Nov. 16, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising the likely choice of Mick Mulvaney to be the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

“Mick Mulvaney has the proven steady hand to be in the process of the righting the ship at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is extremely important for President Trump to have someone he trusts in this important temporary role. Given the confirmation challenge facing any permanent replacement for Richard Cordray, the President’s quick action in placing Mulvaney into this role is important to put his imprint on the regulations that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been imposing. With Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the American people can be assured that the agency will not continue Cordray’s practice of issuing economy-crippling regulations at this critical time for our nation’s financial services industry. Mulvaney’s likely appointment as acting director of this agency should not lessen Congress’ resolve to end the unconstitutional delegation of funding oversight authority that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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Nov. 15, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement reacting to the resignation of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray:

“Victory! Americans for Limited Government named Richard Cordray as one of Washington, D.C.’s worst Obama holdover zombies and now he’s gone. Richard Cordray should have never been working on the public dime in the first place, but I’m pleased that he will soon no longer be able to wreak regulatory havoc on the American people and the economy. The Trump Administration needs to not only find a suitable replacement for Cordray who will put consumer protection over self-promotion, but immediately put a freeze on all harmful CFPB issued regulations. I call on Congress to finish the job by continuing to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the incredible damage the rogue CFPB has already inflected on taxpayers and the economy.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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On Halloween, Group Calls on President Trump to Fire Obama’s Zombie Regulators and Repeal, Freeze Obama-era Regulations

October 31, 2017, Fairfax, Va.—On Halloween, Americans for Limited Government released an ad today to encourage President Trump to take action and remove Obama-era “zombie” regulators that are still wreaking regulatory havoc on the lives of Americans and the economy. The ad also calls on President Trump and his Administration to repeal or freeze Obama-era regulations.

“There is absolutely no excuse for these Obama regulators to continue working on the public dime,” said Richard Manning, President, Americans for Limited Government. “It’s time for Trump to say ‘you’re fired’ to these dangerous, regulation-loving agency heads so that his Administration can continue to keep our economy moving and government out of people’s wallets and pocketbooks.”

The ad cites Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray and Federal House Finance Agency Director, Mel Watt. In the spirit of Halloween, the ad likens these Obama-era regulators to zombies, as they have outlived the end of the Obama administration.

Ad Transcript:

TEXT: Obama’s zombie regulators

TEXT: They just keep coming back.

TEXT: Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

TEXT: Mel Watt, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency

TEXT: The Obama zombie regulators are threatening the Trump agenda.

TEXT: It’s time to end the Obama administration.

TEXT: It’s time to drain the swamp.

TEXT: President Trump, it’s time to fire Obama’s zombie regulators and repeal or freeze Obama-era regulations.

TEXT: Americans for Limited Government www.getliberty.org

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 100 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts.

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June 20, 2016, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging passage of the House Financial Services Appropriations Bill:

“The House Financial Services bill is an Article I bill. It will defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from getting printing press money from the Fed. It will end the individual mandate under Obamacare, defend churches against IRS abuses. It will defund certain Treasury regulations regarding investments in overseas coal-fired plants. It will prohibit the Financial Stability Board from taking over and bailing out financial institutions under Dodd-Frank. It cuts off any funding for the Cuban military and intelligence. It defunds Net Neutrality. And it even comes in $1.5 billion under the previous year’s appropriations level.

“This is exactly what taxpayers expect from a Republican Congress, reining in abuses by the Obama Administration and curtailing the use of state power against the American people. Using the Congressional power of the purse to limit the executive branch is exactly what the Framers intended when they implemented the separation of powers.

“The Financial Services appropriations subcommittee led by Chairman Ander Crenshaw should be very proud of their work shown by their determination to not allow President Obama’s abuses of power to remain unchecked.  Americans for Limited Government strongly urges the passage of this legislation through the Rules Committee, the House of Representatives and Congress as a whole.

