From: California AG Network

US House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wa) calls it an unprecedented power grab.  He’s talking about the executive order issued by President Barack Obama called the National Ocean Policy.  Hastings has taken the unusual move of sending a letter to the House Appropriations Committee asking them to make sure funding to departments and agencies that would implement the president’s plan cannot use their money for those purposes.

Critics of the policy say it’s an overreach of executive powers and an end-around of Congress to put virtually the entire nation under Obama’s personal regulatory authority.  The National Ocean Policy is intended to protect the waters off the US coast but, to do that, it would create an authority over the tributaries that lead to the ocean.  In turn, land that affects those tributaries would come under the purvey of the police and that would include all land in the United States according to Hastings.

When the policy was signed by executive order in March, the White House offered no plan on how to pay for implementation.  The idea would be to have agencies and departments use existing funding to put the policy in place.  Hastings says the appropriations authorized by Congress constitute law.  To divert that money to fund an executive order would break the law and represent a clear violation of the separation of powers says the Republican lawmaker.  Critics of the White House say that kind of thing has become common place under the Obama Administration which they accuse of doing whatever they want with complete disregard.

Unlike the charges of overreach in the wave of new regulations coming from the government, most so far have at least purported to be expansions of existing laws.  It is up to departments and agencies to interpret the laws passed by Congress, so the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act have seen expansions that many call oenerous.  Still, it’s all being done in the name of the law.  The National Ocean Policy is a one-man show according to Hastings and his intention is to put a stop to it.  Asking the White House to reconsider the plan is not being publicly pursued as Republicans believe they’ve seen enough than to even bother to try that.

So far, there is no response from the Appropriations Committee to Hastings’ letter.