Brad Miller: “I offer this amendment on my own behalf and the behalf of Ms. Linda Sanchez of California. Mr. Chairman, this amendment…”

“I offer this amendment on my own behalf and the behalf of Ms. Linda Sanchez of California. Mr. Chairman, this amendment prohibits the use of funds to implement an Executive Order entered earlier this year. The Executive Order claims powers for the President over agency rulemaking that is consistent neither with statutes passed by Congress nor with the Constitution. There are safeguards on how agencies can use that power, their power of rulemaking. Agencies are supposed to make rules in the public, with public participation, in the open, and citizens can sue an agency if regulations are too tough or too lenient. Executive Order 13422 dramatically changes how rulemaking works and lets political appointees overrule the professionals at each agency in secret with no accountability to anyone. Decisions that are supposed to be made in the open can be made in closed rooms on the basis of improper political considerations, and often no citizen will know to sue to challenge a rule or more often sue to challenge agencies inaction because no citizen will know what really happened.”