“The legislation should be strengthened even further by inclusion of an amendment by U.S. Rep. John Katko that prevents the IRS from violating the privacy rights of taxpayers by stopping the agency from hiring outside counsel to lead investigations.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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May 6, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limitd Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and the House Financial Services Committee for moving legislation last month that will take away the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding stream from the earnings of the Federal Reserve System:

“There is absolutely no excuse for the CFPB, an unaccountable government agency, to have unlimited resources from the nation’s central bank. It is little more than a slush fund linked to a printing press. We praise the work of Rep. Andy Barr bringing this unconstitutional funding mechanism to heel. Article I, Section 7 requires all legislation spending money originate in the House of Repesentatives, and Rep. Barr’s bill will finally bring the CFPB out of the shadow funding of the Fed and into the sunlight of the appropriations process where it belongs.

“Rep. Andy Barr’s language is also incorporated into as part of Rep. Ken Buck’s Article I supplemental, which includes more than 50 riders that should be put onto any must-pass legislation the House considers this year.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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July 16, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in response to a limited number of Senate Republicans agreeing to invoke cloture on Obama nominee for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray, Gina McCarthy for the Environmental Protection Agency, Thomas Perez for the Labor Department and not to block future Obama nominees to the National Labor Relations Board:

“These rogue Republican senators have supposedly ‘saved’ the filibuster — by apparently promising never to use it again on executive nominees.

“They even apparently agreed not to block nominees to the National Labor Relations Board who have not even been nominated yet nor faced a single committee hearing. They have handed President Obama absolute discretion over his next nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. This appears to be carte blanche for Obama to nominate the most radical members he can find.

“The filibuster on executive nominees has been eliminated in all but name only. That is, until Democrats again find themselves in the minority. Then suddenly it will be a legitimate vehicle to block ‘radical’ nominees. This is the type of compromise only Washington, D.C. could produce, where Democrats threaten to eliminate the filibuster on executive nominees unless Republicans promise not to use it.

“What exactly were these Republicans ‘saving’? They might as well have just changed the rules if they never intend to invoke them to block radical nominees.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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July 9, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) not to be intimidated by Senate Democrat threats to repeal the filibuster from Senate Rule XXII:

“Senate Republicans must not be intimidated from asserting their rights as the minority party in the Senate. Rule XXII is very clear that it takes 67 votes to amend Senate rules. Any change to rules by a simple majority would clearly violate standing rules and break almost a century of precedent. Senate Democrats should also be warned that if they do repeal the filibuster in this manner, it will be for all time. When, not if, Democrats again find themselves in the minority, this will be used against them.

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should not be fearful of using the filibuster against nominees like Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Thomas Perez to head the Labor Department, or Obama’s nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. This is nothing more than an idle threat by the Senate majority to bully Republicans into allowing the Senate to become little more than a rubber stamp for nominees.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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June 27, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government Vice President of Public Policy and Communications Rick Manning today commented on documents obtained by Judicial Watch via the Freedom of Information Act from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau revealing a massive credit file data collection program on some 5 million Americans without their consent, including credit scores, purchases, ZIP code, year of birth, and a “persistent consumer identifier making it possible to follow consumers over time”:

“The discovery that the Obama Administration is aggregating credit file data on millions of Americans is hardly surprising since Congress authorized this collection in the Dodd-Frank financial legislation. The law empowers unaccountable bureaucrats at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and also the Office of Financial Research to gather personal financial data upon request from financial institutions.

“In light of other recent disclosures of government data mining at other agencies, this is particularly troubling. Even if what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is getting is randomly selected and anonymized, and even if they only want the information purely for research purposes to monitor credit flows, this is still intrusive information being obtained without the American people’s consent.

