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Rep. DeSantis' plan for more oversight on White House

Northeast Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis tells WOKV News he wants to bring more oversight on the White House with a bill he says would be hard for a lot of Democrats to oppose.

DeSantis says the goal is to bring transparency “to this process where the President is picking and choosing which laws to enforce.”

On Wednesday or Thursday, he says the full House will take up his “Faithful Execution of the Law” Act, which would require the President’s administration to report directly to Congress when making a policy decision to not enforce a certain law.

“We think it’s a way to shine a light on what we believe is presidential lawlessness,” he says.

As an example, DeSantis says President Obama relaxed the work requirements for welfare reform from the 1996 landmark reform legislation.

“The statute doesn’t allow him to do this,” he says.

DeSantis says President Obama’s decision to grant “administrative amnesty” to illegal immigrants in 2012 is another example.

“And then he has also – through Eric Holder – they’ve suspended essentially the mandatory minimums for certain drug offenses.  Now there’s a debate about whether those are good policy-wise, but Congress would need to change it. You don’t just not enforce that.”

DeSantis says Obamacare has been the most “flagrant.”

“He knows if he actually enforced the law as written, there would be even more negative effects from it, and his party would suffer politically in November.  So he’s trying to minimize the damage, and that is not a legitimate reason to not faithfully execute the law.”

DeSantis says his bill isn’t focused on the constitutionality of recent decisions made by the President, but the process by which they’re being made.

He wants these decisions to be made on the record in the public forum, and not broken on a news blog or at a White House press conference.

“The American people will be able to evaluate whether those decisions are consistent with the President’s constitutional duties,” DeSantis says.

He thinks some Democrats will find it hard to vote against because it encourages more oversight and isn’t aimed directly at President Obama.

It’ll go before the full House on Wednesday or Thursday.

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