A Florida congressman, fed up with President Barack Obama’s flagrant abuses of executive power, introduced on Monday a resolution to establish standards defining impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” within the meaning of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution as applied to the president of the United States. The last straw for Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL) was Obama’s executive amnesty in November, in which he granted millions of illegal aliens employment-authorization documents. A federal judge in Texas blocked the president’s amnesty program in February with an injunction, but not before the administration granted 3-year amnesties to 100,000 illegal immigrants.
Congressman Yoho gave the following statement about his resolution:
“Many of the people I have the honor of representing are tired of executive overreach and the circumvention of legislative process. It is a dangerous precedent to set when the President begins to rule by fiat and takes on the role that is specifically reserved for Congress.
“Today’s resolution addresses this issue and begins to set a standard to define what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.
“Let me be clear, this resolution isn’t directed at any one president and doesn’t favor one party or the other. Essentially, it will put all Presidents – current and future, both Democrat and Republican – on notice that Congress will finally begin holding them accountable.
“I swore to uphold the Constitution and defend the rule of law, regardless of who the President is. This is but a first step in reigning in an overreaching executive and restoring the balance of power in our government – the way our founders intended.”
“If we had a chief executive that would faithfully execute the laws … this wouldn’t be an issue, and we could get on with America’s business,” Yoho said. “But when you have to play like a babysitter and say, ‘No you can’t do that’ over and over and over again, the American people are tired of it.”
The bill’s introduction is considered “the most aggressive move toward impeachment by any House Republican.”
The resolution, which cites the Federalist Papers in its “findings” section, lists “failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed through signing statements or systematic policies of non-enforcement” and “substituting executive agreements for treaties” as two of eleven potential high crimes and misdemeanors the House would be declaring “impeachable.”
Other impeachable offenses would include initiating war without congressional authorization, spending funds in defiance of appropriations laws, and refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents of testimony “issued for a legitimate legislative purpose.”
In a recent interview, Yoho cautioned the Obama administration to tread carefully going forward, saying, “We are laying a red line. This is the Rubicon. They are forewarned: do not cross this line.”
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