The Imperial Presidency

President Obama has made it clear that he will regularly sidestep both Congress and the law and take action unilaterally. This is contrary to our founding fathers' system of checks and balances.

The President should not disregard laws that are inconvenient for him, or rewrite them via executive order to suit his own preferences. This playbook of imperial rule is evident in numerous examples, from the record pace of federal regulations issued by the executive branch to the multitude of changes the president has made to the healthcare law without congressional authorization.

These concerns are not just a partisan invention. Jonathan Turley, a liberal law professor from George Washington University and political supporter of the President, criticized him in a Los Angeles Times op-ed recently titled "The President's Powergrab."

The Constitution is clear: Congress writes the laws, and the President is to faithfully uphold the laws that are in place, whether signed by the current President or a predecessor. No short-term political agenda is worth allowing the erosion of the constitutional roles of the President, Congress, and the Judiciary.

This approach to government is unacceptable, and for that reason I joined my colleagues in the House of Representatives to pass the Faithful Execution of the Law Act (H.R. 3973) and the Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law, or theENFORCE the Law Act (H.R. 4138) last week. These bills send a strong message to the president that duly passed laws by the United States Congress—representatives of the people—shall be faithfully executed.