Government Oversight

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Monday called on two of the three board members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to resign immediately in the wake of an appeals court ruling that said President Obama appointed them to that position illegally last year.

"I'm here today to call for Sharon Block and Richard Griffin, the two members of the National Labor Relations Board who were unconstitutionally appointed by the President ... to resign their positions," Alexander said on the Senate floor.

Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and more than 100 other House Republicans want another shot at giving Congress a say over major Executive Branch regulations that have a $100 million impact on the economy.

These members proposed a new version of the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act on Wednesday. The REINS Act was one of the GOP leadership's high-priority bills in the last Congress, and it passed in a December 2011 vote that saw every Republican support it along with four Democrats.

On the same day the House passed a bill to withhold congressional pay unless a budget is passed, two others were proposed that would significantly cut member pay.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) on Wednesday proposed legislation that would cut the annual rates of pay for all members of Congress by 20 percent. Her bill, H.R. 396, would also prohibit pay increases unless the federal government did not run a budget deficit in the prior year.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Wednesday that he’s reintroduced his voting rights bill that would incentivize states to assist voters who don’t speak English, among other things.

Coons first introduced the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act after the November election, but no action was taken on the bill, so he's reintroduced it in the 113th Congress.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Wednesday that he introduced bills that would place term limits on members of Congress and end their automatic pay raises.

“Not allowing individuals to remain in office for an eternity is an important step we need to take to restore confidence in Congress,” Vitter said on the floor Wednesday. “It won’t be the be-all and end-all for good government reform, but it would help us reconnect with the people.”

Freshman Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would stop the executive actions President Obama announced last week on gun control.

His bill, the Restore the Constitution Act, would find any executive action to be advisory only in nature if it is found to infringe on the constitutional duties of Congress under Article I, or the 2nd Amendment dealing with the right to bear arms.

House Judiciary Committee member Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said this week that the committee will scrutinize the 23 executive actions President Obama signed related to gun violence to make sure they don't violate the Constitution.

Gowdy told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that the committee would see if the orders meet a "rational basis" test against the Constitution. That's a reference to the principle that rules must have a legitimate and constitutionally based reason for being issued.

"By his executive actions today, President Obama is pushing the government further into the exam room," Rep. Fleming (R-La.) said.

A group of House Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require all government conferences that cost more than $25,000 to be cleared at the highest level of the relevant federal agency.

The Agency Conferences and Conventions Operating Under Necessary Transparency (Account) Act, H.R. 283, is a response to the discovery of a 2010 General Services Administration (GSA) conference in Las Vegas that cost more than $800,000. That led to a detailed House probe of GSA and the resignation of the GSA administrator.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder why he decided to challenge South Carolina’s voter identification law.

In a letter sent to Holder on Wednesday, the South Carolina lawmakers pointed out that last week the Washington, D.C., District Court awarded South Carolina possibly up to $3.5 million in litigation costs incurred while defending its voter ID law against a Justice Department challenge.