A Congressional Look Back at 2014, With Rep. Trent Franks

Congressman TRENT FRANKS (AZ-8), member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee:

PART ONE

• Rep. Franks’ efforts to raise awareness of the vulnerabilities of the electric grid
• Natural and man-made causes of EMP
• Iranian military references to “weaponized EMP”
• Future of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act in the new Congress

PART TWO

• President Obama’s dismissal of the Sony hack by North Korea as “cyber vandalism”
• Executive overreach and holding the President accountable to the Constitution and his oath of office
• President Obama’s history of voting “present,” rather than for or against, state and federal bills

PART THREE

• Does Congress’ refusal to fund DHS through the “Crominbus” give it leverage over President Obama in 2015?
• Amnesty and the end of the Republican Party
• A disconnect between President Obama’s response to the hack of Sony Pictures, and to that of a film he claimed spurred the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12
• The meaning of true religious tolerance

PART FOUR

• Claims of injustice surrounding the U.S. grand jury process
• Means of determining whether certain police behavior is race-motivated
• Violent jihad references on the Facebook page of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suspected murderer of two NYPD officers
• Expectations for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force against the Islamic State in 2015

PART FIVE

• Sequestration’s impact on the U.S. military
• Innovation within the U.S. space and missile defense programs
• In light of the secret U.S.-Cuba negotiations, what other clandestine talks might the Administration be engaging in?