Posted on 01/06/2011 1:56:14 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Republicans introduce bill to eliminate presidential 'czars' By Michael O'Brien - 01/06/11 04:15 PM ET
A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.
The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.
The bill defines a czar as "a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President" who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.
Republicans had complained about the president's use of czars to help advance his agenda in Congress. In particular, the GOP had harped about the personal history of Van Jones, the president's czar for "green jobs," over past comments Jones had made about Fox News came to light. Jones eventually resigned.
Another prominent czar over the past year was Carol Browner, the president's energy and environmental adviser. She helped head up efforts in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the ultimately unsuccessful effort for an energy and climate bill from Congress.
Republicans introduced several bills to eliminate czars in the last Congress, but similar legislation could conceivably advance in the House now that the GOP controls the chamber.
"We haven’t gotten an indication of an exact timeline for committee action, considering that the bill was just filed yesterday," said Scalise spokesman Stephen Bell. "We hope to have this discussion in the near future as the congressman works to pursue all the bills he has introduced in the 112th Congress."
Good, first the Czars, then the agency’s that are enacting laws that have no right to.
Right on. These unelected, unconfirmed cabinet members are a travesty. I didn’t support it when Bush had czars, either.
And MANY, MANY of them perform redundant functions. Rush was talking about 8 federal departments had a total of 59 agencies which all did basically the same thing. Seems to me that it is ripe for doing away with 58 programs and the vast majority of people who work there.
Amen
No kings in american
No dukes or princes either
OMG I love this, God bless our Republicans.
Didn’t Nixon start the Czars with Elvis?
Unfortunately, now that they've made such a big deal about the Constitution, they are going to have to follow it.
I haven’t followed the ‘czar’ hoopla.
They are just assistant secretaries of various cabinet-level agencies, right? Has the executive branch somehow done and end-run around the confirmation process? What new power has been grabbed that the executive branch didn’t already have, is what I’m trying to understand.
Well, let’s be fair here. Sure, in many cases the employees don’t do much, or anything. But the redundant agencies do provide a lot of middle-class employment to many residents of Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia!
YYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, it’s nice to read that they are spending their time productively.
Perfect place to start in eliminating non-essential parts of this overly bloated monstrous government. We have a president, Congressmen, and our Supreme Court. That’s all we need to provide representation to the PEOPLE.
Czars always seemed as if they were mouthpieces of the President. The President should lead ALONE. If he has a special interest of his own, he needs to persuade and influence others on his own merit — not through special czars and other appointees.
The funniest part is to see your friends list drop after you post it.
I think we need to re-institute the House Committee on Un-American Activities and smoke out every last Marxist and Communist in the government.
According to the US CHamber of Commerce, Obamacare creates 183 NEW federal agencies; the Nat’l Center for Policy Analysis estimates that at 159. Either way, more than one too many!!! Defunding the bills won’t be enough; Congress is going to have to destroy the existence of entire departments of employees.
Well, it certainly worked well enough for the first 200 or so years. I will now refrain from mentioning what administration first introduced the odious concept of the "American czar."
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