DV Journal

The Congressional Review Act has proven its importance in holding the Biden administration accountable in a divided Congress. 

Conservatives in Congress won their very first legislative victory in March with a CRA resolution overturning a District of Columbia crime bill that would have reduced penalties for violent offenders. Under political pressure for surging crime in the District, President Biden caved and signed the CRA resolution, leaving progressives high and dry without any executive branch cover for voting against common sense.

Created in 1996 through the efforts of then-Rep. David McIntosh, R-Indiana, the CRA was constructed to empower Congress to keep the executive branch and D.C. in check, which the Constitution grants Congress exclusive authority over. 

Rather than the typical 60 votes necessary to advance most policies in the Senate over the potential for a filibuster, CRA resolutions are “privileged measures” requiring only a simple majority. In the current Congress, that has meant that conservatives could hold Biden’s sprawling administrative state in check with the support of only one or two Democrats, and sometimes less than 51 votes. Convince the usual suspects of Democratic senators Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema or Jon Tester that a Biden policy has gone too far, and the CRA can be used to stop that policy in its tracks.

Conservatives also forced the first veto of the Biden presidency through a CRA resolution opposing a 401(k) rule that put progressive values over economic value for American workers. Advancing American Freedom launched a six-figure ad campaign, concentrated in Arizona and Montana (we had already flipped Manchin with a massive coalition letter effort that included key West Virginia stakeholders). As a result, we were able to protect the retirement accounts of hardworking Americans from progressives’ political games.

Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed two CRA resolutions, overturning Biden’s overreach on heavy-duty vehicle emissions and his student loan bailout. The heavy-duty vehicle emissions rule would add thousands of dollars to the cost of every truck on the road, driving up already exorbitant transportation costs for consumers. According to the American Truck Dealers, costs could be as much as $42,000 per truck, and the EPA estimates the rule would impose a $55 billion burden on the trucking industry over the rule’s lifetime. The CRA, which already passed in the Senate with the support of Manchin, received support from four House Democrats in battleground districts.

The student loan rule would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, breaking our already broken higher education system. Rather than helping working-class Americans struggling to get by, this rule rewards the professional class and progressives with overly expensive gender studies degrees. 

The rule isn’t just a slap in the face to Americans who chose not to go to college because of the crippling expenses or those who worked hard to pay off their student loan debts — it’s a deeply misguided initiative that will actively encourage more reckless borrowing and stoke the flames of inflation. Even Biden has acknowledged that his authority is doubtful here. It’s clearly part of a corrupt political spoils system aimed at buying votes. While it did not get as many Democratic votes as the heavy-duty vehicle CRA, the student loan CRA passed with bipartisan support in the House and now moves to the Senate, where its fate will be determined.

Advancing American Freedom has been compiling a list of executive overreach called the Biden Accountability Tracker (BAT). The BAT tracks each significant policy decision made, executive action taken, or regulation promulgated by the administration that hurts the American people. This task has produced 171 entries in the past two years, the latest of which would be ripe for CRA action. 

The administration has aggrandized federal power at the expense of accountability, adopting a radical “whole-of-government” approach to nearly every political or policy issue. Defeating this destructive agenda is top of mind as conservatives look to take back control of Congress in 2024. In the meantime, we should use the CRA vigorously to swat down overreach. Let history remember 2023 as the year of the CRA.

All three Democrats representing the Delaware Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Thursday, which passed in a party-line 219-203 vote.

The bill would allow women to compete in sports without being forced to face off against males.

“For purposes of determining compliance with Title IX . . . in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” the bill reads. Senate Democrats are expected to prevent it from coming to the floor for a vote.

“We have come too far as women to allow biological men to compete against us in sports and for college scholarships,” said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) via Twitter. “It is total bull****!”

Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon, Chrissy Houlahan, and Madeleine Dean all voted against the bill and in favor of allowing males who identify as female to participate in women’s sports. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) voted with the GOP majority in favor of women-only sports competitions.

Neither Scanlon, Houlahan, nor Dean would answer questions about their vote.

