McConnell Sees Many Tools To Fight Regulatory Overreach
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., named the FCC among many problems he sees emanating from the administration. “This is a very adversarial regulatory environment,” McConnell said at a Federalist Society event Thursday, rattling off several elements of the administration…
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that he said are guilty of overreach. “This is the reason we’re bumping along with a 2 percent growth rate.” He described his broader strategies of responding to the administration’s regulatory overreach, not specifically dwelling on telecom but considering strategies that Republicans have employed in response to the GOP-opposed net neutrality order the FCC approved in February. President Barack Obama initially pursued his agenda on the legislative side with a Democratic Congress, but “he was undeterred in pursuing his objectives on the regulatory side” after losing the House in 2010, McConnell said. He listed several tools for fighting regulation -- authorization, appropriations, congressional pressure and oversight, the Congressional Review Act and “of course, the courts.” He lauded virtues of the various tools, praising the use of appropriations riders. “Shame can be a powerful weapon indeed,” McConnell said. “An administration is going to think twice about testing the limits of power if it thinks it might have to deal with Chuck Grassley later.” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairs the Judiciary Committee.