Home > Alerts & Updates > Alert for 1/16/2014: Monarch Niederhauser Violating Your Senate Statutators!

Previous Articles on HB 76 and Utah's Monarchs Sheriffs' Association President Whines at UT Gun Rights Mayor & Police Chief Falsely List City Council in Letter Against HB 76 Why Did Utah's Sheriffs Oppose HB 76? Utah Police Chiefs Overwhelmingly Support Gun Control Why Would the USSC Chair Privately Lobby Against HB 76 S1? How Did Your Legislators Vote on the Veto Override? Legislature Fails to Override HB 76 Veto: How Did this Happen? Word is Spreading on Secret Vote to Kill HB 76 S1 Is HB 76 S1 a Real Effort or a Shell Game? HB 76 S1: Will Gary Herbert Foment Grassroots Republicans Against Him Like Mike Leavitt Did? House Monarchess Publicly Affirms Her Brutal Authority

Monarch Niederhauser Violates Your Senate Statutators!

(Alert for 1/16/14): As previously exposed, Utah's statutators (i.e. house and senate members who produce statutes that undermine law) are controlled by two monarchs: senate president Wayne Niederhauser and house speaker Rebecca Lockhart.

Thanks to a citizen GRAMA request, Ogden police chief Gary Williams clearly fingers Niederhauser's "leadership" as the senate's center of power.  And the Niederhauser regime is poised to seize more power this session.

Secretive Email Confirms Monarchy

On a first name basis, police chief Williams secretly emailed Lincoln Shurtz, lobbyist with the Utah League of Cities and Towns, a United Nations-like conglomerate that zealously pursues gun control, regarding last year's HB 76 (Carry "Unloaded" Firearms Concealed):

"Lincoln, we are concerned that HB76 seems to be moving along on the Senate calendar unimpeded. We had understood that the bill was going to be killed by Senate Leadership. Have things changed?"

For those who missed it, in the 2013 session, HB 76 was stalled and weakened due to pressure by Lockhart and Niederhauser.  It was then passed in its weakened form by a veto-proof majority, was vetoed by Executive Monarch Gary Herbert, and the house and senate then voted NOT to override Herbert's veto.  For more information, see the previous alert, "Legislators Hid Behind Herbert's Veto of HB 76".

"Things," as Williams imagined them, had hardly changed at all.  The senate and house monarchs, likely fearing political backlash from irate gun owners, switched tactics and appear to have switched to secretive "back channels" to encourage Executive Monarch Herbert to veto HB 76.

They then offered only token resistance to override his veto.  Niederhauser even felt secure enough to vote against a veto override.

Assaulting Your House & Senate Statutators

How can two people possibly exercise such control?  Among other unjustified powers, the house speaker and senate president alone appoint and remove EVERY member of EVERY committee.  Lockhart and Niederhauser are empowered to do this without any review or confirmation process.
Sources: "The general duties of the Speaker are to:... appoint the members of committees…" (House Rules 1-3-102. Duties of the speaker) and "The general duties of the president are to:… appoint the members of committees…" (SR1-3-102. Duties of the president)

Consider the vast implications of this incredible power!  These committees control the entire ebb and flow of every bill a statutator files.  As a result, bills live or die almost entirely upon the calculated orders of these two monarchs.

The previous alert, "House Monarchess Publicly Affirms Her Brutal Authority," cited how speaker Lockhart candidly admitted her power to the press:

"I empower [house] committee chairs..." [bold added]
Source: "Bill banning enforcement of federal gun laws 'stuck in limbo'," by Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News, Feb. 22, 2013.

If things were balanced in Utah's capitol, Lockhart would have told the press something more along the lines of, "I don't empower the house committee chairs.  They are able to act independently, without any recourse from me."  Instead, Lockhart empowers the chairs of each house committee because she appoints and fires them at her will alone, as does Niederhauser for every senate committee.

Their powers are so extreme, no provision exists in the house or senate rules to fire the monarchs before their two-year terms are over.  They lord over each body, trading favors and selling your rights; all while pretending that decisions are made by the will of the majority instead of their monarchial authority.

"I could learn a thing or two from you monarchs!"