However, Houlahan did post a press release on her website calling the bill “an attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society—our transgender community.” She called the measure a “cynical vote” and urged Congress to “leave these infrequent conversations to students, parents, doctors, and schools who can make decisions based on kindness, inclusivity, and understanding, not fear and vitriol.”

Critics noted that leaving the issue to local schools is impossible because the Biden administration has issued a federal order arbitrarily redefining the word “sex” in Title IX to include “stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” The White House has also forbidden school districts from issuing blanket bans on biological male athletes competing in women’s sports.

Scanlon posted a video on Twitter earlier in the week telling transgender-identified individuals she would “never stop standing up for you and standing against hatred.”

Pat Poprik, chair of the Bucks County Republican Committee, told Delaware Valley Journal in a statement that she supported the bill.

“I speak to voters daily, and nearly all of them are in favor of protecting women and girls’ sports,” Poprik said. “The failure of Democrats to support this bill, once again, shows how out of touch they are to what is important to our hardworking families in our community.”

A similar proposal was passed by both houses of Pennsylvania’s legislature last year. 

The state “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” stipulated that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls … may not be open to students of the male sex.”

The bill had been introduced by five women legislators in the Pennsylvania House, with Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) stating that the legislation would “ensure all female athletes have a level playing field to compete and win.”

“Science and common sense tell us that males are generally bigger, faster, and stronger than females,” White said. “These are all advantages that cannot be undone.”

That bill passed by strong majorities in both the state House and Senate, though it was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Tom Wolf (D) in July. The governor had slammed the measure as “transphobic.”

The issue of transgender athletes has become a cultural flashpoint nationally in recent years, with Republicans often pushing to keep sports divided by sex and Democrats arguing that males should be allowed to compete against young women at the high school and college levels.

However, even left-leaning news outlet NPR was forced to issue a correction when it falsely reported that “there is limited scientific research” supporting the “physical advantage” males have over females in athletic competitions.

Last week, high school volleyball player Payton McNabb testified before the North Carolina legislature about “suffering severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms” after a male player who identifies as female spiked a ball in her face, a local TV station reported.

“Due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females, my life has forever been changed,” McNabb said.

“Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last.”

Congress came remarkably close to setting a federal privacy standard in 2022, but fell just short of the finish line. That’s unfortunate, because consumer data underpins almost everything that happens in today’s global economy. The absence of a federal data privacy regime means the United States risks falling behind its economic peers.

However, with a few adjustments, the new Congress can pick up where its predecessors left off and make the United States a global leader in this space, ensuring data privacy alongside a seamless, tailored consumer experience.

Lawmakers made remarkable progress in July when the House Energy and Commerce Committee moved a bipartisan bill out of committee. The result made clear that Members of both parties, and in both chambers, want a federal standard for consumer privacy protections. What’s less clear is how we do this without degrading the digital experience consumers have come to expect.

Consumers are rightfully at the center of the data economy, with tremendous power to drive innovation. They don’t want to give that up, in part because their expectations have driven huge leaps forward in user interface, customer experience, and digital marketing.

A quick example: The demand-driven economy paved the way for an omni-channel experience that allows a consumer to begin a mobile transaction during their commute, then finish it on their computer when they get home.

Likewise, consumer demands drive innovations that defend against the growing threat of fraud. Protecting consumers was hard enough when transactions occurred in person at a bank counter. It’s much harder today, where a consumer might exchange sensitive financial and biometric information over an internet-connected device in a crowded café.

Meeting that challenge is essential. After all, trust underpins everything in the digital economy, and consumer data is the engine behind the anti-fraud technology that makes those protections possible. 

That’s why federal privacy legislation must reject excessive limitations on the use or flow of data, as this could hinder the ability to protect consumers and businesses against fraud writ large. As Congress crafts fresh data privacy legislation, they should avoid any legislative or regulatory activity that would thwart the use of data necessary to identify consumers and their devices.

Next, Congress should set the tone by establishing a clear national framework for data privacy that’s based on consumer choice. Many consumers expect advertising to be tailored and relevant to them. Targeted marketing serves advertisers and consumers alike, to say nothing of the small and local businesses who depend on it to compete against bigger players with larger ad budgets. 

