Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law Act of 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SMITH of Texas. First of all, I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for yielding me time, and I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Gowdy) for introducing this bill.

Mr. Chairman, very quickly in order to respond to what the gentleman from Illinois just said, quite frankly, he is smarter than that. He knows that the letter had to do with individual prosecutorial discretion, and he knows the President basically exempted

broad categories of individuals and went far beyond individual discretionary prosecution.

H.R. 4138 authorizes either Chamber of Congress to challenge, as an institution, the administration's failure to faithfully execute the laws, and in accordance with the constitutional ``separation of powers'' doctrine, it protects the legislative branch of government from an overreaching Executive.

The Obama administration has ignored laws, failed to enforce laws, undermined laws, and changed laws by executive orders and administrative actions. These include laws covering health care, immigration, marriage, drugs, and welfare requirements. Other Presidents have issued more executive orders, but no President has issued so many broad and expansive executive orders that have stretched the Constitution to its breaking point.

As for not enforcing laws, in 2011, the President instructed the Attorney General of the United States not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Recently, the Attorney General declared that State attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws they believe are discriminatory. At other times, the President has decided not to enforce immigration laws as they apply to entire categories of individuals, as I just mentioned, and the President has decreed a dozen changes to the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.

But neither the President nor the Attorney General, himself, has the constitutional right to make or change laws.

The President and the Attorney General have a constitutional obligation to enforce existing laws. If they think a law is unconstitutional, they should wait for the courts to rule. Their opinions are no substitutes for due process and judicial review. It is their job to enforce existing laws, whether they personally like them or not.

Ours is a nation of laws, not a nation of random enforcement. All true reform starts with the voice of the people. If American voters rise up and speak loudly enough, they will be heard. Today, the United States House of Representatives is listening to them by bringing the ENFORCE the Law Act to the floor. I urge its adoption.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source