[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5232-5239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                UNAUTHORIZED SPENDING ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Trott). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on tonight's 
Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I want to very quickly thank all of the 
Members who have volunteered their time to speak tonight. I know they 
are running on a tight schedule, as we all are.
  With that in mind, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. 
McMorris Rodgers), a tireless advocate for conservative values, whose 
bold leadership, tenacity, and kindness make her one of this body's 
greatest Members. I would like to thank her for introducing H.R. 4730, 
the Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act, that is a vitally 
important piece of legislation that will go a long way in helping to 
eliminate Federal programs that have not been authorized by Congress, 
yet somehow still come in to receive appropriations. I am a proud 
cosponsor of this legislation, and encourage all Members of the House 
to support it.
  Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
bringing us together this evening. This is a very important discussion. 
It really goes to what is foundational about America in Article I and 
the authority that rests in Congress, as outlined in Article I.
  I am looking forward to this Special Order and hope that we will 
continue this discussion in the weeks ahead. But a big thank you to the 
gentleman from Florida for his leadership and bringing us all together.
  In the fall of 2014--so this was right after the Ice Bucket 
Challenge--Gail Gleason, who is a mom in my district in eastern 
Washington, had a meeting with me. She was almost in tears because CMS, 
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was proposing new rules 
and regulations that would take away the important communication device 
for those who have lost their ability to speak, largely impacting a lot 
of ALS patients. Her son, Dave Gleason, is a football player, a 
football star. She came to me in desperation because CMS rules were 
going to take away his communication device.

[[Page 5233]]

  Do you know what? This is just one of many examples where 
bureaucrats, arrogant and unaccountable so often and disconnected from 
their mission, are making rules and regulations outside of the 
Congress, outside of the vote and of the approval of the elected 
representatives of the people.
  I think about the VA, the Veterans Administration. This is an agency 
that is dedicated to our veterans. So often our veterans feel like they 
get lost. Instead of having the red-carpet treatment, they feel like 
they are given the runaround. They have to wait weeks and weeks, even, 
just to schedule a simple doctor's appointment.
  Recently, the FDA came out with new rules, 400-page menu labeling 
rules, that for a pizza restaurant would require them to somehow 
disclose on a menu board the 34 million combinations of pizza. Land 
management, environmental regulations, threatening to regulate every 
mud puddle in America from Washington, D.C., and the list goes on and 
on.
  Our Founding Fathers envisioned three branches of government--very 
important. There was the judicial branch, the legislative branch, and 
the executive branch. Each one has very important roles. No one person 
was to be making all of the decisions.

                              {time}  1745

  Part of the reason that people in this country are so frustrated 
today is due to 1600 Pennsylvania. The President has been 
delegitimizing us as an institution and in our role as Representatives 
on behalf of the people. Too often, Members of Congress feel like we 
are bystanders in the process as more and more rules and regulations 
are generated outside of our input and certainly outside of our 
approval.
  It is interesting to note that the Capitol--the Congress--is really 
the center of Washington, D.C. Our Founding Fathers, I think, 
envisioned that this would be the center and that all other roads would 
lead from the Capitol. The White House is actually on a side street 
down on Pennsylvania.
  How did we go so far from being what our Founders envisioned--a body 
that is closest to the people, most accountable to the people? How do 
we restore people's trust in this institution, which is the branch of 
government that is directly elected by them?
  At the start is Article I of the Constitution--getting our government 
off of autopilot and restoring the decision-making that belongs in the 
House and in the Senate with the elected Representatives of the people.
  There are many ideas out there as to how to restore the balance of 
powers, but I want to focus on one in particular--a way that we can be 
positive disruptors, can challenge the status quo, take back the power 
of the purse, and get the Federal Government off of autopilot. That is 
by tackling what we refer to as ``unauthorized spending.''
  There are hundreds of programs and departments that have stayed on 
the books despite the fact that their deadlines have come and gone. I 
like to refer to them as ``zombie'' government programs, potentially 
living beyond their intended lifespans because they have not been 
authorized in years and sometimes in decades. For example, the VA 
hasn't been authorized since 1996; the BLM hasn't been authorized since 
1998, as well as other agencies, such as the Federal Election 
Commission. There is a long list. It is estimated that over $300 
billion in spending is in these unauthorized programs.
  If we, the elected Representatives, committed to doing our jobs--
reviewing, rethinking, possibly eliminating these programs if they have 
exceeded their lives--the people would be well served.
  I recently introduced the USA Act, the Unauthorized Spending 
Accountability Act, to require these expired ``zombie'' programs to be 
renewed, to hold the bureaucrats accountable who have become 
disconnected from their missions. Programs and agencies should not 
receive taxpayer funding unless the people's Representatives--their 
voices in government--have authorized them to do so.
  The demands on families, on businesses, and on institutions have 
changed. In some ways, the only place that hasn't changed is Congress. 
We need to rethink government from the top-down and restore the power 
of the purse. Article I is just as relevant today as it was at the 
founding of our country. Our Founders recognized that every individual 
is made in the image of God. We celebrate the potential of every 
individual, and our laws must reflect the will of the people. This is 
the genius of America.
  Mr. YOHO. I thank the gentlewoman from Washington for her great words 
in preserving our Constitution and for the work that she is doing to 
bring Article I powers back to the House.
  We get blamed a lot for the dysfunction in this country about what 
this body is not doing, and the gentlewoman is so right in bringing 
this power here; so I thank her for her leadership on that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to a stalwart from the great State of Utah, Mrs. 
Mia Love, who is leading a charge and is making quite a name for 
herself.
  Mrs. LOVE. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I am so excited to talk about Article I. Right now I am 
working on a project called the Article I Project in order to restore 
Article I back to the United States Congress.
  Today I rise on behalf of all of the Utahans in my home State who 
have expressed frustration with our regulatory state. For decades, 
Congress has essentially delegated many responsibilities to executive 
agencies. As a result, unelected and unaccountable agencies have 
impacted American lives more than the decisions have of their elected 
officials. In this Congress, for example, 146 bills have been signed 
into law after going through the House and the Senate. Meanwhile 3,378 
rules and regulations were finalized last year alone, joining thousands 
of others that ultimately cost the American economy $4 trillion a year.
  Our Constitution is designed to preserve individual liberty, but this 
government instead seeks to increase bureaucratic influence. The 
American people deserve better. They deserve Representatives of their 
choosing who are empowered to make decisions. They also deserve to know 
that if those Representatives fail, they can hold them accountable and 
bring about change. At the end of the day, that is what restoring 
constitutional powers is about--giving the American people a voice. It 
is for that cause, especially, I am proud to fight.
  Mr. YOHO. I thank the gentlewoman from Utah, and I appreciate the 
work she is doing.
  Keep it up. We only have a Nation to save.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the 
United States of America. Ours is the shortest Constitution in 
existence and is the longest-serving--227 years since its ratification 
in 1789. Our Founders can have many things said of them, but one thing 
we can all agree on is, through divine guidance, they got this as near 
to perfection as a document can be.
  Our Constitution has created the freest, the largest middle class, 
the most successful country on the planet. For the first time in 
recorded history, it has allowed people to become self-determining, it 
has allowed for personal freedoms never before seen in human history. 
It grants us unalienable rights, those being life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. It allows for personal property rights.
  These are the things that allow a Republic, as ours, to flourish and 
for ideas to be created and expanded upon because they allow for the 
possibility of that unlimited potential inside each and every human on 
the planet. It is our Constitution that allows for the way of life we 
have for which others will risk everything, including life, so as to 
have a chance at freedom.
  So it is a document worth protecting, preserving. It is a document 
that should be revered by all so we can pass it on to our future 
generations, as well as the prosperity and the good fortune that was 
inherited by us, this generation. The price that has been paid came 
from the blood, sweat, and tears of our Founders, from the people who 
came before us, and from every military person, including their spouses 
and families; and each and every Member of

