Democrats Propose Limiting Executive Power Through Appropriations

Mike Johnson: "Chairman Tom Cole addressed House Republicans this morning on the latest developments regarding how we may be getting close to reaching a number on that. The problem is that the Democrats have added something new and different that has never been part of this before. They are trying to add to the appropriations bill a demand that they want us to somehow limit the executive branch’s ability to do its job. They want to restrict, to tie the president’s hands regarding what he can do with expenditures in the executive branch. That has never been done before.

House Republicans, no matter how serious the actions of the previous president, Joe Biden, were—no matter how unconstitutional and outrageous they were—we never proposed using the appropriations process to tie the president’s hands. I believe that would be a blatant violation of the separation of powers and a terrible precedent for Congress to engage in. So that is a nonstarter for us, and the Democrats know it.

It seems that they are currently in a position where they are making individual appropriations bills almost impossible. We will find out soon. Stay tuned. There are more discussions to be had today. But we are obviously nearing the March 14 deadline, and I really hope they back off from these outrageous demands because it is unprecedented and, I believe, probably unconstitutional. And it is not something we will be a part of. Thank you."