<p class="indent"><strong>How did Louisiana’s congressional delegation vote on that monstrosity spending bill?</strong>
<p class="indent">The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 — designated House Resolution 1625 — passed in the House on March 22 by a vote of 256-167.
<p class="indent">Steve Scalise, a Republican who represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, and Cedric Richmond, a Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District, voted for the bill.
<p class="indent">The state’s other four House members — Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Ralph Abraham and Garret Graves — voted against the measure. They represent the third, four, fifth and sixth districts.
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<p class="indent">In the Senate, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, both Republicans, voted against the measure, a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, on March 23. The president signed the bill into law later that day.
<p class="indent">“This bill basically flashes the green light for spending on all the discretionary functions of the federal government, which means everything except entitlements (Social Security, military and other pensions, and the interest payments on the national debt). That covers a lot of government for a whole fiscal year,” reads an NPR story posted March 26.
<p class="indent">“The bottom line in dollars was a mind-boggling record, in part because President Trump demanded and got the biggest increase in defense spending in 15 years.
<p class="indent">“Also escalating the price tag was the Democrats’ insistence on rough parity for spending increases for domestic programs as well.”
<p class="indent"><strong>Online</strong>: www.congress.gov.
<p class="indent"><strong>Abernathy, friend of MLK, died in 1990</strong>
<p class="indent"><strong>Whatever became of Martin Luther King’s associate the Rev. Ralph Abernathy? He just dropped off the scene.</strong>
<p class="indent">After the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in April 1968, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy succeeded King, his longtime friend, as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which the men helped found in 1957.
<p class="indent">Abernathy led the group until 1977, when he resigned. That year he also mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat. Three years later he garnered widespread criticism when he endorsed Ronald Reagan for the U.S. presidency.
<p class="indent">“The Reagan endorsement came at the end of a decade of some difficulty for Mr. Abernathy. He left the presidency of the S.C.L.C. in 1977, at a time when the group had fallen into debt and critics said it no longer sparked the imagination of blacks as it had when it was run by Dr. King,” reads The New York Times’ obituary for Abernathy.
<p class="indent">“But if Mr. Abernathy was criticized as too conservative, disorganized, wedded to the techniques of the past and lacking Dr. King’s charisma and gift of oratory, he continued to win praise for his contributions to the early days of the civil rights struggle and to Dr. King’s success in leading it. Some said Dr. King could not have triumphed as he did without Mr. Abernathy’s help.”
<p class="indent">After his departure from the SCLC, Abernathy served as pastor of a church in Atlanta. He died at age 64 in 1990, a year after the publication of his autobiography.
The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by <strong>Andrew Perzo</strong>, an <em>American Press</em> staff writer. To ask a question, call <strong>494-4098</strong> and leave voice mail, or email <strong>informer@americanpress.com</strong>.
