Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how federal courts are striking down the Obama administration’s executive overreach.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“Senator Thune was just on the floor talking about executive overreach.
“Well let me tell you, two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a stinging rebuke and a stinging defeat to the Obama administration, and to its immigration amnesty plan.
“It has been a string of stinging defeats for the president’s approach of what I believe is executive overreach. The courts agree with me.
“For years, President Obama has been acting like he believes he has unlimited power—unlimited power to do whatever he wants to do. Regardless of what the law of the land says.
“Now the courts have finally said enough is enough.
“In this case, President Obama decided that for political purposes he was going to stop enforcing some of the country’s immigration laws.
“Twenty-six states said that that was outrageous – and they filed a lawsuit.
“It is the president’s job to enforce the laws of the United States.
“And the law is very clear. The law is clear when it comes to immigration, and the president’s deciding to change it, basically says he is willing to ignore the law. Because he didn’t come to Congress to get it changed, he decided to do it through regulation alone.
“The courts have said that it is not the president’s call – and they have now blocked the president’s amnesty plan.
“During an event in 2013, the president actually seemed to understand that he was just one part of America’s government.
“He said, ‘The problem is that I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States.’
“He went on to say, ‘My job is to execute the laws that are passed.’
“He understood that at that time, it was his job. At least he understood in 2013.
“So what happened between then and now?
“If the president says as he did that I’m not the emperor, why is it that it seems almost every action that he takes seems to show that he wants to act as if he is the emperor?
“Time after time, he has shown that he considers himself above the law.
“Now, we know he doesn’t like to deal with Congress – not with Republicans or Democrats—he likes to ignore Congress.
“He doesn’t like having to deal with the courts – so he tries to pack them full of people who will rule the way that he tells them to rule. We’ve seen that when Harry Reid changed the rules of the Senate.
“It seems the president doesn’t like to listen to the voters either, so he goes ahead and does what he wants to do, no matter what the American people say that they want.
“This case last month is not the first time that the federal court has said that President Obama has acted above the law – or even against the law.
“Last June, the Supreme Court struck down a regulation that was a big part of the Obama administration’s war on coal.
“The Supreme Court said that the Washington bureaucrats who wrote this rule never even considered the overwhelming costs that they were imposing on hard-working American families.
“The court said: ‘One would not say that it is even rational, never mind appropriate, to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.’
“The Supreme Court told President Obama that he is the president of the United States, not the emperor of the United States.
“Then, look what happened last October, another court, the U.S. appeals court blocked the Obama administration’s new regulations that vastly expanded the definition of ‘waters of the United States.’
“The appeals court stepped in and stopped the administration’s actions because of what it called ‘the sheer breadth of the ripple effects caused by the rule.’
“This appeals court told President Obama that he is the president of the United States, he is not the emperor.
“It’s the same thing that the Supreme Court told President Obama in February.
“The Supreme Court stopped another EPA rule over carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Power plants that have been there are functioning.
“Just like with the so-called waters of the U.S. rule, the court said that the administration could not just go ahead and do whatever it wanted to do.
“This rule could do so much damage, that the court stopped the president in his tracks.
“The Supreme Court said they are very skeptical of an administration that does that.
“The court said, ‘We expect Congress to speak clearly if it wishes to assign to an agency decisions of vast economic and political significance.’
“Congress never did that with the carbon dioxide rule.
“The Obama administration just made it up.
“The Supreme Court told President Obama that he is the president of the United States, not the emperor.
“In May, the Supreme Court issued another decision to stop the Obama administration from taking away people’s rights—their rights to use their own land.
“This had to do with the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was taking control of private land.
“The Obama administration went so far overboard that they said people shouldn’t even be allowed to challenge the Obama administration’s decisions in court.
“This president doesn’t want Congress to have any say in what he does – and now he doesn’t even want the courts to have any say in what he does.
“American families shouldn’t have to fight Washington just to use their own property.
“They certainly shouldn’t have to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.
“This was a unanimous decision against the president by the Supreme Court – even the most liberal justices voted against the president on this issue to show how much executive overreach we’re dealing with.
“The Supreme Court told the president once again that he is the president of the United States, not the emperor of the United States.
“And it’s been one case after another saying the exact same thing.
“I just want to give one final example of this string of stinging defeats for President Obama.
“Last month the U.S. District Court in Wyoming shut down President Obama’s latest attempt to stop American energy production.
“It had to do with regulations on hydraulic fracturing on land controlled by Washington and by Indian tribes.
“The judge in this case said the administration had no authority what-so-ever to issue this regulation in the first place.
“This was a judge appointed by President Obama.
“The judge wrote that ‘Congress has not directed the [administration] to enact regulations governing hydraulic fracturing. Indeed, Congress has expressly removed federal agency authority to regulate the activity, making its intent clear.’
“The court told President Obama definitely and definitively that he is the president of the United States, not the emperor of the United States.
“Six different court decisions in the past year.
“All of them against the president.
“Even the judges that he has picked, hand-picked for the Supreme Court, are refusing to play along with all of his power grabs and his illegal overreach.
“The American people are no longer buying the president’s excuses and his promises.
“Back in January, the White House chief of staff promised that the Obama administration was going to in the final year, the eighth year of the Obama administration, was going to have a year of ‘audacious executive action’ in the president’s last year in office.
“It’s time for the president and his staff should rethink their plans.
“They should recognize that they do not have the legal support – or the popular support – for all of the regulations and for all of their illegal actions.
“The president is not an emperor, although he may think that he is.
“It’s time for him to recognize the fact.
“It is time for the President of the United States to do the job he was elected to do, and to follow and to obey the law of the land.”
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