Congress is preparing for Barack Obama’s departure from the White House with a piece of legislation that would allow members to undo, with a single vote, much of Obama’s regulatory burden he’s created for Americans in recent days.
“Regulations impacting the economy, the environment, families, and our community should be done with great caution and transparency, not get rushed in last-minute on a president’s way out of office,” said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
“This is a good piece of legislation that will help keep this and future presidents in check. The Midnight Rules Relief Act is a reasonable plan to strengthen executive branch oversight, giving Congress a better tool to ensure regulations are limited and, when necessary, approved in an open and transparent manner.”
His bipartisan plan will allow Congress to reject, “with a single vote,” all executive-branch regulations finalized in the last 60 legislation days of an outgoing presidential administration.
Specifically, it amends the Congressional Review Act, which already allows Congress to review hurried regulations.
It will set procedures for Congress “to reclaim the ability to effectively curtail multiple regulations hurried through the regulator process in the final days of an outgoing administration all at once.”
The explanation from Issa said there’s been a growing trend by presidents, “of both parties,” to rush into the government’s practices “costly, expensive or controversial new regulations.”
The U.S. House is expected to vote on the plan as early as this week.
It also has the support of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who said America’s regulatory costs are out of control.
“And the last days of the Obama administration is no time to be issuing even more regulations that will hurt our nation’s ability to create more jobs in the future. Overly broad and partisan regulations that are too often created in the final days of a presidential administration are not fair to hardworking Americans who will feel the impact of regulations long after a president leaves office,” he said.
Also from U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., was a comment about the “strain” put on Americans from regulations.
“Still, President Obama continues to shuffle in last-minute regulations allowing no time for public scrutiny or thorough vetting. The Midnight Rules Relief Act ensures that midnight regulations can be easily disapproved of by the incoming Congress so no lame duck president has the opportunity to circumvent the will of the people or their representatives in Congress.
“It is an important and necessary piece of legislation that protects Americans from excessive, burdensome overreach by the executive,” he said.
Also lining up behind the plan were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
It was Catholic Online that had wondered, only hours before Issa’s announcement, just what was going on in Washington.
“Is Obama sabotaging Trump’s presidency?” the report asked, pointing out that for every law adopted by Congress in the last year, Obama has created 18 new regulations.
“More regulation makes the management of government more difficult. It also makes the entire federal system more complex. Eventually, systems become so complex they no longer work,” Catholic Online noted. “Is this what’s driving Obama? Is he complicating the system so much it will be difficult for Trump to govern?”
President-elect Donald Trump already has committed to removing large quantities of Obama’s regulations and orders.
Trump has been vocally critical of Obama’s moves on immigration, energy regulation and foreign policy.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, said this week Trump also plans immediately to “repeal” a lot of the regulatory actions.
A report on Tuesday in the News-Sentinal noted that Obama “has been working overtime not only to discredit his [Trump’s] electoral victory but to tie his hands afrter taking the oath of office Jan. 20.”
“From the Middle East to relations with Russia to land-grabbing executive orders (despite President Obama’s suggestion that Trump refrain from issuing such tactics), Trump has been given an impossible choice: Meddle in another president’s business or remain silent as that president cynically makes it more difficult to do the very things the election suggests voters want and expect.”
The report continued, “In rapid succession, President Obama heightened existing tensions with Israel and Russia, invoked an obscure 1953 law to exempt huge areas in Alaska and the Arctic from energy exploration; ignored local objections and declared another 1.65 million acres in Utah and Nevada national monuments under the Antiquities Act, bringing the administration’s total to an unprecedented 553 million acres; and scrapped the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, a post-9/11 program requiring the registration and fingerprinting of some Muslim immigrants that, according to the Associated Press, had been dormant since 2011 but could have been used by Trump to screen immigrants from countries plagued by terrorism.”
Further, the report from Kevin Leininger said, “There is plenty of evidence the country has rejected Obama’s policy and the legacy he is so desperately trying to cement. Since Obama took office eight years ago, his Democratic Party has lost 1,042 seats at the state and federal level. That included the loss of the U.S. House and Senate, and a drop in the number of Democratic governors from 28 to 16. What’s more, Trump won six states Obama carried just four years earlier. Whatever one thinks of Trump’s policies, his victory was not illegitimate. He will and should be judged by what he does or fails to do, not on the basis of the fears and hysteria of opponents whose message has been rejected by most of the country.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/congress-aims-to-undo-obamas-newest-moves-in-single-vote/
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