WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to conservatives’ long-held belief that the Obama administration is abusing executive power, one Alabama congressman has decided to launch a plan to prevent executive branch agencies from circumventing the will of the People and their representatives in congress: take away their money.
In his recently introduced Agency Accountability Act, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL6) proposes that all of the money executive branch agencies collect in fines, fees and penalties be turned over to congress, instead of being added to the arsenal of unaccountable bureaus.
“We need to have oversight over all of the revenues, that’s the bottom line,” Palmer told The Washington Examiner in an interview.
Palmer said that one of the challenges to cutting off the spigot to executive branch agencies is that they are able to access funds from an unknown number of fees.
“They said, ‘Well that’s OK, we’ll pay for it with fees,’” Palmer said in the same interview. “They had access to money that allowed them to basically ignore the will of Congress.”
According to the Executive Office of Management and Budget such agencies collect $516 billion annually in fees, but there is currently no reliable or official estimates for how much money agencies derive from fines and penalties. Some experts estimate that the figure could be somewhere north of $1 trillion.
“It’s almost like you’ve got a second set of books,” Palmer stated.
The Alabama Congressman hopes that he can get bipartisan support for his bill, as he believes that fighting executive overreach is a bipartisan issue.
Palmer concluded his interview by noting that voters are tired of the intense bureaucratic nature of today’s federal government.
“I believe the American public is fed up with a fourth branch of government that terrifies them, whether it’s the IRS, the EPA, or anybody else,” he concluded.