[[Page 5234]]

Congress takes an oath and a pledge to uphold our Constitution.
  Article I, section 1 reads: ``All legislative Powers herein granted 
shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist 
of a Senate and House of Representatives.''
  Article I, section 8 lists clearly that Congress has the power to lay 
and collect taxes, to provide for the common defense, to regulate 
commerce, to declare war, to establish a uniform rule of 
naturalization. It ends in section 8: ``To make all Laws which shall be 
necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, 
and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of 
the United States or in any Department or Officer thereof.''
  The President's responsibility, as delineated in Article II, section 
3, reads that the President is to see that the Laws are faithfully 
executed. I want to repeat that. The President is to see that the Laws 
are faithfully executed. This is called the Take Care Clause.
  I have only spent 3 years here, but in that time we have watched this 
body work multiple times to rein in not just the executive branch, but 
the administrative agencies. We have sued the President and have won 
two times in the Supreme Court. We have had fights over the power of 
the purse. We have had Supreme Court fights whether it has been dealing 
with immigration laws and rules or not enforcing the laws on the books. 
We have fought the President just on enforcing the laws that are 
already on the books. We don't need any more laws. We just need to 
follow the ones we have.
  This is not just this administration--this is previous 
administrations--but I fear where we are going in this next election. 
If we don't get our House in order, if we don't bring back Article I 
powers to this House, at that point, when we overstep the boundaries of 
our Constitution by an executive branch or by administrative agencies, 
it is too late to try to reel them in. Now it is urgent to do that. To 
put it off any longer would be buying fire insurance for your house 
after your house catches on fire. It is too late.
  In addition, as I talked about, we have fought overstepping, out-of-
control Federal agencies that are wreaking havoc on American businesses 
and are costing every American, according to the CBO estimates, 
approximately $14,500.
  If I look at the administration's rules and regulations that have 
come out since 1999 to 2008, there have been approximately 750 rules 
that have come out. From 2009 to 2015, there have been over 530 rules 
coming out just from the Obama administration. If I look at the final 
rules and regulations that were issued just under George Bush, the 
amount for his 8 years was 2,430. When I look at President Obama's 
rules and regulations--and we are only 4 months into his last year and 
term--to date, the Obama administration has had over 28,000 rules and 
regulations coming out, which are strangling and suffocating American 
businesses, paid for by the American taxpayers.
  I recently introduced H. Res. 693, which asks for a permanent select 
committee to investigate not just this executive branch, but all future 
ones so that we can have in place a vehicle to rein in an overstepping 
administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to a colleague and a classmate of mine from the 
State of Texas, Mr. Randy Weber, who has cosponsored H. Res. 693. I 
appreciate the gentleman's work on this important topic.
  Mr. WEBER of Texas. I thank my friend from Florida (Mr. Yoho) for 
yielding the floor and for leading this Special Order and introducing 
H. Res. 693.
  Mr. Speaker, as of yesterday, the Obama Presidency was 90 percent 
over. So let's do a quick recap of just what has happened over these 
past 7\1/2\ years.
  First, the President violated the Constitution by unilaterally 
changing sections of the Affordable Care Act at least 23 times without 
having congressional approval. That is Public Law 111-148. Even though 
he said, probably, on some 20 occasions that he didn't have 
constitutional authority to do things, he still did them.
  Two, the President and the Department of Justice were in direct 
violation of their constitutional responsibility to the Defense of 
Marriage Act, which is Public Law 104-199.
  The President and his department of injustice continue to choose not 
to enforce Federal drug laws, which are Public Law 91-513, the 
Controlled Substances Act, and Public Law 100-690, the Anti-Drug Abuse 
Act of 1986.
  The President violated the Constitution by making Presidential 
appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and to the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau while Congress was not in session, so 
declared by him.
  I have read the Constitution, Mr. Speaker. Only the Senate majority 
leader can decide when the Senate is in session, not the President. I 
might add that the President was slapped down by the Supreme Court 9-
zip.
  Further, the President and the department of injustice abused 
executive privilege in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal by 
refusing to comply with a subpoena that was issued by the Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform of the United States House of 
Representatives, thereby violating section 192 of title II, United 
States Code.
  The President violated the law, which is Public Law 89-236, by 
unilaterally changing our Nation's immigration laws with regard to 
deferred action, giving illegal aliens access to government programs 
and tax credits that are funded by our constituents, which is in 
contravention of our Constitution.
  The President and the Department of Health and Human Services failed 
to enforce Federal law, which is Public Law 111-5, by illegally waiving 
the work requirement for welfare recipients.
  Under this President, the IRS violated the First Amendment to the 
United States Constitution by targeting nonprofit organizations because 
of their religious or political beliefs.
  The President and the Department of Defense knowingly violated the 
National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA of 2014, which is Public 
Law 113-66, by not providing a 30-day notice to Congress prior to 
transporting five Guantanamo detainees to Qatar in a prisoner swap.

