ENFORCE[ing] Congressional Rights (Updated)

On Wednesday the House will take up Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R., SC) ENFORCE (Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments) the Law Act of 2014. The official summary of the bill states the following: 

Authorizes either chamber of Congress, upon adoption of a resolution declaring that the President or any officer or employee of the United States has established or implemented a policy, practice, or procedure to refrain from enforcing, applying, following, or administering any federal statute, rule, regulation, program, policy, or other law in violation of the constitutional requirement that the President faithfully execute the laws of the United States, to bring a civil action for a declaratory judgment to that effect.

The bill passed the House on March 12th, and currently sits with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rep. Darrell Issa (R., CA) has recently introduced three House resolutions that relate to the Affordable Care Act, welfare, and immigration. A press release from his office notes the following: 

Congressman Darrell Issa has introduced three ENFORCE Act resolutions, to grant an expedited judicial hearing to compel the President of the United States to faithfully execute our laws as written under the U.S. Constitution.  These three resolutions focus on the President’s lack of enforcement in the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate tax, the unilateral removal of the work requirement for welfare recipients, and unlawful suspension of immigration enforcement through his announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “DACA” program. The ENFORCE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 12th, 2014 and if passed by Senate would allow Congressman Issa’s resolutions to go before a three judge panel of a U.S. District court.

The first resolution seeks to prohibit the President from unilaterally changing the employer mandate tax within the Affordable Care Act.  The second resolution requires the President to drop his administrations’ waiver of the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform ‘work’ requirement in order to receive assistance. The third resolution requires the President to abandon his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program since the DACA program was not created with the consent of Congress as required by the Constitution’s plenary powers doctrine.