Departing Rep. Steve Stockman To Leave Congress In A Blaze Of Trolling Glory

The current congressional session draws to a close in just over two weeks, but that hasn’t stopped outgoing Texas Rep. Steve Stockman (R) from taking a chance on a couple of last-minute bills.

Washington, D.C. radio station WAMU reported Wednesday that Stockman has introduced a bill requiring the city to open a public firing range, which it does not currently have. He also introduced a second bill that would prohibit the use of traffic cameras in the district and withhold federal highway funds from other cities that use the cameras.

Since losing the Republican Senate primary to incumbent John Cornyn (R-TX) in March, Stockman has introduced a number of such longshot bills and resolutions that appear to be pure trolling.

Just last week, he proposed a bill called the “Stockman Effect Act” that would compel the National Science Foundation to “study the effect of the Earth’s magnetic field on the weather” (something Stockman appears to have made up out of thin air) and force Congress to acknowledge that a “decrease in magnetic fields could impact global temperatures.” Scientists say that’s unlikely.

Here’s a sampling of other wild legislation Stockman has proposed in his final year in Congress:

• The “Report the Costs Act,” which would require annual reports from government agencies detailing the cost of multilingual services such as hiring interpreters, preparing agency materials in a language other than English, helping employees and contractors learn a language other than English, etc.;
• The “James Boulet National Language Act of 2014,” which would declare English as the official language of the U.S. government;
• A resolution aimed at arresting former IRS director Lois Lerner on charges of contempt of Congress in the scandal surrounding the agency’s alleged targeting of conservative groups;
• “The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act,” which mocks the IRS and Lerner for losing thousands of emails subpoenaed by Congress by allowing taxpayers to use “lame excuses” — he suggests “traded documents for five terrorists” and “At this point, what difference does it make?” among others — for failing to turn over their own tax documents;
• The “European Union Religious Freedom Act,” which calls out EU member states that have banned or restricted homeschooling, religious meat production, circumcision, and the wearing of “religious garb” in public schools;
• A bill to rename the Department of Labor building in Washington after Reed Larson, an early leader of the National Right To Work Committee.