Guest Editorial by Ruth Peterson
We have a form of government where the citizens elect representatives in their communities who then gather in the Legislature at the state level or in Congress at the federal level. Those representatives make our laws. That is called the Legislative Branch of government. The Executive Branch has the job of carrying out those laws. But in recent decades, this process has been turned on its head, and more and more, our executives, the Governor and the President, are bypassing your representatives to make the laws themselves.
The Executive Branch isn’t just the President or the Governor. It also includes all the agencies that oversee our lives in just about every way. At the state level, a few of these are Ecology, Labor & Industries, Employment Security, and Fish & Wildlife. At the federal level, you have the EPA, FDA, CDC, US Forest Service, etc. Agencies are being used by the Executive to pass rules that have the force of law. Here are some examples:
1. You cannot work at a government agency in Washington State unless you have been vaccinated. This was not a law passed by the Legislature but an order by the Governor to his agencies making them require it. Ironically, the mandate doesn’t take into account those who have had COVID and recovered. A vaccination from a year and a half ago is fine. Natural immunities from a month ago are not.
2. The EPA just announced they will make decisions based on social justice. That was a decision made by unelected people on a Board, not by your elected representatives. Businesses must comply with thousands of regulations created by agencies. Hunting and fishing, farming, food service, and child care, all have boards and commissions overseeing them. Some rules stem from laws passed by the Legislature, but many times the law is very vague, and the agencies are allowed to flesh out the requirements. This gives agencies a great deal of power.
3. President Biden recently used this power to bypass Congress. His decision to forgive student loans was not a decision made by your elected representatives – it was his decision alone.
4. The U.S. Dept of Labor, another agency, is going to unveil a proposed rule that will undermine independent contractors. Franchises will also be harmed. If you are an independent contractor, you need to be aware of this rule. You can read more about it here: https://bit.ly/3SGDriz
5. Our agencies do different things depending on who is running them. When Obama was in office, there was a clean water rule that was put into place that would have required you to get expensive federal permits for building if you even had a ditch on your property. They were going to claim that your wetlands are “navigable waters.” The Trump Admin repealed the rule. Another Trump agency direction was to remove 16 regulations for every new one proposed. They were able to repeal a lot of useless red tape during his time in office.
These are just a few examples of the thousands of rules and regulations that affect every part of your life but were not voted on by your elected representatives. This is not how our government is supposed to function. It’s also how the government can grow by leaps and bounds, and it needs to change. There is a very clear difference between the Democrat and Republican view of the agency bureaucracies in our country. Republicans support a government that is smaller in scope and size, whereas Democrats want to expand the size of government and the control it has over your life. Our Constitution says that the power of government comes from the people. The way we exert our power is through our vote.
Please take the time to vote this November. If you think government is too big and powerful, or if you feel that you want your elected representatives to vote on laws instead of unelected bureaucrats, you need to vote Republican.
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Ruth Peterson is State Committeewoman for Lewis County Republican Party, and works in the State Senate.
