[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 26, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3961-H3962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REPRESENTING THE PEOPLE, NOT A BUREAUCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a government that 
represents the people, not a bureaucracy that represents Washington's 
interests.
  Pending on the Supreme Court docket is Loper Bright Enterprises v. 
Raimondo, a case with the potential to overturn 40 years of 
bureaucratic overreach and restore the proper role of Congress, the 
courts, and the Presidency.
  Nearly 40 years of deference by lawmakers and judges to the executive 
has given rise to the administrative state, sometimes called the fourth 
branch of government. Over time, this unaccountable bureaucracy has 
gradually subverted the doctrine of separation of powers laid out by 
our Founders.
  According to the Constitution, Article I vests the power to make law 
in the Congress; Article II vests the power to enforce law in the 
Presidency; and Article III vests the power to interpret law in the 
courts.
  In no article are all three powers--to make, enforce, and interpret 
the law--jointly vested in a managerial bureaucracy of 1.8 million 
civil service employees. The very idea is offensive to our founding.
  However, at the heart of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo lies 
the doctrine of Chevron deference, a legal construct which would make 
our Founders turn in their graves. It is a 1980s judicial invention 
that shifts lawmaking powers from lawmakers and adjudicating powers 
from judges to a plenary executive branch.
  In the 1980s, Chevron deference may have been reasonably supported by 
those who believed faithful bureaucratic agents could be trusted to 
fill in areas where the law is silent. In 2023, the Biden 
administration's relentless pursuit of government power has disabused 
any dewy-eyed believer in faithful bureaucrats.
  The 40-year experiment of Chevron deference has allowed the 
bureaucracy to aggrandize nearly unlimited power, culminating in the 
Biden administration exceeding its authority from sea to shining sea 
and from cradle to grave with overregulation.
  Just recently, President Biden and Secretary Cardona tossed up a Hail 
Mary when their illegal, economically disastrous, taxpayer-funded 
student loan bailout for the wealthy arrived at the Supreme Court. The 
Supreme Court emphatically said no. It also said

[[Page H3962]]

that such a scheme ``requires that Congress speak clearly before a 
Department Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the 
American economy.''
  Nevertheless, the Biden administration continues to claim the power 
to implement its student loan bailout under even more ambiguous legal 
pretenses.
  President Biden's National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, is yet 
another example of the unforeseen consequences of Chevron deference. 
Within the NLRB, bureaucrats command the power to create law, execute 
law, and adjudicate legal conflicts. Under the Biden administration, 
the NLRB has issued sweeping rules regarding joint employer status and 
union elections, enforced said rules, and then adjudicated hundreds of 
cases, overturning longstanding preferences.
  The Committee on Education and the Workforce is working hard to 
conduct oversight of an agency that assumes it has lawmaking, law 
enforcing, and law interpreting power. These abuses, and many more, are 
the direct failure of the Chevron deference regime.
  For many in this body, fighting back against the Biden administration 
requires confronting an uncomfortable truth. Congress creates, enables, 
and abides by the administrative state when it passes statutory 
language without clear meaning. Congress' illegal delegation of its 
Article I authority and the accelerated transfer of legislative powers 
to unaccountable bureaucrats in the executive has been a fault of this 
body over decades and the fault of both parties.

  Today, there are over 123 statutes that enable the President and his 
agencies to circumvent ordinary lawmaking processes upon the 
declaration of a ``national emergency.'' The ultimate national 
emergency, however, is if unscrupulous politicians abdicate the power 
vested in them by the American people to make laws and instead make 
more legislators. Then, the people will have no means to hold their 
government accountable.
  In fulfilling House Republicans' Commitment to America, we are 
demanding accountability from the Federal Government. To fulfill the 
will of the people, the Court must repeal Chevron deference in Loper 
Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
  I pray next term that the Court reclaims and fortifies Congress' 
rightful powers.

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