Representing the People, Not A Bureaucracy

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a government that represents the people, not a bureaucracy that represents Washington's interests.

Pending on the Supreme Court docket is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a case with the potential to overturn 40 years of bureaucratic overreach and restore the proper role of Congress, the courts, and the Presidency.

Nearly 40 years of deference by lawmakers and judges to the executive has given rise to the administrative state, sometimes called the fourth branch of government. Over time, this unaccountable bureaucracy has gradually subverted the doctrine of separation of powers laid out by our Founders.

According to the Constitution, Article I vests the power to make law in the Congress; Article II vests the power to enforce law in the Presidency; and Article III vests the power to interpret law in the courts.

In no article are all three powers--to make, enforce, and interpret the law--jointly vested in a managerial bureaucracy of 1.8 million civil service employees. The very idea is offensive to our founding.

However, at the heart of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo lies the doctrine of Chevron deference, a legal construct which would make our Founders turn in their graves. It is a 1980s judicial invention that shifts lawmaking powers from lawmakers and adjudicating powers from judges to a plenary executive branch.

In the 1980s, Chevron deference may have been reasonably supported by those who believed faithful bureaucratic agents could be trusted to fill in areas where the law is silent. In 2023, the Biden administration's relentless pursuit of government power has disabused any dewy-eyed believer in faithful bureaucrats.

The 40-year experiment of Chevron deference has allowed the bureaucracy to aggrandize nearly unlimited power, culminating in the Biden administration exceeding its authority from sea to shining sea and from cradle to grave with overregulation.

Just recently, President Biden and Secretary Cardona tossed up a Hail Mary when their illegal, economically disastrous, taxpayer-funded student loan bailout for the wealthy arrived at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court emphatically said no. It also said that such a scheme ``requires that Congress speak clearly before a Department Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy.''

Nevertheless, the Biden administration continues to claim the power to implement its student loan bailout under even more ambiguous legal pretenses.

President Biden's National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, is yet another example of the unforeseen consequences of Chevron deference. Within the NLRB, bureaucrats command the power to create law, execute law, and adjudicate legal conflicts. Under the Biden administration, the NLRB has issued sweeping rules regarding joint employer status and union elections, enforced said rules, and then adjudicated hundreds of cases, overturning longstanding preferences.

The Committee on Education and the Workforce is working hard to conduct oversight of an agency that assumes it has lawmaking, law enforcing, and law interpreting power. These abuses, and many more, are the direct failure of the Chevron deference regime.

For many in this body, fighting back against the Biden administration requires confronting an uncomfortable truth. Congress creates, enables, and abides by the administrative state when it passes statutory language without clear meaning. Congress' illegal delegation of its Article I authority and the accelerated transfer of legislative powers to unaccountable bureaucrats in the executive has been a fault of this body over decades and the fault of both parties.

Today, there are over 123 statutes that enable the President and his agencies to circumvent ordinary lawmaking processes upon the declaration of a ``national emergency.'' The ultimate national emergency, however, is if unscrupulous politicians abdicate the power vested in them by the American people to make laws and instead make more legislators. Then, the people will have no means to hold their government accountable.

In fulfilling House Republicans' Commitment to America, we are demanding accountability from the Federal Government. To fulfill the will of the people, the Court must repeal Chevron deference in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

I pray next term that the Court reclaims and fortifies Congress' rightful powers.

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