                              {time}  1800

  Some would say in military terms that the terrorists got five nuclear 
weapons and we got one conventional weapon, which turned out to be a 
dud.
  The President and his administration continue to move forward with 
his plan to close the Guantanamo detention facility and move the 
detainees.
  By the way, did you know that one out of three prisoners released 
rejoin their terrorist organizations and wind up at the front lines, 
seeking to kill yet more Americans?
  Folks, it is the duty of the legislative branch to write and pass 
laws, the judicial branch to interpret those laws, and the executive 
branch's duty to enforce those same laws.
  The very success of our form of government comes from this simple 
balance of powers. This critically important founding principle is 
currently being trampled on by this President while most of our 
citizens may not even be aware of its damaging implications.
  Our Nation's laws are not mere suggestions to be dismissed on a whim. 
Our laws are binding. If we in Congress allow this or any President to 
ignore the rule of law, then we allow the foundation of our Nation to 
be shattered.
  I thank my colleague, Mr. Yoho, for introducing this resolution of 
which I am a proud cosponsor.
  Mr. Speaker, there you have it. You know I am right.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber). 
I appreciate him standing up for the rule of law because, if we are not 
a Nation of law, everything falls apart, civil society falls apart.
  Just last week in my district there was a fight over transgender 
bathrooms. It is a fight people want to have.
  We came up here at the beginning of last week and spoke in front of 
the Supreme Court. They heard the argument on the President's Executive 
order on

[[Page 5235]]

