These Are the Specific Article I Powers Congress Has Given Up

Earlier this week, we discussed the Republican surrender of Congressional power to Obama’s bureaucracy, but what are some of the specific Article I powers Republicans are giving up? The release of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership text reminds us that Congress already surrendered its sole power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations.” Congress will be limited to an up-or-down vote on that 6,000-page monstrosity at a time of Obama’s choosing.

Obama’s commitment to restricting our use of energy knows no bounds. In addition to cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline project, his Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy have issued an incredibly costly series of regulations that can and should be overturned by Congress.

Only Congress has the power to create a “uniform rule of naturalization,” but the uniform law passed by Congress is openly defied by President Obama and by more than 300 sanctuary cities, counties, and states. It’s long overdue for Congress to enforce its sole authority over immigration and nationality by withholding funds from defiant officials.

Although Congress has the sole power to “declare War” and to “raise and support Armies,” President Obama has been conducting a no-win war in Syria for many months without Congressional authorization. And let’s not forget the catastrophic results of Hillary Clinton’s 2011 war against Libya, which also was never authorized by Congress.

Congress never passed any law giving transgender people the right to force everyone else to recognize their new “gender identity,” but Obama’s education department is now threatening public schools that resist this fad. The defeat of the transgender referendum in Houston by an overwhelming vote percentage should stiffen the spine of the Republican Congress to put a stop to that foolishness.