EPA Exceeding Authority

Open email to Sen. Cornyn (Texas):

Dear Sen. Cornyn,

    Thank you for your form letter concerning efforts by federal agencies to expand their regulatory reach beyond their legal authority. The EPA has been most aggressive in this regard.
    As a remedy, you say you have cosponsored a bill entitled, "Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act of 2013 (REINS Act; S. 15)". The legislation would require any agency with a project having an economic impact of $100 million or more to obtain prior congressional approval before implementation. The bill is now in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and we hope it will not die there.

    However, I believe we should look at this problem in a broader sense. Even if your cosponsored bill becomes legislation, bureaucrats will be able to work their way around it by one devious way or another. That has been and will continue to be an ongoing problem.
    Perhaps my present proposal is already in effect, but if so it is not being implemented. My proposal is, every time an Act of Congress becomes the law of the land, a congressional committee should assume the responsibility to follow that law's implementation to determine where there were original weaknesses in the drafting and where those weaknesses are now being abused by federal agencies. Wherever such a situation exists, the Congress should then pass an amendment to that specific Act, which would bring the Act into the original intention of Congress. If an agency is adamant in refusing to comply with congressional direction, a significant penalty in agency funding should be applied.