With a clear national privacy framework based on choice, consumers who do not value targeted marketing can opt out, while the rest can continue to enjoy the online experience they have today. That includes an estimated $30,000 per year in free services — like email, mapping, and internet search — which depend on ad revenue to survive. 

Strong data privacy legislation can achieve a better online experience, offering more options for how their data is used. Consumers deserve transparency, and they know what they want. Congress needs to trust consumers to decide what they do with that information.

Finally, Congress should work to deliver a data privacy standard that includes robust pre-emption standards. This would streamline the confusing patchwork of state laws that exists today, help businesses (as well as consumers) understand the rules of the road, and ensure all Americans enjoy the same rights and protections in every state.

Congress can deliver data privacy alongside the seamless, tailored experiences consumers demand, building trust along the way. The challenge is real, but it’s far outweighed by the cost of inaction.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

It is easy to start hyperventilating over classified documents. It isn’t the classification but what is in the documents that counts. Much marked classified is rubbish.

I have been around the classification follies for years. In 1970, I did what might be called a study, but it was just a freelance article on hovercraft use by the military. I was paid $250 to write it.

In those days, there was no easy way to copy a document. The standard was to put several sheets of paper in a typewriter with carbon sheets between them. Like any other journalist, I started by going to the best library I could access — in this case, The Washington Post library. I read what was available, largely newspaper clippings, and wrote the article.

Arctic, a consulting company, paid me to write it, and I forgot about it. A couple of years later, I wanted the article — probably to use to get other work — and I asked Arctic for it. They said it had been delivered to the Pentagon long since, and I had better ask the commissioning Department of Defense office.

I did that and was told that I couldn’t have the article, nor could I even look at it because it had been “classified,” and I didn’t have clearance.

Like so much else, it had gone into the dark underworld of the classified from whence few pieces of paper ever return.

When James Schlesinger became chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1971, one of the first things he did was revamp document classification. He told me that the AEC was classifying far more than was necessary and, as a result, the system wasn’t safer but more vulnerable.

His argument was that for classification to work, the people managing classified material had to have confidence that it was truly deserving of secrecy. He directed the declassification of the trivial and increased the security surrounding what was vital.

Schlesinger was succeeded as chairman by Dixy Lee Ray. At the time, I covered the nuclear industry, and Ray became a social friend and a subject.

Once, Ray and I went to dinner at the historic Red Fox Inn in Middleburg, Virginia. After a swell meal, we walked to her limousine in the parking lot behind the inn. She had something in her briefcase that she wished me to have.

But Ray always had her two dogs with her. One was a huge gray wolfhound, and the other was a smaller gray dog, which looked like the wolfhound but was half the size.

The dogs were in the car’s front seat, and a high wind was blowing. Ray opened one back door, and I opened the other. Then she opened her briefcase and was rifling through the contents — some of which were marked as classified with a telltale, red X — when the big wolfhound jumped onto the back seat. He knocked over the briefcase, and the wind blew documents all over the parking lot.

It was a security crisis. Not that Soviet agents were dining at the Red Fox Inn that night, but if any document marked as secret was found and handed to the police, a major scandal would have resulted.

For the best part of an hour, Ray, myself and her driver scoured the parking lot, the grassy areas and the bushes for documents.

In the early morning, I drove back to the inn to ensure we had made a clean sweep. State secrets in the parking lot of a pub make for hot headlines and end careers.

In the age of computers, classified documents — and who knows if they should be marked as such — are much less likely to be put into paper folders.

Once, the Congressional Joint Committee, which oversaw the Atomic Energy Commission, held a hearing in its secure hearing room in the U.S. Capitol, where all the documents before the members and the witnesses were marked “eyes only.” The hearing had to be canceled because no one could say anything.

