0:00
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
0:01
The last point by the ranking member.
0:04
Actually, I don't think it makes his point.
0:05
I think it makes ours.
0:08
So one reason that Congress can't do its job is because it has handed over its job to others to do if the circumstances were different and Congress were in a position to be necessary to achieve those results.
0:27
Congress would change its practices in order to get there.
0:30
I can tell you that under this Republican majority, there will be in the house prompt passage of appropriations bills on all the relevant departments.
0:44
And it is interesting that, that how fundamentally it is sort of a political mantra of my friends on the minority side of the aisle to say that they're protecting our democracy.
1:00
And I don't know if we all have the same common understanding of what they're referring to.
1:03
I assume they mean the constitutional republic that exists by design.
1:08
And to that point, there are a few things the ranking member said, well, if you pass this bill, it would reduce the efficiency of passing laws.
1:15
You couldn't possibly pass laws fast enough to satisfy our needs.
1:21
But we don't have a monarchy, a monarchy would be one very efficient way to pass laws.
1:27
The king simply decides and there are many, if you look at executive orders that would like to go that direction or you could want a technocracy.
1:37
He said right.
1:38
He said, well, Congress Congress speaks only in very broad terms.
1:42
We leave the details to experts.
1:45
Well, I mean, who says one problem that we often see if you look at the West Virginia versus EPA is Congress speaking in broad terms often leaves ambiguity, ambiguity in the language.
1:57
And that is often a product of insufficient deliberation and care in the design of the Statute.
2:04
Congress needs to do its work carefully in order to give enough guidance that people know what the law is without hordes of experts so called experts filling in the gaps.
2:16
By the way, that doesn't mean we can't take advantage of expertise.
2:21
Congress can be advised by experts should be advised by experts, certainly would be is advised by experts, but the decision maker must be accountable to the people for another fundamental principle to be observed in our law making at least as by design, which is the consent of the government.
2:39
And this idea that that regulations only deal with details.
2:46
That was the terminology the ranking member used in his argument.
2:50
It's a little bit like the debate that's entered here on Germaneness.
2:56
German, this is sort of a at the at the very margins.
3:00
It's an elastic concept.
3:02
But certainly we cannot say that our a our administrative agencies and their regulations have been limited to details and that's what this gets at this amendment.
3:11
By the way, a lot of the debate about the amendment is not limited to the amendment.
3:14
But the amendment says it proposes the idea that it wouldn't even take a regulation that's going to have a $100 million impact in the economy to be major, to be of significance, to be, to require, to make appropriate Congress's attention.
3:28
It should be 50 million with that.
3:30
I readily agree.
3:32
But you, you by no means in practice, in practice, have our administrative agencies been limited to details.
3:43
They dominate the legal landscape and since they dominate it, they, if so effective, they have displaced the predominant role that Congress is designed to have in a way that is inefficient.
3:57
It is a bicameral legislature.
3:59
You must pass the law twice because it is designed to prevent laws from being passed so rapidly and ill advisedly that the people are oppressed by them.
4:12
That is a, it is a feature not a bug.
4:16
And to say that we want to move away from that can by no means be reconciled with the notion of protecting our democracy in one respect.
4:24
Though I agree with comments from the minority.
4:27
The gentleman from Georgia said there has been that we have a tradition.
4:31
It is not our constitutional design to turn over our law making authority to agencies, but it has become, I don't know if I even want to term it a tradition, but it certainly has been a practice since about 1940 it is out of control and it is like an 80% 90% issue.
4:46
The American people understand it and agree that it must be corrected.
4:50
Sorry, I didn't save much time to yield to anybody.
4:52
I will yield in the 12 seconds.
4:53
I've got, that's fine.
4:55
Gentleman yields back.