Hoyer: The President Believes He is the Law – That is a Dangerous Phenomenon
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered remarks at the House Appropriations Full Committee Markup of the FY 2027 Energy and Water Development bill in support of an amendment from Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) that would prevent and reverse the termination of projects at the Department of Energy and other agencies. Below are a video and transcript of his remarks:
Click here to watch a video of his remarks.
"I thank the Chairman. Ms. McCollum referenced the sign at the front of the dais. That [sign] was designed to assure that the people would decide what laws should be enacted and what laws should be followed. They were not different. If you enact it, the executive has the responsibility to follow it. Does the executive have an alternative? It does. It can come back to us and say, ‘We think these 303 projects are not justified, and therefore we think you, the appropriators, should rescind them.’ Mr. Chairman, not to arbitrarily and capriciously or for partisan reasons or for substantive reasons, say, ‘We do not agree and therefore we will eliminate that what you have enacted and the President has signed.’
"Now, you've heard me use the phrase that ‘we are the authors of our own impotence.’ Why should any administration, Republican or Democrat, worry about what we do if we simply stand by silently when they say no after the fact? What's the point? What's the point of us spending time here or considering amendments? Why don't we just call up Russell Vought and say, ‘Whatever you want to do, sir,’ and salute? Now, obviously, what we could do when we next have the presidency – and by the way, history tells us at some point in time we're going to have the presidency. For the last 75 years, we've gone back and forth almost every other time, and every other time being at eight years as well. And we did the same thing. Let's say for sake of argument, Shalanda Young is returning to the OMB and decides we're not going to have any red projects in America. I will tell you if, in fact, I was in charge – and to the extent it's happened – we should have stood up and said, ‘No, you can't do that.’ And very frankly, I would hope that Ms. DeLauro, when she's Chair, would say to a Democratic administration, ‘If you want to change that, you come back here because the Constitution says we make the law, not you.’
"Now, the President believes he is the law. That is a dangerous phenomenon, ladies and gentlemen. And if you are not cognizant of that and concerned about that, then you're not concerned about our democracy. These times when we come here and we give our imprimatur to the arbitrary action of the executive [inaudible] – every time we do that, it erodes the authority of this committee. Bob [Livingston] is on that wall. He was a wonderful Chairman of this committee, a Republican from Louisiana. He wouldn't have stood for this. Nor would – and David Obey, on the Democratic side, they wouldn't have tried it with David Obey. And I believe Mr. Rogers would have quietly told somebody, ‘You cannot do that,’ because they stood strong. Not for the Democrats or the Republicans, but for the Constitution and the role of this committee in the Congress and in this country. I regret that we do not seem to be paying attention to those important principles. Our founders are disappointed. I vote for this amendment."