Republicans will take on Obama’s “pen and phone” executive actions this week by voting on legislation that would give the courts more power to interpret laws and regulations that the GOP say are being foisted upon the nation by an unchecked and “overgrown bureaucracy.”
The House Judiciary Committee will vote Wednesday on whether to advance the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, a bill, sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, who is battling with the Obama administration over floodplain regulations in his home state.
“The endless stream of rules and regulations being rolled out by federal agencies has real consequences for real people all across the country,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “Unelected federal bureaucrats are not accountable to the American people and can’t be voted out of office; yet, they wield immense power to impose regulations that have the force of law.”
Obama back in 2014 threatened more federal regulations when he said he wasn’t waiting around for legislation from the Republican Congress. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he said, adding that he can “use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions.”
Under current law, agencies have wide latitude to interpret and enforce statutes and regulations, leaving little recourse for challenge.
Republicans accuse the Obama administration of using the current law to push too far on dozens of rules and regulations spanning the government.
Ratcliffe’s bill would give the courts, not the agencies, the authority to interpret all questions of law, including both statutes and regulations, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
“Today’s federal administrative state is an institution unforeseen by the Framers of our Constitution, that is rapidly mushrooming out of control,” Goodlatte said. “This overgrown bureaucracy is tipping our system of checks and balances away from the legislative and judicial branches, and towards a stronger, emboldened, and overreaching executive.”
Ratcliffe is fighting an executive order issued by President Obama in January that redefines and significantly expands the definition of a floodplain, “so that it would better align with his administration’s climate change agenda.”
Obama issued the order on Jan. 30 and said it was needed “in order to improve the nation’s resilience to current and future flood risk.”
The Senate has introduced an identical bill introduced by 11 GOP lawmakers.
“This bill reasserts the clear lines between the courts’ role in interpreting the law, and the Executive Branch’s role in enforcing the law,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., said. “By doing so, it takes a strong step toward reining in the regulators.”
