Chairman Goodlatte Statement on the Congressional Article I Powers Strengthening Act

Washington, D.C. - Today, the House of Representatives is considering the Congressional Article I Powers Strengthening Act (H.R. 469), a bill that restricts courts' ability to create new regulations, increases transparency for Judgment Fund payments, and restores Congress's right to file amicus briefs. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) delivered the following remarks in support of the Congressional Article I Powers Strengthening Act:Chairman Goodlatte: "Our system of government is a tripartite one, with each branch having certain defined functions delegated to it.  The Congress is charged with writing the laws; the President with executing the laws; and the Judiciary with interpreting them.  The Constitution divides powers between the branches in this manner in order to guard against the abuse of power by any one branch.  The separation of powers is at the core of the fundamental premise of our constitutional design: that a limited government, divided into three branches exercising enumerated powers, is necessary to protect individual liberty and the rule of law. Unfortunately, over the last several decades, Congress has allowed its powers to gradually be chipped away at by the other branches.  By allowing its powers to be diminished, Congress (especially this House) effectively is permitting the people to be deprived of their most responsive voice in the federal government. Through the legislation before us today, and other legislation that the House has actively pursued in recent years, we can begin to reestablish and enforce the limits on the authority of the other two branches. Although no package of bills by itself can rebuild Congress’s institutional strength and restore the Constitution’s integrity, it is absolutely necessary that Congress begin reasserting the powers that it has ceded to the other branches. This package of bills promotes the restoration of Congress’s Article I powers.  The first bill in the package addresses Executive Branch negotiated regulatory decrees and settlements.  Over the past several decades, consent decrees and settlement agreements increasingly have been used in federal litigation to allow the Executive Branch to write new law in ways that give short shrift to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, Regulatory Flexibility Act and other laws by which Congress has prescribed how agencies must conduct rulemaking. While the Executive does have some regulatory authority, these settlements and consent decrees have been used to aggrandize that authority and shift regulatory priorities under the cloak of judicial authority.  This subverts the boundaries both the Constitution and Congress have placed on administrative authority. The Sunshine for Regulations and Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act limits the ability of the Executive Branch to collude with plaintiffs to abuse consent decrees and settlement agreements in a manner that allows the Executive to thwart laws written by Congress and increases the power of the Judiciary beyond its constitutional limits. The second bill in the package, the Judgment Fund Transparency Act, increases transparency over federal spending by requiring the Treasury Department to publish data on settlements and court ordered judgments entered against the federal government.  One of Congress’s core powers is the authority to authorize and appropriate money from the Treasury.  In order to properly exercise this power, Congress needs to know how the money it has appropriated is being spent.  This bill will allow Congress to better scrutinize and understand where federal taxpayer dollars are going.  Only through the transparency this bill provides can Congress make the Executive and the Judiciary more accountable for the money that comes out of the Judgment Fund. The final bill in the package, the Article I Amicus and Intervention Act, makes clear Congress’s ability to defend and assert its institutional interests in litigation that puts the powers and responsibilities of Congress into question. Currently, when the Executive Branch declines to pursue litigation in defense of an Act of Congress, it is not required to give Congress notice in sufficient time to allow the House or Senate to defend the lawsuit before court filing deadlines have expired.  In addition, the House of Representatives (unlike the Senate) does not have a statutory right to intervene or file amicus briefs in cases questioning congressional authority.  This legislation ensures that both Houses of Congress have adequate time and a right to intervene in litigation that questions congressional authority. We cannot continue to abdicate our powers and responsibilities to the other branches of government, weakening the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution and threatening the very liberty divided powers were designed to protect.  I ask you all to support this legislation and reserve the balance of my time." ###