New to the art form? This Wall Street Journal article will get you orientated. Also, for more information on how some of these titles mislead lawmakers and the citizenry, find some academic commentary from Brian Christopher Jones here: https://works.bepress.com/brian_jones/.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Faithful Execution of the Law?

Today the House debated Rep. DeSantis's (R., FL) Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014. According to a House committee report the bill "require[s] the Attorney General of the United States to report to Congress any time a  Federal official establishes or implements a formal or informal  policy to refrain from enforcing any provision of Federal law.  It further requires the Attorney General to report on the  reason for the establishment or implementation of such a  policy."

The White House has released a veto threat statement against the measure: 
The Administration strongly opposes passage of H.R. 3973. The bill would inordinately expand current law, which already requires reports to Congress when non-enforcement of Federal law is based on constitutional grounds. H.R. 3973 would further require reporting to Congress each time any Federal officer establishes or implements a formal or informal policy to refrain from enforcing or administering any provision of a Federal law, rule, regulation, program, or policy on any grounds.
Federal agencies are continually engaged in the process of determining how to concentrate limited enforcement resources most effectively. The vastly expanded reporting scheme required by the bill would be unduly burdensome and would place the Attorney General in the unprecedented position of having to be kept informed of and report on enforcement decisions made by every other Federal agency.

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