In my first 10 days in Washington, I made it a priority to ensure that the work we do in the 114th Congress increases transparency in the Federal Government and holds President Obama, and his administration, accountable.

In the Constitution, our founding fathers desired a specific legislative process; one that did not result in any one person or group of people holding all of the lawmaking power. However, I have become extremely concerned over the past six years watching the President not only sidestep that process, but continually overstep his authority. It is vital that Congress regains its role of making laws, and the President returns to his rightful place of deciding whether or not to execute the laws passed by Congress.

Last week, I signed on as original cosponsor on the Audit the Fed legislation, which will allow the GAO to conduct a complete audit of the Fed and provide Congress the information needed to establish oversight of this powerful entity. This week, I voted to defund the President’s executive amnesty which is a vast overreach of his power. In fact, the President himself admitted no fewer than 22 times that he does not actually hold the authority to carry out this unconstitutional amnesty.

I also cosponsored, and voted for, the Regulatory Accountability Act which would improve the executive branch’s rulemaking process by encouraging greater public input, requiring agencies to use the least costly way to achieve the statutory objective, and mandating an examination of the costs and benefits to such rules.  

It is through actions like these that we can bring transparency and accountability back to Washington. I am optimistic that the 114th Congress will continue what we have started and return our Federal Government to the proper working order that our Constitution demands, and that the American people deserve.