On the recordNovember 17, 2016
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Presidents from both parties have made a habit of midnight rules. And although here today we hear about 18 years of a deliberative process on beryllium, 18 years of consideration and it has to be passed in the last few days of a departing administration? What was the administration doing for 8 years? How deliberative can one be? The fact is these are not accidents. Midnight rules are, in fact, deliberately held to the end of an administration. That is the reason they are called midnight rules. Now, having said that, the bill today, H.R. 5982, is not, in fact, about midnight rules. We already have legislation to take care of that. What we don't have is an effective way to do it when we are dealing with, perhaps, 100, 120, 150, and, if not checked, perhaps more, in times to come, midnight rules from an outgoing administration. We are talking today about the balance of power, about whether Congress should be efficient and effective in its ability to consider legislation. In this case, legislation done by the other branch, a branch not constitutionally allowed to do legislation. Let's remember, regulations are, in fact, a loan to the executive branch to clarify legislation done by this body.…