Also, at one of the major nuclear weapons laboratories, I deduced what a machine I was told was used for conducting “scientific experiments” really was. The director assured the technician showing it, “Don’t worry, King is too stupid to know what it is.” He was right, and another state secret was saved.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

If the title Congressional Truth-Stretching Champion is ever awarded, there would be an Olympic-scale competition to claim it. Politicians in general, and members of Congress in particular, take a certain wiggle room with telling the truth.

Americans are tolerant of that — to a point. And when that point is exceeded, things become very unpleasant, very fast.

Just ask George Santos. The newly minted congressman allegedly fibbed about big (and important) chunks of his resume, his family history, and much else. He is quickly finding Capitol Hill is not an emotional support group for those who find themselves in increasingly hot water.

Santos is far from the first congressman to inflate his story. So, who was history’s worst offender? A strong case can be argued that dubious distinction belongs, hands down, to David Crockett.

You know. Coonskin cap. Bear fighter. Hero of the Alamo. And member of the House of Representatives.

Everything we know about Davy Crockett is a chemist’s mixture of truths, half-truths, tall tales, myths and outright lies told for political gain.

Start with his nativity. “Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee.” Though in fairness, that bit of misinformation can be blamed on Walt Disney’s crew, who enshrined it in the “Ballad of Davy Crockett” in 1954. The song became a hit as the theme of Disney episodes featuring Fess Parker as the famous frontiersman. (Parker also later portrayed Daniel Boone on the tube, forever confusing Baby Boomers who mixed up the two portrayals.) It was part of the 1950s “Crocket Craze” that grew so white-hot that imitation coonskin caps were selling at 5,000 every day. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Crockett was born soon after the Revolutionary War in a state that no longer exists. In fact, it never existed. The Free State of Franklin consisted of several East Tennessee counties that broke off from North Carolina. It fizzled when Congress didn’t admit it to the Union and settled for becoming part of the Volunteer State instead.

Far from being “born on a mountaintop,” he arrived at his family’s home deep in a small valley. And while Crockett never claimed to have killed a bear “when he was only three” as his lyrical resume insists, he was indeed a hunter.

And here’s where things grow murky. Davy Crockett was a prolific and skilled gamesman. So much so that he began making a name for himself as a hunter while still a teenager.

But Crockett was born with the politician’s inherent burning desire to make a good thing better. Tales about his hunting ability grew taller with each telling.

He claimed to have killed 105 bears in a year. He said he killed one at midnight, either with a knife or his bare hands. Which may have happened. Or maybe not. Or perhaps it kinda sorta happened. Who knows?

His entire life is a 21st-century fact-checker’s nightmare come true. His autobiography is no help. It is grandly titled “A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of Tennessee: His Own Story.” Except it was ghostwritten by a Kentucky congressman for political purposes. Even a popular play called “The Lion of the West” wavered between truth and fabrication.

This much is certain. After being narrowly defeated for re-election to Congress in 1835, he famously stormed, “You can go to Hell — I’m going to Texas.” And so, he departed on a one-way trip to immortality.

Even his death is shrouded in historical ambiguity. That much, at least, cannot be blamed on Crockett. Tradition tells us all the Alamo’s defenders died fighting when the old crumbling mission was stormed by Santa Anna’s army on March 6, 1836. Some Mexicans claimed Crockett was one of six men who surrendered and later stood against a wall and was shot. Others dispute that claim. Regardless of how his story ended, he was no coward.

Nearly 200 years later, it’s impossible to sort the fact from fiction in Davy Crockett’s adventures. In many ways, it personifies “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’s” most famous line: “When the truth becomes legend, print the legend.”

Davy would have agreed.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal.

This month, Congress has the chance to greatly benefit the lives of six million Americans with disabilities, including one million veterans, by passing the ABLE Age Adjustment Act.

This simple, straightforward legislation – which has amazing bipartisan support – will provide financial empowerment and increased independence for millions of Americans with disabilities. I urge Congressional leaders to bring it up for a vote before the current legislative session ends.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who sponsored the original Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act of 2014, introduced the ABLE Age Adjustment Act to expand access to this life-changing savings program. It’s cosponsored by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and the House version is cosponsored by 17 of the 18 members in Pennsylvania’s delegation. As the inaugural Chair of the ABLE Savings Plan Network, I’m proud that Pennsylvania’s representatives in Washington, D.C., are so supportive.

