Video Script:

we are currently considering the defense authorization Bill we have considered this most years uh annually for for many decades typically though we’ll have a robust debate we’ll have amendments offered and we’ll try to have participation by senators from all over the United States geographically represented in the debate that won’t happen this year there will be uh no debate it’ll be very controlled and circumscribed and there won’t be amendments this is dis appointing to me because I think there are some very important issues that need to be brought up and one of those is emergency Powers our founding fathers understood that it was very important to divide these powers between the Executive Branch the legislative branch and the Judiciary over the past hundred years though we’ve had a gradual evolution of these Powers towards the executive branch and we now have a very very strong executive branch that in all in many ways is able to control the narrative and ultimately to control the country in the 1970s uh Frank Church wrote these words which I think represent a problem that existed then and even more so now he wrote hundreds of statutes clothe the president with virtually unchecked Powers with which he can affect the lives of American citizens and a host of all encompassing ways this vast range of powers taken together confers enough Authority on the president to rule the country without reference to normal constitutional processes under the authority delegated by these statutes the president May seize property organize and control the means of production seize Commodities martial law seize and control all transportation and Communications regulate the operation of private Enterprises restrict travel and in a plethora of particular ways control the lives of All American citizens these words were written by senator Frank Church in a 1977 law review article but they’re still True to this day and even more worrisome the church committee’s investigatory work was famously convinced many in Congress that the time had come to reassert Congressional checks and balances on the executive that had become all too powerful it’s ironic that the powers that be still conspire to this day to hide the work of the church committee I’ve been trying for over a year to read the classified version of the church committee all right this is not some sort of new document this is a document from 1976 but the powers that be have prevented me from for over a year from reading the classified report you got to wonder does that mean they have something to hide or does that mean that they love power so much that they don’t want to share it the national emergencies Act of 1976 was supposed to be a reform of presidential emergencies it was supposed to limit the power of presidents in that act they actually gave a legislative veto if an emergency uh were invoked by a president and the majority of Congress voted it they would be legislatively able to reject that emergency the court ultimately ruled though that that would have to be signed by the president effectively meaning that if a president declares an emergency a majority of us say we’re we don’t think that should be declared he vetos that it now takes 2third of us to overcome a presidential emergency this is a very high bar and makes it nearly impossible to stop a presidential emergency essentially the national emergencies act enforcement mechanism became toothless when the court got rid of the legislative veto subsequently Congress must be must muster this veto proof or two-thirds vote to thwart a rogue president it currently takes a 2third majority vote in both houses to overturn a veto this is a very high bar consequently we live in a country Frank Church would barely recognize in some ways the United States of America is a monarchy in Disguise the United States maintains the veneer of a constitutional republic but often operates as an elected monarchy in which the president exercises awesome and unchecked Power by decree and in perpetuity if you look at the emergencies on the book some of them have been on the books for 50 years if you look at the potential emergencies that could be declared you would be shocked this dangerous imbalance of the Constitutional separation of powers is not simply aggrandisement by the executive branch it is something that Congress has actually been complicit with Congress has essentially made itself a feckless branch of the federal government by granting the president so many emergency powers and refusing to regularly vote on the termination of national emergencies as required by current law the emergencies go on and on our concern should not merely be to restore Congress to its proper role in our place of madisonian system of government rather our true focus should be to restore the founders vision of a government of limited and diffused powers that is devoted to securing our inali rights a government that disperses power among separate distinct and competing branches is a government that is less likely to violate our liberties we owe the people nothing less than the restoration of constitutional principles of separation of powers of checks and balances among the branches of the federal government I’ve offered a significant step towards revivifying the founders Vision I’ve introduced a bill called The Republic act which is an amendment to this bill but likely will not be considered because the powers that be don’t want debate or amendments but this amendment were it considered would restore congress’s role in governance by requiring that Declarations of National Emergency expire after 30 days the president would still have the power to declare an emergency but it would expire after 30 days unless approved affirmatively by Congress what this does is essentially switches the role we currently have currently it takes two-thirds of Congress to stop an emergency now it would take 50% of Congress to affirm an emergency we did this in my state for our governor it’s a good reform and goes a long way towards restoring the faith that people have in the separation of powers and the limitation of powers this simple reform allows the president to respond to genuine crisis but ensures that the executive cannot rule by unchecked Perpetual emergency my bill includes other forms that are designed to safeguard the country from emergency rule my bill would repeal the provisions of the communications Act of 1934 also known as the internet kill switch that allow the president if he declares an emergency to take over all Communications now this emergency fortunately has never been declared but Simply Having this on the book for so long is a threat that someday a president might occur who says I’m going to take over all Communications and I will shut them down that is a power so ominous no president of either party should ever have that power and this bill would remove that power today though with the power still in place with the stroke of a pen the president could use this power to monitor emails restrict access to the internet control computer systems television radio broadcast and cell phones long-standing use of this power would effectively eviscerate the First