Drain the swamp bill introduced in Congress
02/08/2017 / By Jayson Veley
Perhaps one of Donald Trump’s most significant campaign promises, other than his repeated commitment to “making America great again,” was his pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington D.C.
Drain the swamp, as most Americans understood it, was a metaphor for cleansing Washington of its rampant corruption, and to finally restore a sense of honesty and integrity inside of the federal government. Politicians are often viewed as detached from reality and disconnected from the lives of average American citizens, which may explain congress’s low approval rating of 19% as of February, 2017.
Inspired by the campaign slogan, Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio is planning to introduce the Drain The Swamp Act this Thursday, which, if passed into law, would spread out the various departments and agencies of the federal government, as opposed to keeping them huddled around Washington D.C.
Arguing that the Department of Agriculture should move to a more rural area, Davidson said, “Instead of having a bunch of people based in D.C. where the closest thing to agriculture is, you know, a flower pot hanging on a window sill – is different than hiring people from the Midwest.” This, he went on to explain, would not only give Americans living in different regions of the country a chance at federal employment opportunities, but it would also allow Metropolitan Washington D.C. to sell expensive real estate and make money.
Rep. Davidson also brought up the fact that the ten wealthiest counties in the United States all surround Washington D.C. due to the consolidation of federal agencies in the area. If these agencies were to be spread out across the nation, we could provide some financial relief to areas that need it, like Detroit. [RELATED: See how a new Sustainable Agriculture Development program in Detroit Feeds 2000 Households For Free.]
Although he hasn’t read the bill yet, Representative Jason Chaffetz said that the basic premise of the Drain The Swamp Act makes a lot of sense. “I think the notion [that] by default these agencies should continue to grow and expand in Washington D.C., it’s just wrong,” he explained. “Our government would be closer to the people” and “more reflective of the people if they were based outside of the greater Washington D.C. area.”
Representative Davidson isn’t the only Republican congressman who is taking bold steps to help the Trump administration fulfill its promise to drain the swamp. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News just days ago, Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas discussed two additional bills he has filed, both of which have as their purpose to further “drain the swamp.”
The ALERT Act, also known as the All Economic Regulations Are Transparent Act, seeks to restore governmental transparency by allowing the public to view detailed information of federal regulations for a minimum of six months before they are fully implemented. This is consistent with the way many of our Founding Fathers believed the government should operate. Patrick Henry, for example, once linked government transparency to individual liberty at the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1788, saying, “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
The second bill – the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, or SOPRA – challenges the Chevron decision of 1984 and seeks to once again equally distribute power among the three branches of government. Ratcliffe told Breitbart News that he mentioned his legislation to Donald Trump back in October of last year, saying that he was “anxious” to get it to his desk once elected. According to Ratcliffe, Trump was very receptive to the proposal, but only time will tell if the SOPRA Act will one day turn into federal law.
Stay informed with more conservative news at Conservative.news.
Sources:
Tagged Under: Congress, Donald Trump, drain the swamp, Warren Davidson
RECENT NEWS & ARTICLES
