Presidential Executive Orders Must Be Accountable to Congress

The Executive Branch Should Not Be Able Ignore the Laws Passed by Congress

Right now, the President of the United States holds extraordinary power. Not only can the President veto any legislation he doesn’t like, but the President can enact de-facto laws all by his lonesome through Executive Orders. Yet Congress gets no veto of an Executive Order. Instead, to stop an Executive Order, Congress must pass a new law that overturns the Executive Order, and that law will then be subject to a Presidential Veto. If the Executive Order is egregious enough, a citizen can sue the Executive Branch department responsible for enforcing the Executive Order, which then goes on a federal court docket to be heard by a regional court. If that succeeds (takes from weeks to years), then the Executive Branch then gets to appeal in Federal Appeals Court (another three to 24months), and if POTUS still insists on making up his own laws, the case goes to the Supreme Court (yet another three to 24 months). It typically takes several years for lawsuits challenging Executive Orders to be resolved, and in that time a lot of damage can be done. Congress is tasked with oversight of the Executive Branch, but short of passing new legislation that is subject to Presidential Veto, it has few teeth. Even when Congress uses its constitutionally apportioned power to issue subpoenas to compel evidence from the Executive Branch, it’s still the responsibility of the Department of Justice (the most powerful department of the Executive Branch) to…