[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BALANCE OF POWER

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the Constitution is very 
clear: the elected Representatives in Congress pass the laws and the 
President enforces those laws. This system of checks and balances has 
served to limit abuses of power and hold government accountable to the 
people.
  From our immigration laws to the 2010 health care overhaul, the 
current White House has selectively enforced our laws, and in many 
cases acted unilaterally to change or alter them. In fact, the majority 
leader's office recently released a report outlining 40 separate 
instances where the Obama administration broke this fundamental 
responsibility.
  Yesterday, the House acted on two measures to hold the executive 
branch accountable and restore balance to the separation of powers. 
H.R. 4138, the ENFORCE Act, which deals with lawsuits against the 
executive branch for failure to execute the laws, and H.R. 3973, the 
Faithful Execution of the Law Act, which requires the Attorney General 
to report to Congress any time a Federal official implements a policy 
to refrain from enforcing Federal law.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter which party is in the White House, our laws 
must be faithfully executed. Americans deserve as much.

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