WASHINGTON — The House plans to take steps to curb the power of federal agencies and impose more checks on them in response to recent scandals emanating from the Internal Revenue Service.
The plan includes a bill that would bar that agency from implementing and enforcing Obamacare.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will introduce the package of bills before Congress recesses in August. Politico first reported the news.
“The public is feeling a growing sense of distrust of what this administration and what Washington is doing, and that’s why we in the House this month will be taking up a package of bills to stop the government abuse, to put the American people first,” Cantor said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
“We should be about empowering the American people. We should be about holding bureaucrats in Washington accountable because this town is supposed to work for the people and not the other way around,” he added.
The legislation comes in response to the scandals surrounding the IRS, and would cover all federal agencies.
The IRS bears responsibility for implementation and enforcement of Obamacare, something that would be prohibited in one of the bills Cantor will introduce. (RELATED: IRS released thousands of Social Security numbers)
Another bill would make it legal for citizens to make recordings of any conversation they have with a federal enforcement official.
A third necessitates the approval of the leadership of the agency for conferences held by government officials.
Under another bill, Congress would have final approval of any regulations that would seriously impact the economy.
Yet another would mandate the creation of a customer service system at agencies.
One bill in the package would let agencies place “senior career officials on investigative leave, with or without pay, when they are under investigation for serious abuses.”