November 20, 2014, to waive our immigration laws and grant 4 to 5 
million people here illegally resident status.
  That case was heard last week, and there was a large group of 
proponents wanting the Supreme Court to side with the President. Our 
President has said over 22 times that he cannot change that law. He has 
admitted to that.
  I thought it was ironic that the people in my district were arguing 
over transgender bathrooms and the group up here--and I know a lot of 
them were here illegally--were arguing in the United States of America 
in front of the Supreme Court, the freest country in the world. The 
only reason that they can come up and have a voice of dissension is 
because we have a Constitution.
  Our Constitution, when it was formed, wasn't a Republican idea and 
wasn't a Democratic idea. It was something that came together after 
1,000 years from the Magna Carta on up that formed a Constitution that 
formed the Republic that we have.
  When I look at the people arguing--and, you know, it is the 
Republicans against the Democrats or the Conservatives against the 
Liberals or whatever group you want to put in there--the only reason we 
have those arguments is because we have a document that is an American 
document. It is American ideology that all parties should come together 
to preserve. That is why this argument is so important.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman, a freshman from the State of 
Georgia (Mr. Carter).
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I commend Representative Yoho for 
holding this Special Order on executive overreach.
  As a lifelong healthcare professional and former businessowner, I 
believe the healthcare industry is flooded with examples of President 
Obama's administration overreaching its authority and either ignoring 
congressional intent or refusing to enforce laws enacted by Congress.
  As recent as last Monday, April 18, the FDA issued new guidance 
related to the Drug Quality and Security Act and compounding 
pharmacists.
  On November 27, 2013, President Obama signed the Drug Quality and 
Security Act, DQSA, into law. Within the DQSA, several important 
provisions were related to the oversight of compounding human 
medications.
  In fact, DQSA created two types of compounding pharmacies, 503A 
pharmacies and 503B pharmacies. 503A compounding pharmacies are small, 
community pharmacies that only compound small quantities of medication 
to a very limited number of doctors and patients with very specific 
needs.
  A perfect example of this is a servicemember who has lost a limb in 
war. Some servicemen and -women who have lost their limbs experience 
significant amounts of pain that regular medication does not adequately 
address. Compounded medication helps with this specialized need.
  503B compounding facilities are those outsourcing facilities that 
manufacture compounded medications and ship them all over the country.
  When Congress debated DQSA, many statements were made by both House 
and Senate congressional Members stating that there was no intent for 
this bill to restrict State pharmacy licensing boards and their local 
control of small, community pharmacies.
  In fact, the FDA was directed by Congress that, in regards to 
inspection standards, 503B facilities would be the only ones subjected 
to good manufacturing inspection standards. You would think that that 
would make sense, that only manufacturing facilities would be subjected 
to good manufacturing practice standards.
  In addition, congressional intent was clear that 503A community 
pharmacies could continue to provide office-use compounded medication 
as they had always done. Did FDA adhere to the obvious congressional 
intent of DQSA related to compounding? No.
  FDA's recent guidance states that all medication that is compounded 
by small, community pharmacists needs to have a specific patient 
prescription.
  Your local dermatologist, who keeps a local anesthetic in the office 
to remove skin to test for cancer, is going to have to write a 
prescription, have the patient go to the pharmacist, get their 
prescription filled, and then schedule another appointment before 
checking to see if they have skin cancer.
  This goes against all congressional intent, to allow State pharmacy 
boards to continue local control of their small pharmacies. Now, all 
State pharmacy boards that allow office use have had their powers taken 
away from them.
  The FDA guidance also pointed out that, except under certain 
circumstances, good manufacturing inspection standards will always be 
used to inspect all compounding pharmacies.
  So pharmacists who provide specialized compounded medication to one 
patient with a specific need will be subjected to large corporation 
inspection standards that will cost significant financial investments.
  In essence, the FDA has ignored congressional intent related to the 
DQSA and has ultimately eliminated an entire sector of the healthcare 
industry that was providing specialized care to patients with special 
needs.
  In fact, the HHS informed my office that, if we continue to pursue 
this matter and try to rein in the FDA's overreach, we, Congress, would 
be responsible for the next 100 deaths from compounded medication. This 
example is just one of many that I have experienced with this 
administration.
  Recently, HHS instituted a rule that would require pharmacy benefit 
managers to update their maximum allowable cost list every 7 days. 
These MAC lists control what pharmacists are reimbursed. If they are 
not updated regularly, pharmacists lose business because they are not 
reimbursed by Medicare at the present market price.
  A recent call with the inspector general of HHS informed my office 
that pharmacy benefit managers are not complying with this new rule 
because HHS has not designated anyone to ensure that pricing lists are 
updated every 7 days.
  Mr. Speaker, let me rephrase that. HHS is not enforcing their rules 
on MAC price updating because no one is assigned to enforce this law. 
You would think that, if a rule was created, the agency would work to 
enforce that rule, but apparently not.
  Over the last 7\1/2\ years, President Obama's administration has 
shown a complete disregard for Article I of our Constitution and the 
powers that our Founding Fathers wanted this institution to have.
  They interpret enacted legislation against the intent of Congress, 
they refuse to enforce laws that were meant to bring transparency to 
the American people, and they choose when congressional direction is 
applicable law and when it is not.
  This body should take a long, hard look at the actions of these 
agencies. They are not following the law and intent that was created by 
this body, and action should be taken to remove these bureaucrats so 
the American people can have the government they deserve.
  Again I want to thank the gentleman, Representative Yoho, for 
bringing this to light. This is a very serious subject that needs to be 
addressed.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his 
comments, for his work, and for bringing this to light because, again, 
these issues that we are discussing are not Republican or Democrat.
  This is about the rule of law and maintaining the uniqueness of this 
institution, and that is something all Americans benefit from. If we 
lose it, all Americans are going to be hurt by that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek), a 
friend and colleague.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Yoho for organizing this 
Special Order hour.
  You know, this is one of the reasons I ran for Congress. The abuse of 
power and executive overreach coming from the White House right now is 
completely unacceptable.
  Like many of my colleagues here tonight, I am a firm believer in the 
Constitution. I believe it is the duty of the President to faithfully 
execute the law,

[[Page 5236]]

