Shadegg, Coburn Urge Passage of Bill Requiring Congress to Cite Constitutional Authority
The Enumerated Powers Act would hold Congress accountable for its actions
June 19, 2008
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) and U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) today called on Congress to pass the Enumerated Powers Act, a bill that highlights the importance of the Tenth Amendment and forces a continual reexamination of the role of the federal government. Dr. Coburn today introduced the first-ever Senate companion bill for Rep. Shadegg’s Enumerated Powers Act. The Senate bill was introduced with 23 original cosponsors.
“The Enumerated Powers Act would require Members of Congress to include an explicit statement of Constitutional authority into each bill that is introduced. It would hold Congress accountable for its actions,” said Shadegg.
“Historic revisionists in both parties have misused the Constitution to justify a ‘blank check’ approach to spending and earmarking. The Enumerated Powers Act is designed to restrain congressional actions that have no basis in our Constitution or America’s founding principles,” Dr. Coburn said.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, had this to say about the “blank check” philosophy of government: ‘With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of [enumerated] powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”
Thomas Jefferson offered a similar view: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”
The Enumerated Powers Act requires the following:
1) Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act.
2) Failure to include such a “concise and definite statement” gives “rise to a point of order in either House of Congress.”
The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
According to the Tenth Amendment, the national government cannot expand its legislative authority into areas reserved to the States or the people,” said Shadegg. “It is a well-known fact that the size and scope of the federal government has exploded since the New Deal. Congress continues to operate without Constitutional restraint, creating costly and ineffective programs and blatantly ignoring the principles of federalism.”
In addition to Coburn original Senate sponsors include Senators McCain, Kyl, Hutchison, Cornyn, Ensign, DeMint, Chambliss, Inhofe, Crapo, Enzi, Allard, Graham, Burr, Dole, Sununu, Thune, Vitter, Brownback, Barrasso, Wicker, Sessions and Grassley.
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