken a beating in the press for marching the Democrat Caucus into a losing vote in the first battle over Obamacare.
A bipartisan coalition of senators concerned about spending stopped Senators Reid from bringing “Doc Fix” to a vote with 13 Democrats siding with the entire Republican Caucus. Democrat Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida, Jon Tester of Montana, Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virgina, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Independent Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut all opposed the motion to start debate on the bill.
The strategy to pass the “Doc Fix” outside of Obamacare in an attempt to buy off doctors groups’ support for Obamacare was documented in the media. The Hill reported earlier this week that “the White House and Democratic leaders are offering doctors a deal: They’ll freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors’ support of healthcare reform.” Clearly the majority of senators would not go along with this strategy because the $247 billion price tag for the bill was too high to buy Obamacare.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?