not to willfully ignore it for political gain.
  A President cannot implement legislation through Executive orders or 
agency rulemaking. Yet, we have witnessed this administration launch 
attacks against the Second Amendment, impose burdensome regulations 
through the EPA and other agencies, and enact many policies without the 
support of Congress or the American people.
  I have spoken to a wide array of my constituents throughout the 
northern half of Michigan in the time I have been here in Congress. 
They are constantly telling me about some new regulation that some 
Federal agency is coming up with that doesn't seem to do anything as 
far as promoting welfare or improving the environment, but it is simply 
making it more difficult for businesses to remain open. It is really 
affecting their ability to hire people.
  In my district, one of the big complaints we have had is the EPA 
attempting to limit the ability to have a wood stove. Well, it gets 
pretty cold in northern Michigan in the winter, and people save money 
by cutting their own wood and burning it in their homes. Then the EPA 
comes out saying that we can't have wood stoves that don't meet this 
criterion, and it doesn't make any sense for people in my district.
  Furthermore, the EPA's waters of the U.S. proposal to regulate 
ditches to manmade ponds doesn't do one thing to truly protect our 
water resources. Instead, it overloads small farmers, loggers, and 
other businesses with needless red tape and compliance costs.
  There is a reason that our Founding Fathers created separate, but 
equal, branches of government. The executive branch and agencies like 
the EPA are charged with carrying out the intent of Congress. We have 
made incredible strides in cleaning up our Nation's air and water.
  However, what happens when these giant bureaucracies start to feel 
themselves becoming relevant? Unelected bureaucrats began writing 
onerous legislation to justify their own existence, and they do this 
with absolutely no regard for the practical effect that these 
regulations have on local families and businesses.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I reclaim my time.
  I got a notice from the EPA when I first got up here. It was January 
2014, and it was a pamphlet with their new regulations.
  In that, what they were talking about is that their new rules and 
regulations would have minimal effect on air quality and human health, 
but they are going ahead anyway.
  In the example you brought up about the wood-burning fireplaces, we 
have done a tremendous job of cleaning up the air quality in this 
country, as other countries need to do, but we shouldn't go after 
things that aren't going to really have a difference.
  I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman from Florida.
  In my district, although it has been several years, the EPA shut down 
the construction of a brand-new coal plant. Okay? This coal plant would 
have been the purest coal-fired power plant in the country.
  It ran with new technology, and there is no reason for it being shut 
down. This plant would not even produce any CO2. That 
CO2 was being captured by the coal plant and used by 
industry to create other products.
  So this administration has taken on a proposal and used the EPA not 
to make our environment better, but to have a war on coal. I mean, the 
EPA and the President doesn't talk about making our atmosphere and our 
environment cleaner. It talks about a war on coal.

                              {time}  1815

  That is just the wrong attitude to have, and it really needs to be 
directed by Congress. It is unbelievable what we have gone through. It 
can cause economic damage to this country. Right now we are competing 
with the Chinese who don't have any significant pollution controls on 
their power plants, and we have invested billions as Americans, each 
one of us, by paying for more expensive power to really clean up our 
atmosphere.
  How are the Chinese doing that?
  Now that we have basically cleaned up our atmosphere, they want to 
impose even higher and higher standards that actually are causing our 
business to go down and steel production is going over there where they 
are polluting even worse.
  Mr. YOHO. Reclaiming my time, I think you and I were in a meeting the 
other day in one of the committees. We had a fellow, he was an attorney 
who worked under the Reagan White House, and he worked with the EPA. He 
was saying the EPA went from regulations to clean stuff up. Now it is 
regulations that you can't. You can't have coal-fired power plants, you 
can't do this, and it was an agency of can't. I think you were in that 
meeting. It shows, again, the overstepping of agencies, and it shows 
how administrations or executive branches rewrite laws or they 
legislate from the executive branch through the administrative 
agencies, and we have seen an increase in this.
  Again, it is not just this administration, but I think President 
Obama, this administration has done us a favor by bringing this to 
light with the 24,000 regulations that are coming out that are 
crippling the American economy and businesses. If it is doing that, it 
is crushing the middle class and all Americans.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. YOHO. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, the things we are talking about here today 
really are examples of the Federal Government getting involved in 
things that they don't have the right to do. I think a lot of it comes 
from these bureaucrats that are just writing regulations that really 
you can't comply with, and that is basically the reason that these 
coal-fired power plants are going out of existence.
  Most of these problems have been eliminated by the work that we have 
done on improving our environment, and I applaud that America has made 
the investment before any other country in making that happen, but to 
regulate us to the point that businesses are going overseas and 
polluting the planet worse because of our policies, because if we did 
the stuff here, we would do it cleaner.
  The University of Michigan has had an environmental research station 
in northern Michigan in my district for the last 60, 70 years. The 
scientists at the University of Michigan tell me that most of the 
mercury that falls from the sky in Michigan comes from China and India, 
that we have essentially eliminated mercury as a problem in the 
environment from our industry here. But because we are not dealing with 
that problem of the Indians and the Chinese doing that, we are ignoring 
that and actually giving them the ability--by not having to comply with 
a lot of these rules, the ability to pollute the planet worse than we 
would if we were doing those things here.
  Mr. YOHO. May I add to that?
  Mr. BENISHEK. Sure.
  Mr. YOHO. We went to a coal-fired power plant in our district, and 
they were saying in the old days a typical coal-fired power plant would 
put out approximately 50 pounds of mercury a year. Today it is less 
than 2 pounds. That is a significant difference from 50 to 2. That is a 
48-pound reduction in mercury going into the atmosphere.
  What is the significance and the benefit going from 2 pounds to 0, 
and at what cost do you go forward?
  Being a veterinarian for 30 years, I have never treated an animal 
with mercury toxicity. I think you need to have common sense in 
regulations, and, of course, the worst place to go for that is 
government.
  I will let you continue.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Yoho for putting on 
this Special Order hour. I am very happy to be able to participate in 
it. I think that we really need to be sure the American people are 
aware of what is going on and that they make their decisions when they 
go to the polls based on this information. So thank you very much.

