The Ever-Expanding Power of the Executive Branch
On January 20, we witnessed the transition of power from one President to the next – a hallmark of our democracy. I congratulate President Biden and Vice President Harris as we move forward as a country to tackle the challenges we have in front of us. I look forward to working with the Biden administration on important issues such as rural health care, increasing trade opportunities, and fixing our nation's infrastructure.
However, I have serious concern that the new administration is already following the Obama-Biden example of flooding our government with burdensome and overreaching regulations in an attempt to bypass the legislative process and govern solely through executive action. While I appreciate that President Trump worked hard throughout his term to overturn the most egregious of President Obama's regulations, the substitution of Executive Orders (EOs) for legislation undermines the legislative branch and upsets the balance of power in our government. EOs and regulations should be used to implement laws passed by Congress, not to create new laws. I fought for eight years to stop the most egregious overreaches of the Obama administration, and I am prepared to do so again.
Included in the barrage of first day EOs from President Biden was cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Obama administration held up the approval process for the Keystone XL for seven years before refusing to grant the permit despite the project passing extended reviews of the law and the science by the Obama administration. President Trump corrected this abuse by the Obama administration, granting Keystone XL the federal permit they had earned. More than $1 billion has already been invested in the project, which was projected to support 11,000 jobs in 2021.
Now, this action by President Biden to revoke the permit not only strains our relationship with Canada but endangers other job-creating foreign investment in the United States. The U.S. has always been an attractive place for opening businesses and creating jobs because of our strong belief in the rule of law and the consistency it provides – the arbitrary cancellation of this permit could raise serious questions for anyone thinking of bringing new energy projects or other jobs to the United States.
The self-inflicted harm created by unilaterally cancelling the Keystone XL project highlights the hazards of the President ruling by decree. The growing power of the executive branch should concern all of us – no matter which party is in power. In 2015, despite the constitutional requirement of Senate approval for foreign treaties, President Obama entered the United States into the Paris Agreement. This agreement required the United States to reduce our carbon emissions disproportionately compared to every other country, even though our carbon emissions have "the largest absolute decline among all countries since 2000," according to the International Energy Agency. During his presidency, President Trump rightly withdrew the United States from this unfair and unconstitutional agreement. However, with President Biden's recent EO, we will now return to the agreement within 30 days – once again without constitutionally-mandated Senate approval. This decision, which could potentially affect all areas of our economy, should not be in the hands of one person.
Although I am ready and willing to work with President Biden on issues that benefit our country, I will not stand by in the face of damaging policies. The first step is to call out these actions and then use the tools available to us to fight against them. This requires all Americans to stay involved and active in our government, especially by letting government officials know where they stand. I will continue to fight against burdensome regulations, the overuse of EOs, and the ever-growing power of executive branch.