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Senate Advances Radical Respect for Marriage Act <[link removed]> - n a letter sent last week directed at the 12 GOP senators who voted for the legislation, Lee emphasized <[link removed]> that his amendment <[link removed]> would “ensure that federal bureaucrats do not take discriminatory actions against individuals,
organizations, nonprofits, and other entities based on their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions about marriage by prohibiting the denial or revocation of tax exempt status, licenses, contracts, benefits, etc.” “It would affirm that individuals still have the right to act according to their faith and deepest convictions even outside of their church or home,”
the senator added, urging the senators to oppose cloture on the bill unless his amendment is added. Heritage Expert: Jay Richards <[link removed]> and Roger Severino <[link removed]>
 
As Administration Cracks Down on Taxpayers, Government’s Own Improper Payments Go Unchecked <[link removed]> - The Inflation Reduction Act gives $80
billion to the IRS to hire 87,000 more agents to bring in $200 billion in missing tax revenues over the next 10 years. But the federal government spent $279 billion of taxpayers’ money on improper payments in 2021 alone. That is more than $2,000 per U.S. household and is a 522 percent increase since 2005. Massive growth in government—including $3.3 trillion in transfer payments that amounted to a burden of $25,000 per household in 2021—are a major reason for the explosion in improper payments. To reduce improper payments, policymakers must verify identities and eligibility for payments, hold program administrators accountable, and minimize Americans’ reliance on government programs. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]> and Nina Owcharenko Schaefer <[link removed]>
 
Top Three Things to Look for in the Twitter Files If They Drop Tomorrow <[link removed]> – Heritage Expert
Jake Denton <[link removed]>


- Government cooperation - We now know that DHS and the Department of State have funded the Election Integrity Partnership, and that government agencies have worked closely with Silicon Valley to surveil and censor Americans. Whether or not this drop of Twitter Files expose another instance of our own government working with Silicon Valley to censor Americans, we need to wake up and push back against this cooperation. 




- The Methods of Censorship - Due to the lack of transparency from the content moderation teams at Twitter, we have little information as to how Twitter has gone about censoring Americans and journalists on the platform. If these files reveal the methods of censorship used by the past Twitter regime, it will provide us with insight into how the broader social media market has refined their censorship machine. 




- Names - While we all now know about Yoel Roth and Vijaya Gadde, two of the main architects of Twitter’s repressive censorship programs, there were countless others who worked to silence ordinary Americans. We need to find out who they were, where they work now, and what their motivations were?


 
Radical ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ Could Spell End of Religious Tax
Exemptions <[link removed]> - Afterward, a final vote on the Respect for Marriage Act <[link removed]> will likely take place with a 60-vote threshold required for passage. The stakes are high, but it’s not too late for a final “push” of opposition to quash the bill. Republicans <[link removed]> have long been sounding the alarm that religious liberty is under attack <[link removed]> in the United States. It seems that many people, especially in the infamous Gen Z category, have grown deaf to many of the religious liberty concerns latent in legal debates surrounding same-sex marriage, gender, and more. Heritage Expert: Emma Waters <[link removed]>
 
China’s Unprecedented Protests, Explained <[link removed]> - An apartment fire <[link removed]> in Urumqi, China, left at least 10 dead and injured at least nine others on Nov. 24, sparking nationwide and global protests against the Chinese Communist Party’s “zero-COVID-19” policy. “It was really sparked by the fire in Urumqi. So, China has sort of a practice in its ‘zero-COVID’ policy of when it locks down cities or buildings, lots of times it’ll erect barricades or sometimes even lock or weld people inside,” said Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) “And so, we’re not sure if any of that happened, but there’s a public perception that that was probably the case, and that that’s one of the reasons why so many people died in that fire,” he said. Heritage Experts: Michael Cunningham <[link removed]>

 
Focus on the Family Blamed for Club Q Shooting Despite Jim Daly Condemnation, Suspect’s Nonbinary
Identity <[link removed]> -  Vandals spray-painted the Focus on the Family building in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning <[link removed]>. Before the vandalism, numerous news outlets <[link removed]> and left-leaning <[link removed]> personalities <[link removed]> had cited Focus on the Family’s conservative
Christian stances on homosexual activity while reporting on the shooting. Some called the city “an epicenter of organized homophobia.” Among these, the Southern Poverty Law Center <[link removed]>, a
leftist organization notorious for demonizing conservative Christians who oppose the LGBT agenda, named Focus in an article tying “anti-LGBTQ hate” to the shooting. Heritage Expert: Tyler O'Niel <[link removed]>

House Republicans’ Next Opportunity to Drain Swamp by Banning Earmarks <[link removed]> - Unfortunately, the temptation to use other
people’s money for personal gain proved too strong for Washington to resist for long, and last year Congress brought back budget earmarks <[link removed]>. These earmarks included <[link removed]> reams of woke projects <[link removed]> that included funding for left-wing activist groups, initiatives that use the word “equity” as a shield for race-based preferences, and a variety of thinly disguised Green New Deal <[link removed]> boondoggles. We also saw a variety of absurdly wasteful items such as $1.6 million for “equitable growth of shellfish aquaculture industry,” $4.2 million for “sheep experiment station infrastructure improvements,” and $3 million for a Gandhi Museum in Houston. Heritage Expert: David Ditch <[link removed]>
An Education Road Map for the 118th Congress <[link removed]> - As Washington prepares to welcome a new Congress in January 2023, incoming policymakers who
want to improve education for every student and give parents more control over where and how their children are educated have many policy options at their disposal. New Members of Congress who want to protect taxpayers and rein in college costs also have the tools to do so. It is well past time for Congress to allow more choices among existing preschool and K–12 programs in areas under its jurisdiction, and to curb government spending and higher education handouts. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>

FERC’s proposed ‘candor’ rule will stifle communications <[link removed]> - Enter the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency overseeing the nation’s wholesale energy markets for oil,
natural gas and hydroelectric power. In August, the commission announced an expansive “candor” rule subjecting communications from an array of new parties to regulatory scrutiny. The commission explained that inaccurate information frustrates its task of ensuring fair market rates for energy. Thus, the commission deemed it necessary to prohibit communications that were false, misleading, or affected by material omissions. Sounds reasonable, but beneath these anodyne generalities are serious problems with the commission’s rule and its justifications. Heritage Expert: Jack Fitzhenry <[link removed]>
 
These GOP Senators Won’t Say Whether They Support Vital Religious Freedom
Amendments <[link removed]> - Following the Thanksgiving holiday, the Senate will hold a procedural vote <[link removed]> Monday on an amendment, introduced by Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and others, that alleges to protect religious freedom. Conservative leaders have said <[link removed]> that the amendment is not adequate and pushed for Lee’s amendment to be adopted. The Daily Signal repeatedly asked Sens. Collins, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Capito of West Virginia, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Todd Young of Indiana whether they will still support the bill without amendments protecting religious freedom. Heritage Experts: Jay Richards <[link removed]> and Roger Severino <[link removed]>

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