I post this because it has something for most everybody and I am concerned about the protections of our vote and the Voting Rights Act

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/T ... news4.html
More splits in House GOP ranks
By Patrick O’Connor

As the midterm elections loom and concern about maintaining their majority hold on the House increases, rank-and-file Republicans have grown more and more combative with their leaders and themselves.

In the past two weeks, Republican House members have sparred openly on the House floor and have criticized their Speaker behind closed doors.

With immigration reform, an update of the Voting Rights Act and a series of appropriations bills among the few big-ticket items remaining on this year’s legislative calendar, it is unlikely these intraparty squabbles will die down any time soon, particularly as vulnerable Republicans seek to distance themselves from their party and their president.

While bickering is a constant on Capitol Hill, the recent rancor illustrates the election-year self-interest of individual members that could make it increasingly difficult for leaders to tackle controversial legislation. In turn, the growing discord could help paint the GOP as divided.

With all eyes on immigration, spending restraint continues to be the quiet issue that divides congressional Republicans this year. Members were forced to postpone a vote on the supplemental spending bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq until after the Memorial Day recess because House and Senate negotiators were unable to settle on a final bill.

In the House, Republicans have been arguing internally about this issue all year.

Last week, during a closed-door meeting of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), Reps. John Carter (Texas) and Zach Wamp (Tenn.), who both serve on the Appropriations Committee, criticized some of their colleagues for raising points of order to strip $507 million in construction projects from a military spending bill two weeks ago.

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) openly rebuked Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who chairs the RSC, for stripping the money in a rare public showdown among congressional Republicans on the House floor.

Carter and Wamp told RSC members during the group’s regular Wednesday meeting that it would be more effective if they worked with conservatives on the Appropriations Committee behind the scenes before taking something directly to the House floor.

“They should talk to [RSC members on the committee] and maybe we can resolve the situation,” Carter said Thursday, adding that the military spending bill was bad legislation on which to highlight spending cuts. “I didn’t think it was a good place to pick a fight.”

Leaders were hoping to arrange a meeting last week between Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and select conservatives, but the session never materialized, members said last week. Lewis said Thursday that conservative concerns over earmarks would not slow his panel’s ability to approve each of its spending bills on time.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) ended last week’s RSC meeting with some sharp words for the conservative appropriators who voted to approve the budget and then just days later included the $507 million in additional construction projects.

“Relations are improving,” Wamp said of the tension between appropriators and conservatives. “We’ve got to keep our family together even when we have a disagreement.”

Wamp recommended that his RSC colleagues use himself, Carter and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), another appropriator, as intermediaries, in much the same way that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has become a negotiator for RSC members on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.