Massie: Presidency getting too powerful

Thomas Massie | Cincinnati

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie represents Kentucky’s 4th District.

Will Dec. 11 mark another déjà vu moment for Congress? This looming deadline is the day by which Congress must once again fund the federal government for the upcoming fiscal year.

As in past years, Congress has failed to follow its own internal process (known as “regular order”). The House has so far passed only six of 12 bills necessary to fund the government, while the Senate has passed only one. So, we will likely be forced to have an up-or-down vote in December on a “kitchen sink” funding bill that crams everything into one.

In previous years, this bill – sometimes called an “omnibus” or a “continuing resolution” – was drafted by a few members of congressional leadership behind closed doors. Rank-and-file members received little opportunity for input on the bill’s provisions, little time to fully read and analyze its text, and no chance to offer amendments on the floor.

This is not how the process is supposed to work. Instead, each year the House and Senate should bring to the floor and pass the 12 separate appropriations bills that together fund the entire federal government, and then send them to the president for a signature. These 12 bills fund each of the executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Interior. They also fund the operations of the legislative and judicial branches. Unfortunately, Congress hasn’t passed all 12 individual bills on time since 1994.

This repeated failure of the appropriations process creates a serious constitutional problem, in that Congress in effect relinquishes its constitutional “power of the purse.” By relinquishing this power, Congress strengthens the executive branch at the expense of the legislative.

The “power of the purse” is the specific authority given to Congress in the Constitution to decide how federal money is spent. This power gives Congress the authority to withhold appropriations for an executive branch agency, or to specifically restrict the manner in which federal dollars are spent. For example, Congress could block funding for Planned Parenthood, the Environmental Protection Agency or parts of Obamacare.

Our Founding Fathers intended that the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government would be co-equal. Pursuant to our Constitution, Congress writes the laws, and the executive branch executes those laws. However, due to the exponential growth of unaccountable executive branch agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the EPA, the executive branch now writes laws. These come in the form of the thousands of regulations issued by the executive branch each year.

What is the solution? Although rolling back the power of executive branch agencies will take time, the first step is a return to regular order for the appropriations process. Each year, the House should pass its 12 individual appropriations bills, then send each one to the Senate. If the obstructionist tactics of a few senators block the Senate from passing its own 12 bills, at least it will be clear to the American people exactly which senators deserve the blame. After the House and Senate pass their bills and reconcile them, they should then present 12 separate bills – 12 separate “funding checks” – to the president.

If the president were to reject one of the 12 checks because it didn’t fund all of the regulations he wanted, the other 11/12ths of the government would still be fully funded. He could not, for instance, shut down the Department of Veterans Affairs or withhold our soldiers’ pay over a funding disagreement regarding the EPA. A return to the regular appropriations process would remove the president’s ability to take the entire government hostage.

Next year, let us hope for a return to regular order so Congress can reassert its power of the purse.