Amendment if the Republic act my Amendment today were accepted the president would no longer be able to utilize this power at least would be have a limited power during a limited time and a majority of Congress would have to affirm the continued use of this emergency emergency Powers were not the type of rule our Founders anticipated for our country the other name for emergency rule is martial law it’s something all of us should object to and say that should only happen in an exceptional case be very limited and the ability of Congress to overturn if anyone doubts that emergency powers can be abused just look to Canada as Jee Healey of ko Institute wrote America’s neighbor to the north offers a cautionary tale about the risks that broad emergency Powers could be turned inward against political dissent in early 2022 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced a mass protest against covid-19 restrictions in which Canadian Truckers obstructed key border crossings and effectively shut down the capital city with their rigs instead of Simply clearing out protesters and punishing them via conventional legal means Trudeau invoked emergency Powers broad enough to permit the financial unperson of anyone participating in the protest he went to their bank accounts and took their money when people raised money voluntarily through crowd financing to help these truckers he stole that money as well through rule without any rule of law he took the money no transaction with the protesters he took their money people were locked up under martial law Canada’s 1988 Emer emergencies act gave the Trudeau government staggering powers to subject individual protesters to debank without due process this is the danger of Presidential Power of excessive Presidential Power it isn’t about any individ ual president it’s about all presidents of either party because men and women will succumb to the desire for power it’s inherent in all that’s why we must have checks and balances Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Christia Freeland put it this way in describing Trudeau’s martial law as of February 2022 and a warning to the truckers as of today a bank or a financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order the government of Canada essentially Trudeau could freeze a bank account without a court order without due process of law we are today serving notice if your truck is being used in these protests your corporate accounts will be frozen the insurance on your vehicle will be suspended send your trailers home and while native born Americans may think that mergency powers or to be used to Target others I would venture to Guess that the Canadian truckers protesting covid era mandates didn’t expect that their government would treat them as foreign adversaries and freeze their accounts if it can happen in Canada it can happen in the US expansive emergency powers do not end there today in the United States a country that owes its very existence to tax revolt the president can unilaterally impose and raise taxes on Foreign imports now some of that power unfortunately Congress gave to the president but it was a mistake and we should take the power back the rallying Cry of our American Revolution no taxation without representation was not just a protest of the past it’s a core principle of American governance and yet Congress in its feckless desire to uhca on all responsibility said to the president you can have it we don’t want it you can raise taxes anytime you want without a vote of Congress terrible idea our constitution was designed to prevent any branch from overstepping its bounds unchecked executive actions enacting tariffs on our citizens without a vote of Congress threatens our economy raises prices on everyday goods and erodes the system of checks and balances that our Founders so carefully crafted the Republic act the reform of emergency Powers the limitation of emergency power would correct this we end up saying to the president that you can’t declare an emergency to raise a tax our founding fathers were very specific not only did taxes have to originate in Congress they had to originate in the house before coming to the Senate because the house was seen as being closer to the people and yet here we are talking about vast taxes being leved by one person through emergency Powers we should not let this stand finally the Republic act my reform requires the president to disclose presidential emergency action documents to the Congress what are these These are executive orders are prepared in anticipation of a wide range of emergency scenarios these documents are kept secret and Congress has historically had little oversight or insight into how many exist what they say and what are the powers that the president anticipates taking in an emergency although the documents have never been made public there have reportedly been emergency orders designed to unilaterally suspend habus Corpus impose censorship and seize property without warrants we don’t know for certain because they will not reveal these executive orders but we do know that they exist Congress desperately needs to see these documents to conduct oversight of these secret plans that can threaten basic constitutional rights we do not have to accept as inevitable or as an inevitability the degeneration of a republic into a rule by an all powerful executive we do not have to live in a monarchy disguised as a republic we would do well to remember monu who wrote that when the executive and legislative powers are combined into one branch no Liberty will remain it’s time to reclaim the authority of Congress and protect the Liberties of people by pairing back the vast emergency Powers delegated to the president I hope the powers that be will change their mind and see fit to allow a vote on this amendment there is significant bipartisan support we passed it out of committee I believe 13 to one there’s a the Democrat chairman is a co-sponsor of this bill I think this is a bill that really should bring both sides together there used to be pride in our country the pride in the legislative branch to hold firm against usurpation of power by the other branches this was a a pride that went beyond party label and brought legislators together in recent years it’s been disappointing some people are for presidential reform of presidential emergencies when their part’s not in power and some people are for it until they’re against it when their guy or their woman is in power I can tell you this I’ve been for this emergency reform uh under the previous president I’m for this emergency War under the current under the next president because this is about power it’s about the dispersion of power it’s about decentralizing power it’s about the Constitutional separation of powers it’s about checks and balances it’s important enough that it should be considered I think it would pass were it considered but the American people need to know that important debates like this will only occur if the powers that be allow the vote to occur so I would beseech the powers to be to allow a vote on this amendment and for my colleague to vote yes thank you and I reserve the remainder of my time.