Here’s why we need this bill to become law: ABLE account owners can save and increase their financial security without impacting their Supplemental Security Income, Medical Assistance and other vital means-tested benefits. In addition, like 529 plans for education expenses, ABLE accounts offer tax advantages to those saving for qualifying disability-related expenses, including housing, healthcare, financial services, education, and more.

The original ABLE law – which authorized Pennsylvania to create PA ABLE in 2016, with key support from state Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) and former state Rep. Bernie O’Neill (R-Philadelphia)– allowed millions of people with disabilities nationwide to save in a way that was previously impossible.

But right now, federal law limits ABLE eligibility to individuals whose qualifying disability was diagnosed before age 26. The ABLE Age Adjustment Act would increase the age limit to 46.

It’s a simple change – but the impact will be profound.

The ABLE Age Adjustment Act will give an additional six million Americans – including one million veterans – access to these savings accounts to help them build a more secure future for themselves and live more independently.

As a veteran myself, I know firsthand that access to ABLE accounts will be tremendously helpful for our selfless, patriotic heroes who have sacrificed so much for our great country. Many of their disabilities occur after age 26 as a direct result of their dedication to the mission of protecting every one of us, their friends and neighbors.

ABLE empowers people with disabilities and their families. Here in Pennsylvania, more than 7,000 PA ABLE account owners have saved more than $77 million over the program’s first five years. The value of this program is undeniable, and the ABLE Age Adjustment Act would make it even better.

Giving more people the opportunity to save with ABLE is the right thing to do. It’s time to make it happen.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

Several members of Congress are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do more to address the problem of PFAS — man-made “forever chemicals” that pollute parts of Montgomery and Bucks Counties.

The letter to EPA Director Michael Regan was signed by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery), and Rep. Susan Wild (D-Lehigh).

While the EPA issued guidance on the chemicals in April, the letter urged the agency to update it to include “important safeguards” because the regulations in place now do not cover most of those discharging the chemicals since they operate in 47 states with their own rules.

The letter asks EPA to “clarify” which entities “have an ongoing obligation to disclose PFAS pollution” as part of an existing permit and not wait for the permit to be renewed.

It also asks that “clear requirements” be specified for “Technology-Based Effluent Limits (TBELs) on a case-by-case basis. That would “help permitting agencies across the country and dramatically reduce PFAS pollution.”

The lawmakers also request that PFAS polluters clean up their wastewater and not depend on local treatment plants.

Manufacturers and the Department of Defense should bear the cost of treating the polluted water, not local, publicly owned water systems, the legislators say.

“The EPA has an opportunity to help permitting agencies across the country and dramatically reduce PFAS pollution,” the letter said.

“PFAS pollution is a serious threat to the communities we represent. We thank you for taking this crisis seriously and urge you to use your existing authorities under the Clean Water Act to make meaningful reductions in PFAS exposure in the near term,” the letter stated.

In March, the Bucks County commissioners and District Attorney Matt Weintraub filed suit against various PFAS manufacturers to try to get compensation for cleaning up the dangerous chemicals that were used in firefighting.

The PFAS chemicals are linked to kidney cancer, developmental disorders, and high cholesterol.  PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam used at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster and Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Willow Grove (both now closed) are considered the principal source of PFAS contamination in nearby communities.

PFAS chemicals are carbon-chain compounds useful for their indestructible and non-slip qualities. They repel water and grease and resist heat degradation. Therefore, those substances are used in many industrial and consumer product applications and are present in many products, including clothing, carpeting, cooking pots, and food liners. There are more than 4,700 PFAS compounds in existence.

“PFAS describes not just one chemical, but a whole array of different chemicals that have certain similar chemical structures and properties,” said David Savitz, Ph.D., an investigator with the Multi-site Health Study and a Brown University professor of epidemiology.

State Rep. Todd Stephens (R-Montgomeryville) has been working on the PFAS problem for years.

