LeMunyon Fails to Defend Repeal Amendment During Debate
Fairfax, VA-October 17th, 2011-Delegate LeMunyon failed to justify his sponsorship of the highly controversial “Repeal Amendment” during a televised debate Sunday.
Eric Clingan and Delegate Jim LeMunyon squared off last night in a debate on Fairfax Public Access Channel 10’s program “The Inside Scoop Virginia”. The debate was co-moderated by Mark Levin and Mike Lane. Full video of the debate can be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17929410
The Repeal Amendment, as it is being called, would allow 2/3 of states to nullify any federal law. As Eric Clingan pointed out during the debate, the Repeal Amendment could be very bad for Northern Virginia. “There is not an area of the Federal Government that does not affect Northern Virginia…would the other states, perhaps wanting a bigger slice of the pie, vote to affect Northern Virginia’s slice? Of course they would.”
LeMunyon attempted to defend the Amendment as a defense against unfunded mandates. However as Clingan pointed out during the debate, “unfunded mandate” doesn’t appear anywhere in the bill. “As a lawyer I can tell you when the bill says any law or regulation that means any.” This means 2/3 of states could repeal protections for clean air and water, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Right Acts, the minimum wage.
LeMunyon did not deny that his Repeal Amendment could nullify all federal laws but merely clarified that that was not his intent. Clingan says that’s not good enough, “Delegate LeMunyon has a choice here. Either he does support nullifying these federal laws as the bill would allow or he was sloppy in writing his bill–either way he’s not right for the job. “
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