Obama routinely bypasses Congress, conservatives say

By Neil Munro

Obama administration officials are increasingly using regulation and litigation to bypass Congress, say free market advocates and social conservatives.

“It is outrageous,” said Dan Kish, vice president at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research and a former Capitol Hill staffer. “Like it or not, Congress has the power to write laws.”

But these critics also say little can be done about it before November 2012, especially because they’re getting no support from the liberal critics who once lambasted George W. Bush for ignoring domestic and international laws, and for releasing “signing statements” when he signed bills into law.

In June, immigration officials announced this they will no longer apply immigration law against illegal immigrants who are studying, who have family relations in the U.S. military, or who are caring for ailing relatives. In August, officials announced they would drop deportation procedures against up to 300,000 illegal immigrants who are now being held, but not suspected of having committed major crimes. Those who are released will get a work permit, even though national unemployment is at least 9.1 percent.

While under both Democratic and Republican control, Congress had rebuffed an alliance of Hispanic advocates, ethnic lobbies, employers and progressives seeking an amnesty for roughly 10 million illegal immigrants. Throughout 2010, Hispanic advocates also failed to win an amnesty for younger people, under the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors bill, known as the DREAM Act.

“This is being done because Congress didn’t pass the DREAM act,” which Obama wanted to boost his 2012 support among Hispanic advocacy groups, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies think tank. (RELATED: Cantor calls for repeal of Obama administration’s ‘job-destroying regulations’)

“My sense is that the administration has the statutory authority to do this, because any law has to provide the executive with a certain amount of discretion,” he said. But Obama is “abusing a narrow authority that Congress gave him.”

On Aug 5, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that he would use his regulatory power to exempt state education agencies from the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, providing they develop alternative education standards that meet his approval.

“There’s broad support for waivers … the outcry has been the conditions attached to those waivers,” said Mike Petrilli, an executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education reform group. “That’s where [Duncan] will run into legal trouble … I don’t think he has the authority to attach conditions to waivers,” said Petrelli. “There nothing in the statute about quid pro quos.”

In June, Minnesota Republican John Kline, chairman of the House committee on education, demanded that Duncan explain his legal authority for the exemptions.