Obama threatens to veto bill that would require administration to enforce laws
Posted By Neil Munro On 1:59 PM 03/12/2014 In | No Comments
President Barack Obama would veto a GOP-drafted bill that would allow legislators to take agency officials to court if they don’t enforce laws, according to a White House statement.
The GOP is pushing the bill through the House because Obama has repeatedly declined to enforce laws he doesn’t like, say GOP legislators.
“President Obama has refused to enforce those parts of our nation’s immigration laws that are not to his political liking, has waived portions of our welfare laws, has stretched our environmental laws to accommodate his policy objectives, and has waived testing accountability provisions required under the ‘No Child Left Behind’ education law,” according to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House judiciary committee.
For example, in June 2012, Obama created a temporary mini-amnesty for at least 500,000 younger illegal immigrants. The act boosted his election-day support among Hispanics, but made it more difficult for young Americans to find jobs.
“Political appointees at the Justice Department have announced that rather than work with Congress to amend the federal criminal code, they will simply stop prosecuting low-level drug offenders under mandatory minimum sentencing laws,” said Goodlatte in a Fox News op-ed.
“And now that his signature health care law has not been working and revealed his empty promises, President Obama has changed that law unilaterally over 20 times,” Goodlatte added.
The House bill is titled “the Faithful Execution of the Law Act.”
The House is expected to pass the bill Wednesday, along with a companion bill, titled “ENFORCE the Law Act.”
The bills are expected to be blocked by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
But the veto threat will help minimize the number of Democrats who will support the GOP bills.
Without many Democratic votes, the White House and its allies will try to dismiss the bills as partisan.
White House officials said they oppose the measure because it creates a paperwork burden for them.
“Federal agencies are continually engaged in the process of determining how to concentrate limited enforcement resources most effectively,” said the White House statement.
“The vastly expanded reporting scheme required by the bill would be unduly burdensome and would place the Attorney General in the unprecedented position of having to be kept informed of and report on enforcement decisions made by every other Federal agency,” the statement said.
“If the President were presented with H.R. 3973, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.”
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