[[Page 5237]]


  Mr. YOHO. I appreciate the gentleman's participation and his 
leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not a Republican or Democratic argument. That 
should not even weigh into this. It is not conservatives versus 
liberals. These are American ideologies that we all have to come 
together to preserve, and I can't think of one person more suited to 
talk about this than somebody I have a lot of admiration for who sits 
on the House Committee on Agriculture with me. He is from the State my 
wife is from, the State of Iowa.
  I yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King).
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for 
pulling this Special Order together and for his generous introduction, 
and especially for Mr. Yoho's leadership on the restoration of article 
I authority and addressing the executive overreach that has become part 
and parcel of the Obama administration. It didn't begin there, but it 
needs to end with the next President of the United States and be slowed 
down in the last months of the Obama administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I was just exercising a thought here as I was reviewing 
some of the executive overreach that we have seen from this President, 
and it occurred to me to take a look at the Declaration of Independence 
and review some of what I will call the lamentations of our Founding 
Fathers. It is to this effect, Mr. Speaker. When we get to the laments, 
these are the things, the wrongs that have been committed by the King 
of England.
  It says in the Declaration: ``The history of the present King of 
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations''--that 
sounds like the history of our current President of the United States--
``all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny 
over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid 
world.''
  This is from our Declaration, Mr. Speaker. I will just quickly hit 
some of these.
  ``He has refused his Assent to Laws . . .''
  ``He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws . . .''
  ``He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation . . . of 
people . . .''
  ``He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual . . .''
  ``He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly . . .''
  ``He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected; whereby''--summarizing that, hindering 
legislative activity elsewhere.
  ``He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for 
that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; 
refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither . . .''
  ``He has obstructed the Administration of Justice . . .''
  ``He has made Judges dependent on his Will . . .''
  ``He has erected a Multitude of new Offices''--that would be his 
czars.
  ``He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies . . .''
  Well, not quite, but rumors of them do exist.
  We could go on and on and on, the grief that King George dished out 
on our original colonists here at the time of the Revolution, at the 
time of this Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but I look at 
the present times, and it rings to be pretty close--along the way there 
are echoes of 1776--in the overreach of the President of the United 
States.
  I mentioned them. This is a list from some testimony before the 
Executive Overreach Task Force, which I have the privilege to chair, 
and among this list are some of these:
  He has appointed policy czars to high-level positions to avoid 
constitutionally required confirmation hearings--that could be lifted 
almost right out of the Declaration of Independence.
  By modifying, delaying, and ignoring various provisions of ObamaCare, 
in violation of the law itself--that is a long list of things on 
ObamaCare that the President has altered outside of the law.
  By attacking private citizens for engaging in constitutionally 
protected speech--utilizing the IRS to diminish that as well.
  By issuing draconian regulations regarding sexual assault on campus.
  By ignoring 100 years of legal rulings and the plain text of the 
Constitution and trying to get a vote in Congress for the D.C. 
Delegate--I had forgotten that one, actually.
  By trying to enact massive immigration reform via an executive order, 
demanding that the Department of Homeland Security both refuse to 
enforce existing immigration law and provide work permits to millions 
of people residing in the U.S. illegally.
  Now, these all ring like the laments, the charges that were laid 
against King George in 1776. It is the same tone. It is a similar 
message. It is going outside the law and outside the Constitution.
  By imposing Common Core standards on the States via administrative 
fiat.
  By ignoring bankruptcy law and arranging Chrysler's bankruptcy to 
benefit labor unions at the expense of bondholders.
  And I could continue.
  Well, here is one that is of significant interest to my State and I 
think to Florida and many other States, and that is his imposition of a 
regulation called the Waters of the United States. That dropped on us 
on May 27, 2015.
  The Waters of the United States said we are going to regulate all the 
navigable waters of the United States. Oh, and this ambiguous term that 
is called--let's see. It used to be ``and waters hydrologically 
connected to them.'' That got litigated into being too ambiguous even 
for the courts to tolerate. They are the masters of ambiguity. But 
instead they put the language in that said ``these waters of the United 
States shall be the navigable waters of the United States and waters 
that have a significant nexus to the waters of the United States.''
  Now, a significant nexus is going to be determined by the 
administration, another term of ambiguity.
  I see some eagerness over here on the part of the gentleman from 
Florida. Does he have something to add?
  Mr. YOHO. The interpretation we got: ``and seasonably wet areas.'' I 
come from Florida. It is seasonably wet all year long. I mean, we get 
57 to 60 inches of rain a year, so everything is seasonably wet in our 
great State, and they fall into that. The little puddle in my yard, 
when it rains, it might stand 3 or 4 inches. We are on a sandy soil. 
When it stops raining, it goes away in 5 minutes, but that could be 
interpreted as navigable waters, and I am probably 10 miles from a body 
of water. It is just amazing.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Well, to the gentleman from Florida, we may have a 
legitimate competition going on here. The Waters of the United States 
regulation would put 96.7 percent of my State under the EPA's 
regulatory jurisdiction. Florida would be a competitor to that number, 
I would think.
  Mr. YOHO. Yes, it would be all of Florida.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. All of Florida. I have said that once you regulate 
waters hydrologically connected to or once you get to define 
significant nexus, that goes all the way up to the kitchen sink. We 
know that soil itself, whether it is under water, it can be saturated 
with water, and just old black Iowa dirt can be 25 percent water, so 
they have got it all, this overreach of the Federal Government.
  Our Founding Fathers envisioned that there would be a competition 
between the branches of government to sustain their constitutional 
authority in each branch. They wanted to draw as bright a line as 
possible between the three branches of government, with the courts 
being the weakest of the three. They expected that we would jealously 
guard the constitutional authority. Congress writes all the laws. The 
President is supposed to enforce all the laws. That should be pretty 
clear. But the President has reached across that over and over and over 
again, as evidenced by this list of laments that I offer, Mr. Speaker.
  Does the gentleman from Florida have something to add?
  Mr. YOHO. As I traveled as a veterinarian, and I was talking to 
somebody, we got in a discussion about the Constitution, and they 
wanted to know

