Government is Too Big, Powerful, and Unaccountable to American People

Floor Speech

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Mr. KNOTT. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has been too big, powerful, and unaccountable to the American people for far too long. This is most clear in our Federal agencies, which have spent years acting as the investigator, prosecutor, and judge simultaneously and all without any accountability.

Put plainly: If a Federal agency wishes to stop a particular project or activity, it may do so at any time without regard to the cost that such actions incur on the parties who are being stopped. All leverage and power rests with the regulator, and there is no real recourse for the regulated.

This week, I introduced the Limiting Excessive Government Obstruction Act, also known as the LEGO Act, to stop this overreach. My bill is part of a broader effort to rein in the administrative state, to protect constitutional rights, and to eliminate the Federal bureaucracy that burdens so many Americans through restricting the creative genius that comes from real liberty.

Right now, administrative enforcement cases start and end inside the very agencies that write and enforce the rules. Government officials decide both who to target and then sit as judges over those very people.

Very few, except for specialized and expensive lawyers right here in Washington, D.C., have any idea of how to navigate a challenge to an agency action that halts a project.

As an example, let's say a farmer is visited by the EPA and instructed to stop farming, simply because the EPA alleges that the farmer is violating a specific rule. Right now, the farmer cannot challenge the order to stop farming in a court of law down the street from his home. He cannot continue farming. His only recourse is to file a challenge here in Washington before a ``judge'' that is funded by the EPA.

Before the challenge can be dismissed, the farmer must exhaust all administrative remedies before the EPA to show that the EPA overstepped its bounds. Not only is this unfair, but it can take years and cost millions of dollars.

That is not how our government is supposed to work.

Whether a farmer on their land or a local municipality building a bridge in a small town, we do not work at the mercy of a Federal agency or a nameless Federal bureaucrat.

My bill changes this broken system by giving the regulated party the power to proceed quickly when stopped by a governing agency.

To continue with my example, a farmer is stopped by the EPA for farming the exact same way that he has farmed for decades. Rather than having to wait on the EPA's timeline, my bill empowers the farmer to pursue the agency order in an Article III court in front of a jury of his peers and then continue on with their livelihood. There, the farmer can seek to dismiss the regulatory effort simply by showing reasonable compliance with the law and/or the subject regulation.

The effects of this bill are all favorable:

Regulated parties will no longer be bound by the whims of the regulators.

Harmless and sound economic activity cannot be stopped by a whim.

More certainty in economic activity and projects will increase efficiency and lower costs.

The bill will compel the regulating agencies to focus only on unreasonable activity.

The farmers, contractors, builders, and States will develop many more ways to design, build, and advance in a compliant and reasonable manner.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, it will restore the balance needed between the regulator and the regulated. If unreasonable activity is occurring, the government should be forced to prove it in an independent court, rather than a regulated party being forced to prove the government acted unreasonably in an agency forum.

Mr. Speaker, the economic miracle that we have enjoyed in the United States was never achieved by a centrally controlled planning and regulatory force. The miracle of the United States' economy was conceived by private individuals and entities who had the freedom to build, experiment, farm, and progress in a system rooted in freedom.

When the government can stop free people on a whim without any consideration of the cost, we will solidify the decline that so many of us in this country feel today.

Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve a government that works for, not against, them. It is time that we rein in the bureaucracy and eliminate excessive regulatory burdens imposed by our Federal Government.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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