“These chemicals, once they’re in the ground, they don’t stay put. They travel in the aquifer. It’s not isolated to just one community. There’s a lot of remediation that’s been underway in the surrounding communities as well,” he said.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

After coaching girls’ softball teams for 23 seasons, Guy Ciarrocchi was not going to let a little thing like running for Congress stop him.

This year his team, the Devon Strafford Berwyn Paoli Little League — nicknamed the Lightning — won the Southeast Region championship on July 8 and is headed to Indiana, Pa. to compete in the Little League State Championship. Their first game is against the Anthracite Little League from Carbon County on July 13.

“You know you’re in Pennsylvania when your opponent is called the Anthracite Little League,” said Ciarrocchi, a Republican running against U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester/Berks).

“It’s all good, but it’s an overwhelming daily challenge to try and juggle the social media, the fundraising and events, and what have you. It’s a lot of fun and I’m busy because there’s a lot to do. Add in a little softball in my life. It makes a busy day, but that’s okay. It’s a few hours, you step away and do something different.”

Devon Strafford Berwyn Paoli Little League

It’s a family affair. Both of Ciarrocchi’s daughters, Alexandra, 28, and Anastasia, 21, are assistant coaches. When Ciarrocchi began campaigning, he turned over the head coaching spot to Christine Amoroso and he is now the bench coach.

Laura Manion, his successor as CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry “in a world of small worlds,” is also an assistant coach, he said.

“It’s a team effort,” he said. “The kids keep us on our toes.”

Amoroso said, “I’m not into politics. This is all about a talented group of young ladies that have worked hard all year to be ready for this. All the coaches and parents are extremely proud of them and excited to head to Indiana, Pa. We hope to bring home a state title!”

Twelve kids on the team are rising 8th graders and two are rising 7th graders, Ciarrocchi said. He began coaching girls in August 2009 and has coached softball without one of his kids on the team since 2014.

“I love it,” he said. It was his daughter, Anastasia’s, idea. At 12, she wanted to play travel softball and also wanted to be a coach. He told her she could coach along with him.

“Coaching for just coaching is a thrilling experience because you can totally immerse yourself in just coaching and not have to worry about whether you’re being too kind or too mean to your own kids,” Ciarrocchi said. “I usually stay with the girls until high school, their freshman and sophomore year.”

“I would hope even if I’m elected to Congress I can come back and see them and help out from time to time,” he said. “Twelve and 13-year-old kids have no filter. They tell you the truth…They know me and we joke. And they tease me. They told they were going to buy me Life Alert because I’m getting old and if I fell in the dugout they’d need someone to come and rescue me.”

The team members played a regular-season of Little League ball and then tried out for this team. They won at the district level, which included parts of Chester and Montgomery counties. Then they won the sectionals, winning the championship of Southeast Pennsylvania, one of eight sections in the state.

“The highlights, as a team, we had not lost in 2020 (or) 2021. When we did this we lost our first district game and we had to play that team again and beat them—twice. So having lost to a team from Lower Perkiomen who were very good, we had to beat them twice and we did. Seeing that the girls could respond to their first loss and come back from that loss and win was a great thing. They really all contributed. ”

“And winning section and getting to go to the state is a big thrill,” he added.

Along with his daughters playing softball, his son, Louis played baseball before switching to football, so all his kids share his passion for sports.

And just as Ciarrocchi roots for his team, they are rooting for him.

“I think it’s great,” said Pascale Nehlsen, 13, of Malvern. “I think we need more people like Coach Guy in Washington, D.C.”

Corinne McReynolds, 13, of Wayne, said, “I think it would be super cool to have the coach of my travel softball team become a congressman. It would give the opportunity to visit the capital building, which I’ve never done before. I know my coach very well and he’d do a great job in the House of Representatives.”

Ciarrocchi said the girls will practice on the artificial turf field at the venue in Indiana, something they are not used to playing on.

“As a coach, you want to see these kids get to play other good kids,” Ciarrocchi added. “I’ve coached close to 1,000 games in my life.”

Games where the score is close are more fun.

