U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) led the unveiling on Thursday of the fourth plank of the House Republican’s “A Better Way” policy agenda, which aims to restore the peoples’ voice in Congress.
The policy agenda offers ideas and recommendations to restore constitutionalism to congress in four key areas – curbing executive overreach by subjecting agencies to more scrutiny, reining in regulators by re-writing rules to reflect the will of the people, imposing new limits on government spending, and increasing transparency for taxpayers.
“The United States is the greatest experiment in self-governance the world has ever known,” McMorris Rodgers said. “But with self-governance comes the need for self-reflection. The American people are frustrated, because they’ve lost their voice. This fourth plank of the Better Way agenda is the most important one — it’s about reclaiming the power of the purse, representative government and accountability on behalf of the American people in Eastern Washington and across the country.”
McMorris Rodgers, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and U.S. Reps. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), Mike Bishop (R-MI) Bradley Byrne (R-AL), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Diane Black (R-TN) were among the House Republicans who gathered at the National Statuary Hall on Thursday to speak about the fourth plank of “A Better way.”
“Our problem is not so much that the presidency, under both parties, keeps breaking the rules — though it does,” Ryan said. “Our problem is that Congress, under both parties, keeps forfeiting the game. Yielding to the executive branch. Giving the president a blank check. Not even bothering to read the fine print. And as our members just told us, this means more than out of control spending. It means chaos on the border. It means not being able to live out your faith. It means not being free.”
That’s why, Ryan said, he would argue that the fourth plank of “A Better Way” is “the most important part of our agenda.”
“Because we won’t be able to fix our safety net, or rebuild our military, or pare back the red tape, until we put the people back in the driver’s seat,” Ryan said. “It is not enough to have an efficient or effective government. We want a free government.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that the rise of the administrative state has gradually eroded the constitutional balance of power.
“Reestablishing a proper constitutional separation of powers where the legislature legislates and the executive executes the law isn’t and shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” McCarthy said. “This is about restoring a government where the people are the ultimate source of power, not unknown and unelected employees of the executive branch. The Task Force on Restoring Constitutional Authority has outlined a plan that would reassert the power of the people. Thanks to the hard work of all the chairmen and members who participated in this task force, we can make Washington accountable again.”