[[Page 5238]]

why I was so hung up on it. I explained to them that the very people 
that are fighting to preserve our founding principles that our rights 
come from a Creator, not from government, that government is instituted 
by men and women to preserve those God-given rights, and that our core 
values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the unalienable 
rights of those things, that all men are created equal, and they are 
protected by the Constitution.
  I said it is that very document that people are fighting to preserve 
that give people on the left a voice of dissension or people on the 
right a voice of dissension. I said: If we lose those very things that 
made America great, if we lose those, people will lose their voice of 
dissension. If you don't believe that, go to a country like Cuba, go to 
China, go to Iran and proselytize. It is not possible.
  The amazing thing is that person called me about 30 minutes later and 
said: You know, we got thinking about that, and that really is what 
this is about. It is not Republican or Democrat. It is not conservative 
or liberal. Those are American ideologies that made this country great.
  I would hope our friends on the other side of the aisle would come 
and say: You guys are right, we want to preserve the constitutional 
principles.
  Does the gentleman from Iowa have anything else to add?
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Florida for those 
timeless thoughts. Something that our Founding Fathers discovered was a 
concept that was relatively new to society at the time, and that is the 
concept of God-given liberty and God-given rights, natural rights, 
natural rights that did emerge with Locke, for example, in the United 
Kingdom, but they hadn't been implanted into culture and civilization 
until they were implanted in America.
  Here we are in this country, everyone that serves in this Chamber 
takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United 
States, as do all the Senators on the other end of this Capitol 
Building, as does everyone who puts on a uniform to defend our country, 
and many of them who serve within our executive branch as well. The 
President is a bit of an exception because he is required to deliver an 
oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States, and he is required to take care that the laws be faithfully 
executed.

                              {time}  1830

  And what he has done, instead, is turn himself into an independent 
legislative body. He has said 22 times: I don't have the constitutional 
authority--and I am going to summarize here--to grant amnesty to 
millions of people in America. That is up to the legislature.
  He taught the Constitution at the University of Chicago for 10 years 
as an adjunct professor teaching Con law. And that was the message, I 
am sure, that he taught in those classrooms; and it was a message he 
taught in a classroom out here at one of the high schools in D.C. 
shortly before he decided to reverse his position and impose this edict 
of amnesty on the United States, which went down through a long path of 
litigation for more than 2 years and a week ago last Monday was heard 
before the United States Supreme Court, at least in the DAPA case--the 
deferred action for parents of anchor babies is actually what that 
acronym stands for, in my view.
  So I take this oath that I have to support and defend the 
Constitution seriously. I have the privilege of serving on the 
Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee of the House Judiciary 
Committee and of chairing this task force. I congratulate the gentleman 
from Florida for stepping up to the lead on this issue.
  Mr. YOHO. If I may add to one of your comments, because you brought 
up the philosophers Locke and Howe, philosophers of old, when we look 
at the American period of time--227 years, roughly, the U.S. 
Constitution and a constitutional Republic as a country have been in 
existence, the longest time a republic has been in existence--when you 
go back to the beginning of human recorded history to today and you 
look at the American period where we are at today, it is but a dot on 
that timeline.
  Yet that dot represents the largest middle class that has ever been 
allowed to happen. It is the first time there have been property rights 
that you can have and the right to pursue life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. It is only possible because we had a Constitution 
that preserved those rights. So I would think we could all come 
together and protect those rights for the next generation, for the 
posterity of this Nation.
  I would like to see if you had any thoughts on that, and then I will 
close.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I am looking at our job and our destiny here, and I 
think that our constitutional obligation is to restore the pillars of 
American exceptionalism. You can identify many of them in the 
Constitution itself. In the Bill of Rights it is pretty well 
summarized: freedom of speech, religion, the press, the freedom to 
peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of 
grievances.
  The Second Amendment rights, which are the property rights that the 
gentleman mentioned, I would point out that, in the Kelo decision, 
which happened about 10 years, the Supreme Court ruled that they could 
amend the Constitution itself. Well, they didn't say they did, but that 
was the effect of their decision. ``Nor shall private property be taken 
for public use without just compensation'' is part of the Fifth 
Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that private property could be taken 
for private use as long as there was just compensation. So they struck 
the three words ``for public use'' as a conditional clause out of the 
Fifth Amendment. We had a Supreme Court that amended the Constitution, 
effectively.
  We have a Supreme Court last June that amended ObamaCare by writing 
words into it; ``or Federal Government'' would be the three words 
inserted there. And then, the next day, they decided they would create 
a new command in the Constitution, a command that all States shall 
conduct same-sex weddings and honor them from other States, as if 
somehow that were the will of the people or something done under the 
Constitution.
  This is an appalling reach on the part of the Supreme Court. It is 
even more appalling on the part of the President of the United States, 
and it is our task to identify what needs to be done and start down 
that mission of restoring the constitutional authority and this balance 
between the branches of government.
  I am happy to have a chance to say a few words.
  Mr. YOHO. Today, in one of our committees, we were hearing about the 
Attorney General and how she stated that those who speak out against 
the administration's climate change policy possibly being a crime.
  Think about that. They are examining if you speak out against 
something that is unfavorable to an administration. It is going against 
freedom of speech, our First Amendment, the very things that we fought 
for and that everybody who has come before us has fought for. I think 
this would be something that would scare everybody, if we are that 
close to losing the very document.
  I hold in my hand--and you have seen me do this before--the 
Declaration of Independence, in total, and the U.S. Constitution, in 
total. I think we can all agree this is not an epic in volume. I can 
read this in a day. This is not an epic in volume, but yet it is an 
epic in ideology of what free men and women can do in a country that 
honors and reveres this document. It just so important that we come 
together.
  As I stated earlier, I think Mr. Obama has done us a favor in showing 
us how weak we have become as an institution and how weak our rule of 
law is. And for us to succeed and continue as a constitutional 
Republic, we must--we have to--bring those Article I powers back to 
this body.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Florida for that 
statement. I absolutely believe that, deeply.
  I think one of the important things is that we educate the young 
people on what the Constitution says and what it