“Taken as a whole, all of this data collection amounts to tagging, cataloguing, and monitoring individuals, turning them into nothing more than lab rats to be optimized and incentivized into government-preferred behaviors. The information will probably be incredibly useful to central planners — which is precisely why the American people need to begin asking what the government really wants it for.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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May 8, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government General Counsel Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement praising a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for overturning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that had compelled employers to hang a Board-mandated poster not explicitly provided for under law:

“The court made the right decision here, finding the Board cannot make the failure to post a Board-mandated poster an unfair labor practice because, among other reasons, the Board could not make an employer’s speech advising employees that they do not have to join a union an unfair labor practice.  Also, because the poster requirement had no basis in the statute itself, the court ruled the Board cannot just make up what it deems to be an unfair labor practice and then compel employers to abide by their arbitrary definition.

“The court also tossed the tolling provision in the rule and held that because the Board wouldn’t have promulgated the rule without those provisions that the rest falls also.  Two judges would have gone even further to hold that the Board lacks the statutory jurisdiction to promulgate the rule in the first place.

“Interestingly, the court in dicta called into question whether the recess appointment of Craig Becker to the Board was legitimate, assuming without deciding it was constitutionally invalid. But since even without Becker, there was still a Senate-confirmed quorum of Board members, his recess appointment was not at issue in this case. For other cases, however, that likely will not be so.

“All of which underscores the foolishness and arrogance of the White House in making these so-called recess appointments to the Board in the first place — as well as to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — when Congress was not even in recess. We expect more rulings will come down in this direction and never again will a president be able to imagine a congressional recess into existence.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG General Counsel Nathan Mehrens, also a former Labor Department attorney.

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June 11, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) president Bill Wilson reacted to reports that allies of Barack Obama are urging him to by-pass Congress and expand his executive authority to change the law through decree.

“This trial balloon from Durbin shows the complete disdain that the left has for our nation’s constitution, and the checks and balances that prevent an imperial presidency.  Obama has already destroyed the advice and consent check on his power by placing three of his choices on the National Labor Relations Board without even going through the normal process of submitting them to the Senate, and now he is being urged to create law through executive order,” Wilson said.

The article in Washington, D.C. publication, Roll Call, quotes Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin as saying the White House is considering executive orders on issues that the elected members of Congress has not passed into law, including the DREAM Act.  “The president needs to consider taking action by executive order when Congress will not respond to a major national challenge,” said Durbin.

The issues are thought to be important to mobilize important Democrat constituencies, including Hispanics and gays, who are deemed key to Obama’s re-election.

“Our nation teeters on a precipice with our very liberty in the balance, and Durbin’s call for Obama to impose his will on the people of the nation for nothing more than political gain is just one more assault on the social fabric that has protected our individual freedom,” Wilson said.

Previously, ALG’s Wilson has blasted several Obama executive orders and actions that he said were “lawless.”

Obama pretended a congressional recess into existence to make radical appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Obama Federal Housing Finance Administration arbitrarily allowed Fannie and Freddie mortgages that are 25 percent higher than market value to be refinanced when the law placing the GSEs in conservatorship never allowed it.

Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation to force religious-based institutions to pay for contraception against their teachings in violation of the First Amendment.

His Justice Department took on the role of a court and declared the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional when its role is to defend the law whether it agrees with it or not.

When a federal judge in Florida struck down the entirety of Obamacare as unconstitutional, the Obama Administration continued to implement regulations pursuant to the law, not waiting for the judge to stay his decision.

His EPA arbitrarily declared carbon dioxide, a gas essential to life itself, to be a “harmful pollutant” covered under the Clean Air Act.

“This is how Obama does business. If he cannot get what he wants though the legislative process, he just issues a dictate. By failing to resist this siren song to grab more power, he is re-energizing those who oppose him to redouble their efforts to defeat him at the polls, lest Schoolhouse Rock’s famous ‘how a bill becomes law’ becomes obsolete forever,” Wilson concluded.

Americans for Limited Government is dedicated to rolling back government at all levels, and is a leading national free market advocacy group.

Attachments:

“Obama the Usurper,” by ALG President Bill Wilson, Feb. 10, 2012 at http://netrightdaily.com/2012/02/obama-the-usurper/

Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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