With an eye towards how former President Donald Trump pushed the envelope in terms of the use of the executive branch’s power, House Democrats are now pushing back as they put forward a package of new limitations on how much an American President can do unilaterally.
The Protecting Our Democracy Act is meant to shore up and strengthen the checks and balances on Presidential power, and Democrats in the House have worked with current President Joe Biden for months to hone in on the regulations they want to put in place.
The goal is to make it more difficult for a U.S. President to put himself above the law, and the new rules make it harder for a sitting Commander-In-Chief to:
- Issue a pardon when doing so raises corruption suspicions
- Refuse to cooperate with oversight subpoenas
- Spend or secretly freeze funds contrary to congressional appropriations
- Fire or retaliate against officials who might be investigating the President like inspectors general or against whistleblowers
The lead sponsor of the bill, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, hopes to get a floor vote on the act, which includes a number of other limits on Presidential power, “this fall.”
Trump's willingness to flout conventions in office "has really put our republic on a very tenuous footing," Schiff said. "Our democracy turns out to be much more fragile than we understood, and this is an effort to put into law that which we thought was already mandatory."
Trump is still deciding whether or not to try again for a second term as President in 2024.
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