Obama Executive Orders

SLDN advocates executive order after DADT repeal

A leading advocacy group that provides legal assistance to LGBT members of the armed forces has renewed a call for President Barack Obama to issue an executive order banning discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the military.

"The purpose of the executive order is to create a new mechanism that gay and lesbian service members can use when they feel they have a legitimate complaint about harassment or discrimination," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal Act of 2010, set to take effect on September 20, does not include provisions for recourse outside of the chain of command in registering complaints.

Unlike women and minorities – both protected classes – gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members cannot lodge complaints through the Military Equal Opportunity system.

Without the option of an independent investigatory channel, like MEO, service members may well be appealing "through a chain of command, where the harassment comes from in the first place," explained retired Navy commander Zoe Dunning, who co-chairs SLDN's board of directors.
The reason in pushing for an executive order, explained Sarvis, is because "so far" Marine General Clifford L. Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel readiness, and Marine Major General Steven A. Hummer, head of the repeal implementation team, "have indicated that MEO would not be available to gay and lesbian service members post-repeal."

Under DADT repeal, besides going through the chain of command, service members would have the option of seeking redress through military's inspector general's office.

But while the inspector general avenue is supposed to be independent of the chain of command, it is not entirely so because of a dual reporting structure.

In addition, registering complaints through the inspector general may be "intimidating" to some service members while others may not know how to access the office, explained Dunning.

Obama executive order to grant states No Child Left Behind waivers ...

With federal lawmakers on recess and unlikely to reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB) — the current reiteration of the decades-old Early and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) — the White House has announced it will grant states waivers next year to avoid the punitive sting of schools not meeting performance measures identified by the 2002 law.

In June, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters over 80 percent of schools nationally will be deemed “failing” according to the accountability metrics established by NCLB, signed by then-president George W. Bush and backed by a bipartisan Congress. So far, state Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) reports have not shown that high a percentage of schools falling behind, but a handful of states are posting numbers that show more than half of the schools are not up to snuff.

Previously, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle voiced concern that the White House moving by executive order, rather than allowing Congress to hash out a reauthorization of the law, preempts the job of the legislative branch. Some Democrats, however, have softened their stance. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said in a press release:

“We continue to have productive bipartisan conversations in the Senate and I remain hopeful that we can move a reauthorization bill through the HELP Committee soon. That said, it is undeniable that this Congress faces real challenges reaching bipartisan, bicameral agreement on anything. Given the ill-advised and partisan bills that the House majority has chosen to move, I understand Secretary Duncan’s decision to proceed with a waiver package to provide some interim relief while Congress finishes its work.  In spite of the difficult environment here in Congress, I remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion to pass a comprehensive bill that will provide all our students and schools with a better education system, rather than just those in a select few states.”

Justine Sessions, a spokesperson for Harkin, told The American Independent the upper body of Congress met ten times last year to reauthorize NCLB and has been in conversations for months to institute new tweaks to the law. A reauthorization of ESEA was supposed to happen in 2007.

RT @: EXECUTIVE ORDERS LIST. We R All communists now

EXECUTIVE ORDERS LIST. We R All communists now

"EXECUTIVE ORDER" - Obama uses executive orders to take power for the federal govt. Romney would return power to States and "We the people."

Obama signed executive orders in 07 & 09 telling fed agencies to < enviro sustainability >a href="http://ow.ly/5Zofa"/a< but no one kept track!

"EXECUTIVE ORDER" - Obama uses executive orders to take power for the federal govt. Romney would return power to States and "We the people."

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