Ken Paxton
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently joined a coalition of 15 states filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in the case of Center for Biological Diversity v. Ryan Zinke and Department of the Interior, defending the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
Enacted by Congress in 1996, the CRA is a critical tool that helps to restore to Congress the ability to write federal policy by congressionally reviewing recently passed administrative rules at the change in administrations. Congress has used the CRA at least 14 times this year to eliminate unlawful and burdensome rules created during the last six months of the Obama administration. If the CRA is declared unlawful, these harmful and unlawful regulations may well go back into effect.
“Time and again, we’ve seen federal rules cause unjustifiable harm to Texas and other states,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The Congressional Review Act provides an efficient procedure Congress can use to stop federal overreach and block onerous regulations. There is something unconstitutional in this area: federal agencies wresting power to write laws away from Congress. The CRA restores the Constitution’s separation of powers. If the CRA is unconstitutional, then the constitution is unconstitutional.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr co-led the amicus brief. They were joined by Attorney General Paxton along with his counterparts from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
To view a copy of the Congressional Review Act amicus, click here: http://bit.ly/2tpmQo