Conyers Challenges Republican Attempt to Undermine Executive Authority

(WASHINGTON) – Today, the House of Representatives debated H.R. 4138 the, “Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enforcements of the Law (ENFORCE) Act.” This Floor debate comes on the heels of the House Judiciary Committee having held a full committee Markup on the legislation and a hearing a week prior entitled, “Enforcing the President’s Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws.”  This legislation is a faulty solution in search of imaginary problems, and has no hope of being considered in the Senate, let alone becoming law. As the Floor debate commenced, Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement:

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

"Once again, we find ourselves debating legislation that fails to address actual public concerns while squandering limited legislative time on bills that will never become law and are likely unconstitutional. Meanwhile, this House continues to refuse to address issues ranging from securing fair pay for a fair day’s work, extending unemployment insurance, and fixing our broken immigration laws. At a certain point we have to say that enough is enough,” said Conyers.

“Undoubtedly, Congress has the responsibility and the authority to ensure that the President acts within the bounds of the Constitution. Yet, the legislation we are debating today - H.R. 4138, the ‘ENFORCE Act,’ -amounts to little more than political demagoguery. President Obama is well within his constitutional rights to employ his executive authority by extending earned deferred action to DREAMers, and prosecutorial discretion to administer complex legislation such as the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, the Majority would rather repeat the debate over healthcare reform - in addition to the 50 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act held so far - and stymie immigration reform, than tackle deep-seated problems the United States faces.

“Regrettably, the Congressional agenda in the House of Representatives is increasingly dominated by synthetic scandals and dead-end legislation. The Floor debate this afternoon is little more than political theater. The people’s business has languished for long enough. At some point we need to lay down the legislative armor and do something simply because it’s the right thing to do.”

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