Quote of the Day:
“In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.” — Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) Source: “An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society,” 1937
We’ve previously updated both the “Read the Bills Act” and the “One Subject at a Time Act.” Here comes the final link in the chain . . .
The new and improved “Write the Laws Act” is now on our website.
What’s better about it? Well . . .
- The new version now conforms to the Enumerated Powers rule (as do our other bills), by stating its Constitutional authority.
- The previous version of the bill only prohibited rule creation by new administrative agencies, but this new version bans existing agencies from writing new regulations too.
- The new version also better complies with our own “One Subject at a Time Act.”
This last point is important. The old version of the bill prohibited the delegation of both legislative and judicial powers to Executive Branch bureaucracies. This could be viewed as one subject — the delegation of powers — but we decided to focus the bill on just the legislative power. Congress must write all the rules that you have to obey. They cannot delegate this legislative function. That’s the single subject. This means . . .
We can now craft another bill to focus on the un-Constitutional delegation of judicial powers to the Executive Branch. We think this is such an important subject that it deserves its own bill. We’ll be telling you more about this in the near future. Meanwhile . . .
Please hit Congress once again. Ask them to introduce and pass our “Write the Laws Act.” We have Congressional allies pledged to introduce all of our bills, and it’s now time to take the final steps toward making that happen.
You can send your letter in support of WTLA here: https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/write-the-laws/
We provide the following part of the letter for you . . .
Please introduce DownsizeDC.org’s “Write the Laws Act.” You can find a summary and the full text of the bill here: http://www.downsizedc.org/wtla-legislation
I added the following personal comments to this, which you can borrow if you wish . . .
Please let me hear from you. I want to know if you will or will not introduce this legislation. Here’s why it means so much to me . . .
If I loan you my car, I’m going to be quite upset if you let your friends take it for a joy ride. But this is exactly what you have done by allowing Executive Branch agencies to create rules that I must obey.
The People delegated the legislative power to Congress. You cannot loan this power to Executive Branch bureaucrats. You are free to consult whatever expertise you need in order to create legislation, BUT any rule that I have to obey MUST be . . .
- Written by Congress,
- Read by Congress,
- Debated by Congress, and . . .
- Voted on by Congress.
Please be clear about this — Congress BREAKS THE LAW when it allows Executive Branch agencies to create rules. We need a new law that protects the American people when Congress doesn’t obey the law. I like DownsizeDC.org’s “Write the Laws Act” because it would render me immune in court against any new rule that was not written and passed by Congress.
Please honor your oath of office by protecting the separation of powers. Please let me know whether you will, or will not, introduce DownsizeDC.org’s “Write the Laws Act.”
You can send your letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.
But before you do this, I need to let you know about a looming cash flow problem. DownsizeDC.org, which sends you these daily messages about Congress and provides you with the Educate the Powerful System, needs to raise $26,670 by the end of July — that’s six weeks.
Our educational organization, the Downsize DC Foundation, is doing well enough that it only needs to raise about $3,000 over that same period.
A good chunk of these needs will be covered as we process monthly pledges during the coming month, but . . .
Our cash needs are still larger than normal. Income has been trending down since mid-April, we’ve been funding more software work (some of which you will be able to use soon), and there are 3 paydays in July, whereas most months have only 2. I don’t want to cut spending and slow progress if I don’t have to, so . . .
THANKS!
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.