“These games should be very competitive,” he said. “So it should be a lot of fun.”

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

Martin Walker, the gifted former Washington correspondent of The Guardian, used to start his speeches saying that the Fourth of July wasn’t a time for sorrow for him, as it was a time when good British yeomen farmers in the colonies revolted against a German king and his German mercenaries.

Walker — who now lives in France and writes the hugely successful “Bruno” detective books set in the Perigord region — once told me, “It’s exciting living in a country where the president can order up an aircraft carrier to settle a dispute.”

He, an Englishman, and I, a former British colonial, shared our admiration for the United States. For America’s birthday, I have counted some things I most like and admire about this country of endless experimentation. Also, alas, I admit it is getting harder to feel as proud of it as I once did.

America, for me, has always embodied a special freedom: the freedom to try. The wonderful thing about it is that you can try a business, an idea, a way of living, or even a way of thinking. I read in “The Waist-High Culture,” the 1958 book by Thomas Griffith, that Europe was a “no” culture and the United States was a “yes” culture. So true.

In my first year here, I wrote to a family member in England, marveling at the size and scope of the American market. I wrote to her, “You could make a fortune here making glass beads, so long as they were good glass beads.” I still believe that.

The other great freedom, which I treasure, is that you can move across the country and start all over again. If you feel you have failed in New York, you can take a fresh sheet and try again in Chicago, Austin or San Francisco. You can have failed in marriage, in business, in a career, and in some very public way, but you can go on anew somewhere else.

You can’t do that in what are, in many ways, city-states — for example, in the way England is dominated by London and France by Paris. There is geographic freedom in the United States that has an exhilaration all its own.

I was intoxicated by America from the first. I didn’t dwell on the sins of the past, from the cruelty of the Puritans, the pioneers and the planters to the folly of Prohibition. When I arrived, I embraced all that was in the present; the civil rights movement was underway and gathering strength, and it was possible to believe that the United States would continue to be the shining example of how you get it right, how you correct big and small errors, and how you let people prosper. John F. Kennedy was president, and it was a new day.

When I covered Congress, I was enchanted with it: the committee power centers, the indifference to party discipline, and a system where you really did need majority approval to get a law passed.

Overall, members of Congress were among the hardest-working (and some were the hardest-drinking) around. They sought to understand issues from atomic energy to cancer. Congress wasn’t perfect, but it aspired to get things right.

For many years, I participated in the Humbert Summer School — a think tank — in the west of Ireland. I used to enjoy talking up the presidential system as superior to the parliamentary one, where a simple majority can wreak havoc.

Now, alas, Congress is experiencing the evils of parliamentary government and none of the virtues, particularly swift legislating. Party discipline — as in the case of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California shunning Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — has supplanted the old tolerance for differences within the party. It began with the 1994 Gingrich Revolution, abetted by the proliferation of single-point-of-view talk radio.

Like all unchecked decay, it has gotten worse.

America the Beautiful, I wish you a happy birthday. I thank you for your generosity over these decades, and I say sincerely, “Mind how you go.” The world needs your seeking to be fair and just, and full of possibility, not divided and rancorous, and a threat to yourself.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

About 30 people came to Blue Bell Tuesday for a town hall held by Republican congressional candidate Christian Nascimento.

Nascimento, 48, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery), discussed help for American businesses and keeping the country safe.

“Small businesses are the life blood of the American economy,” he said. Supply chain issues are plaguing businesses, including Open Tier Systems, an IT service company that hosted the town hall.  That issue, coupled with inflation and the losses from COVID-19 shutdowns, has hit the U.S. economy hard.

“That’s the story I hear time and time again, whether it’s someone that works for a big national company or the barber shop down the street. Things have gotten more expensive.”

“There’s a common denominator to all of this, and it’s the failed policies of this administration and this Congress,” said Nascimento.  “The president has to be honest. This is not Vladimir Putin’s price hike. You can’t blame all of this on a mad dictator…And the Congress blindly goes along with (Biden). The representative that we currently have in this seat (Dean) votes with the president 100 percent of the time. So she owns this.”

