Myth: Federal agencies in the Executive Branch are constitutionally allowed to create laws or regulations they feel are needed to help Americans by ensuring that they and their businesses are not hurt by others.
Truth: The Constitution states in Article I, Section 1 that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Article I, Section 7 states that all laws must pass through both the House and the Senate, then be approved and signed by the President in order to become law. The U.S. Constitution establishes “separation of powers” that does not allow lawmaking authority (regulation) to be given to any executive agency.
Since the federal government continues to expand into countless areas far beyond its Constitutional limits, congress can no longer legislate all the details, and has abdicated its responsibility to the executive bureaucracy.
Federal agencies also regulate things that even Congress does not have the authority to legislate over. As an example, when the EPA limits greenhouse gases it is not only violating separation of powers, but also the enumerated powers that limit the jurisdiction of the federal government. As the Tenth Amendment clearly states:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Not only is the vast majority of federal regulation unconstitutional, but it has also become the single most harmful force against the economic prosperity of Americans. Federal environmental, safety and health, and economic regulations cost hundreds of billions of dollars every year over and above the costs of official federal outlays. They also add extensive costs to the burden that U.S. businesses have to bear.
Research has shown that the total costs of federal regulations have further increased from the level established in a comprehensive 2005 study, as have the costs per employee. More specifically, the total cost of federal regulations has increased to $1.75 trillion, while the updated cost per employee for firms with fewer than 20 employees is now $10,585 (a 36 percent difference between the costs incurred by small firms when compared with their larger counterparts).
Many federal regulations are unconstitutional, because the Constitution grant very limited regulatory authority to the federal government. It reads, “Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among several States, and with Indian Tribes.” As the 10th Amendment says, “The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” therefore because the Constitution does not specifically say the government can do it, the government cannot.
In addition to the lack of constitutional authority and the blatant ignoring of the doctrine of the separation of powers in formulating law, bureaucratic agencies have judicial roles as well. This practice entirely abolishes the separation of powers combining all three branches into one and eliminating the checks and balances that are designed to suppress tyranny. When executive agencies have the ability to make, execute, and adjudicate their regulations, the people are truly at their mercy.