Deceptive Ploys to Further Dominate & Abuse

Niederhauser's lackey (putting it mildly), John Valentine, who chairs Niederhauser's all powerful senate rules committee, is running Senate Resolution 1 (SR 1) for the upcoming 2014 session.  SR 1 would require senate standing committee approval before any bill or resolution could be enacted by the senate body.

From lines 24-30 of SR 1 (deleted language has strikethrough and new proposed language is underlined and italicized):

(1) The Senate may not pass a bill, joint resolution, or concurrent resolution during the annual general session [that has not been reviewed by] unless:
(a) a Senate standing committee[;] has reviewed the legislation; and
[(b) the Senate Rules Committee; or]
[(c) the Legislative Management Committee.]
(b) the Senate standing committee has given a favorable recommendation to the legislation.

The insidious effect of this initially apparent benign change is to prevent the entire senate body from overriding the will of its monarch.  Presently, a bill that has been tabled by one of the monarch's committees may be brought to the senate floor nonetheless with a two-thirds vote of senators present.  The change proposed by chief minion Valentine effectively repeals that capability.  Cynically, SR 1 explicitly removes the Rules Committee from authority, even though the Rules Committee is one of the listed standing committees and would be unaffected by Valentine's rules amendment .

SR 1 is another farcical "procedural reform".  It expands Niederhauser's domination of the entire process, by de facto eliminating one of the only mechanisms for senate statutators to act independently.  SR 1 further reinforces that your statutators must know their place, line up like good little serfs, and kiss the ring of Niederhauser's hand-picked committee cronies if they ever hope to pass a bill.

Note 1: Valentine might argue that he's surrendering power because his rules committee is no longer listed.  But, according to SR3-2-201, Valentine's senate rules committee is already a standing committee and would see no reduction of its existing power to brutally control the flow or demise of all bills through the senate.

Note 2: SR 1 also continues to exempt fundamentally important appropriations bills lorded over by Niederhauser's executive appropriations committee (lines 35-43), which is where billions of dollars are shuffled around.  This is where the real power is exercised and the lobbyist domination of government is made clear.

Note 3: Also, according to SR1-1-101(2), Valentine's new rule could, at any time, be repealed or amended by a majority.  However, by proposing such a motion a senate statutator would be effectively challenging the entire political process and its associated mechanisms of "discipline", making the benefits of such a challenge unlikely to outweigh its risks.

Your house and senate statutators foolishly wish you to believe they have power and represent you.  In fact, they merely occupy seats, are offered free lunches, and receive an occasional pat on the head for empowering these monarchs to exercise their grossly disproportionate power to impose statutes that subvert your natural rights.  In the upcoming "2013 Statutory Performance Report" covering last year's session, UT Gun Rights will further expose this monarchial tyranny.

Appropriate Actions

Here are some ideas for you to consider in holding your government accountable and in reducing the influence of Utah's spider web-like network of corruption:

1) Invite Senate Monarch Niederhauser and House Monarchess Lockhart to abandon their gun control agenda and relinquish their authoritarian powers over your house and senate statutators.  Let them know that you comprehend their games and manipulation.

2) Invite your house and senate statutators to resist these monarchs.  Encourage them to introduce and approve the necessary changes to the house and senate rules that depose the present statutory monarchy. To find your statutators' contact information, click here.

3) Network with local gun owners.  Let people know what is happening.  Get them connected with sites like UT Gun Rights so they can receive critical information and form their own, independent opinions.  Sign up for free email alerts and updates at info@utgunrights.com and "Like" UT Gun Rights on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UtGunRights

Encourage others to read, analyze, question, confront, challenge, and understand what is going on around them. A highly informed citizen community is required to resist manipulation, deception, and fraud.  Here are two pages they should familiarize themselves with: 2013 Bill Tracking Page: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and the Free Ammo Page.

4) Organize into smaller working groups for your area.  Each of your local politicians should receive political direction from a group of local, determined, solidly-educated gun rights activists.  This group can consider political action such as establishing local email/phone political action networks, literature distribution, holding town meetings, recruiting alternative candidates, election monitoring and participation, and filing GRAMA requests.

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