“I believe we can develop a pro-growth agenda and a pro-growth economy,” said Nascimento.

“A lot of it is making sure the American people, whether they’re born in Norristown or Narberth, have a good job, and can build a good life.”

He called for reducing the regulatory burden on all businesses, particularly small businesses and for an increase in the R&D (research and development) tax credits.

“Just think of our government focused on things we need to solve for and that didn’t cede AI (artificial intelligence) to China and other folks who are our adversaries,” he said. Nascimento also called for increased oil production in the U.S. to ease “the pain at the pump,” while investing in renewables.

Instead of using our natural resources Biden canceled the Keystone pipeline and is begging for oil in the Middle East, putting America at the “economic moral and national security mercy of our adversaries.”

Nascimento is a Montgomery County native and first-generation American.  After a career with Comcast, the father of four is running for office to serve the country and “give back,” he told Delaware Valley Journal.

“I’m going to be an independent voice for the people of the 4th (District),” he said. “I am going to go toe-to-toe with Democrats and I’m going to buck Republicans sometimes. I’m going to vote for what I believe is right.”

Whitpain resident Brian McCarthy, who owns Open Tier, asked Nascimento about the cyber security problems the country faces.  Nascimento said the country needs to invest in our digital infrastructure.

“We are woefully unprepared for this digital economy,” he said.  Mentioning the nuclear power plant in Limerick, he said anything connected to the internet could be hacked. “Power plants, business, homes, they’re all at risk,” he said. “The amount of harm those cyberattacks can do is breathtaking.”

“There has to be a response,” he said. “You cannot allow foreign actors to hack into government, to hack into individuals living in this country and allow them to get away with it. Right now, Putin, Xi, none of those folks expect there is going to be any repercussions. Because President Biden has shown time and time again they’re right.”

America also needs to compete with China’s “Belt and Road” policy. This country needs to bring back manufacturing so “we are not dependent on the Chinese” for essential products.

“Peace through strength is the only way to deal with China,” said Nascimento.

Local resident Scott Miller asked, “After Friday (Supreme Court decision on Roe) the whole point of the Democratic initiative is going to be a wild-eyed attack on everything, because of federalism, sending things back to the states to be determined, to be debated and voted on…How do you intend to deal with a wild-eyed onslaught?”

Nascimento said he would stay calm.

“We’ve got to change the way we’ve been doing things in the last year and a half,” he said. “The damage that’s being done to the economy and by extension to American families and ultimately to the country is just unprecedented. You may call me naïve but I believe that people are looking for leadership. The screaming and wild-eyed, I think that will work against (Democrats). The country was built on federalism.”

Blue Bell resident Katie Wenger asked about Second Amendment rights and school safety.

Nascimento said Dr. Oz, who is running for the Senate, has a great line, which the Second Amendment is second because it protects the First Amendment.

“In my mind the constitution says you have the right to bear arms,” he said. “If you’re like me and you’re pro-life, it’s not just pro-birth. It’s making sure that a child has an opportunity to live a life and be safe.”

“I’m not in favor of red flag laws because I think it’s too dangerous for a person’s individual liberty and the constitution says you can’t have your liberty taken away by unreasonable search and seizure.

“The problem we have with guns is…is enforcing the laws we have,” Nascimento said.

“When someone commits a crime with a gun, you have to arrest that person, and after you arrest them you have to prosecute them. That seems pretty basic. But that’s not happening in Philadelphia and it’s not happening in a lot of places.”

A former Methacton School Board president, he said security doors and armed resource officers would help.

“The way you respect life is you help people that are struggling,” he said. “That young man in Uvalde had clearly been struggling for a long time and showed a lot of signs of it and the system failed him. The issue in Uvalde in particular was not a gun issue. It was a mental crisis issue.”

Nascimento believes education and jobs go a long way toward preventing crime.

“You don’t have rampant crime if you have prospects,” said Nascimento. “If you look at what’s happening just down the road in Philadelphia. There are really only three problems in Philadelphia: Kenney, Krasner and Outlaw.”

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal