House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) this week released a report titled “The Imperial Presidency" that highlights the Obama administration’s pattern of executive overreach.
“The president’s disturbing track record of legislating by executive fiat is simply unacceptable. I applaud Majority Leader Cantor for compiling this report to show the American people the lengths to which the Obama administration has gone to expand its authority and bypass the congressional process," said House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN).
“The Imperial Presidency" report covers a number of cases in which the House Education and the Workforce Committee has fought to protect congressional authority and push back against the Obama administration efforts to:
* Rewrite federal K-12 education law through a controversial and unlawful waivers scheme;
* Make three unconstitutional ‘recess appointments’ to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) when the Senate was actually in pro forma session;
* Advance an ambush election scheme for union organizing campaigns;
* Empower union leaders to establish job-destroying ‘micro-unions’ in workplaces nationwide;
* Dictate where a private employer can and cannot create jobs;
* Require employers post a vague and biased notice of employee ‘rights’ in the workplace;
* Waive the work requirements critical to the success of welfare reform;
* Deny the American people an opportunity to review the administration’s regulatory agenda;
* Define ObamaCare’s “essential health benefit" outside the formal rulemaking process; and
* Force private religious institutions to pay for services that violate their moral beliefs.
“Majority Leader Cantor’s report underscores the importance of reining in the National Labor Relations Board, repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board and stopping the Administration from abusing its regulatory power to bypass Congress," said Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN). “As Chairman of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee, I believe we have a great responsibility to ensure government agencies act in accordance with the law. The Constitution lays out the Separation of Powers and clearly states that Congress, not the president, has the sole power to legislate."
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, added, “Leader Cantor’s report illustrates how executive authority has been stretched past what has been authorized by Congress in many different areas. It’s the job of Congress-not the Administration-to legislate, in accordance to the Constitution."
