Rep Hageman before House Rules Committee: Congress, and Congress alone, has the right to legislate

In recent decades, the Administrative State has massively enlarged, draining from Congress the ability to legislate and govern through expansive rulemaking. Executive Branch agencies now produce thousands more regulations and rules per year than bills passed through Congress, and the majority of these rules are unable to be exposed as federal overreach or ruled unconstitutional as a result of the flawed Chevron deference doctrine in federal courts.

The REINS Act and SOPRA currently being considered by the House of Representatives will right the ship and restore balance between our federal branches of government. By requiring major agency rules to be approved by Congress – instead of only allowing Congress to disapprove rules (only to be upheld by the president) – power-grabbing attempts by agencies will be greatly constrained. Similarly, SOPRA's requirement that courts review all cases de novo, instead of blindly deferring to agency opinions on agency rulings, will force each major decision by unelected bureaucrats to be weighed and judged based on its constitutionality and legal standing.