[[Page 5239]]

means. We have a President of the United States who was a professional 
Constitution teacher, who we know knows the history and the text of the 
Constitution and takes his oath to preserve, protect, and defend it and 
take care that the laws be faithfully executed and explains it in stop 
after stop succinctly, in ways that I agree with this President, and 
then he turns around and, by his own definition--and by his definition 
is all I am referring to here, Mr. Speaker--breaks his own oath. So we 
are here now trying to restore the knowledge base of America.
  Members of Congress arrive here as freshmen, and they take an oath to 
the Constitution. They don't know what it means anymore. The Supreme 
Court thinks they can amend the Constitution; they can manufacture new 
commands in the Constitution; they can violate Article I authority. And 
the President can do so at will.
  But I would point out that, 13 times, the President of the United 
States' position has been unanimously reversed by the United States 
Supreme Court--President Obama, 13 times, unanimously reversed. Another 
11 times, he has lost on a 5-4 decision.
  So he has stretched this Constitution beyond that. Even his own 
appointees in the Supreme Court can't stomach it; that is how bad this 
is. But I want to see the right appointments to the Supreme Court so 
the whole Constitution is revered, respected, and we see cases go 
before the Court and, once again, we can predict the Court will rule on 
the Constitution rather than their political whims.
  Mr. YOHO. I appreciate you bringing that up, because you bring up how 
many times it has been overstepped as of recent, but other 
administrations have done it in the past. But it sets a precedent from 
this point forward. If we don't rein it in now, when do you rein it in? 
Do you wait for the next candidate to come in? And we have had talks 
about that. If we don't do it now, it be would like buying fire 
insurance after your house catches on fire. It doesn't work.
  So it is so important that we come together as a body. Again, the 
Constitution is not a product of Republicans or Democrats or 
conservatives or liberals. The Constitution is not a function of 
government. Government is a function of the Constitution.
  When government steps over the boundaries of the Constitution, it is 
us--we, the people--the Representatives that were sent up here to hold 
and rein in the branches that are out of balance. This is all about 
bringing the three branches of government into balance.
  Let me just wind up with this. Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like 
to thank all the Members who have joined me this evening. Restoring 
Article I powers is so vital to the survival of our constitutional 
Republic.
  At this very moment, there are individuals seeking the highest office 
in the land who have stated, if Congress disagrees with them, they have 
no qualms about taking action on their own, circumventing Congress and 
disregarding the founding principles enshrined in our Constitution. 
That should give concern to everybody.
  The time has arrived for us to take action to restore this 
institution to the one the Founders envisioned. Granted, you can say 
what you want about our Founding Fathers, but they got this right--
again, as you and have I have talked about, with divine intervention--
and they put in place a way to amend it to make it better, not to get 
rid of it. It is time for us to stand up for this body, the people's 
House.
  I will leave you with this reminder. All it takes for evil or tyranny 
to prevail or for our constitutional Republic to fail is for those good 
men and women to do nothing.
  I, Mr. Speaker, and the people that have joined us tonight, our 
colleagues that participated, will not sit idly by when the very 
document that has allowed so many people to be free, to achieve beyond 
their beliefs to a level never before ever achieved in human history, 
is being marginalized by inaction.
  I know my good friend from Iowa feels the same. And if you have any 
last remarks, you have got about 1 minute, if you want to wrap it up.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank, again, the gentleman from Florida. I 
appreciate you coming to the floor with this leadership that is here. 
If no one stepped forward in leadership and we just went along as if 
somehow the Constitution were going to be restored, it would never be 
restored. And I would remind people, Mr. Speaker, that it is one thing 
to give lip service to the Constitution; it is another to exercise it.
  Freedom of speech is being exercised here right now. Freedom of 
assembly is being exercised across this country right now. The right to 
keep and bear arms, if it were never exercised, the liberals would 
define it away from us.
  Any one of these rights that we have that come from God, defined by 
our Founding Fathers, is also something we have got to exercise and 
utilize; if not, over time, the enemies of freedom will find a way to 
say: Well, it is just an artifact of history.
  If we stop exercising our right to keep and bear arms, in a matter of 
a generation, someone will say it is just an artifact of history. We 
are going to confiscate your guns. And after a while, they will zip 
your lip if you don't watch it. We can't let that happen.
  So I appreciate this Special Order here tonight with the gentleman 
from Florida's leadership, and I appreciate my Constitution and the 
rights that come, especially from God.
  Mr. YOHO. I thank my colleague from Iowa, and I want to thank 
everybody that participated.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are advised to refrain from engaging 
in personalities toward the President.

                          ____________________