Don Young

Congressman for All Alaska

Washington Office:

2314 Rayburn Building

Washington, DC 20515

202-225-5765

Committee on

Natural Resources

Chairman, Subcommittee on

Indian and Alaska Native Affairs

Committee on

Transportation & Infrastructure

Republican

Policy Committee

October 5, 2015

Dear Mr. Christiansen,

Thank you for contacting my office regarding your opinions of President Barack Obama. I appreciate having

the benefit of your thoughts.

As you are well aware, the President of The United States has overreached the boundaries of his office many

times on many different matters over the past few years. His rash and unreasonable actions, many of which

have eroded powers from the legislative branch, show a profound disregard for the authority of the

Constitution.

There have been many examples of President Obama abusing the power of his office. The Obama

Administration has been actively engaged in an effort to undermine First Amendment freedom of speech

protections. The Administration has pushed to criminalize investigative journalism by going through the

emails and phone records of reporters who have been critical of Administration policy and accusing

journalists of being co-conspirators in felonies for working with their sources.

Additionally, news reports revealed that the IRS unfairly targeted conservative organizations applying for

tax-exempt status during the 2012 election cycle. While the IRS admitted to Congress that they did indeed

target organizations with "tea party" or "patriot" in their registered name, the IRS had previously denied

targeting any groups for their particular political affiliations I am outraged at these revelations and at

President Obama's blatant inability to control federal agencies for which he is responsible.

Even more troubling was the President's utter disregard for the U.S. Constitution with the appointment of

officials such as Richard Cordray without proper approval from the legislative branch. On January 4, 2012,

President Obama appointed Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, without the

Senate's consent, claiming it to be a recess appointment. However, the Senate was not actually in recess, as

the Senate cannot adjourn for more than three days without the House's approval. On June 27, 2014, the

Supreme Court declared this appointment unconstitutional.

With over 100 years of precedent on the recess appointment power, a President has never taken such a

dramatic and tyrannical action while the Senate was still in session. He chooses to ignore the structural

checks and balances of our government and ignores the representatives of the citizens of our great country.

These actions need to be stopped.

Multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced in the House during the 114th Congress to hold the

President accountable for violating the standards of the Constitution. On January 6, 2015, Representative

Ted Yoho (R-MN) introduced H.R. 38, the Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2015, to

prohibit executive orders that exempt illegal immigrants from deportation. H.R. 227, was introduced by

Steve King (R-IA) two days later, and prohibits Federal funding for programs that solely benefit illegal

immigrants who were illegally reprieved through executive order.

When accusations regarding impeachment are brought against the President, the House Judiciary

Committee decides whether to start a formal inquiry into impeachment, to see if the allegations against the

President rise to the constitutional standards. If impeachment is warranted, the Judiciary Committee sends

the resolution to the House floor for a vote, where a majority vote decides the verdict to impeach, much like

an indictment in civilian court. It is then passed on to the Senate for trial.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to provide oversight and scrutiny into illegal and

unconstitutional actions taken by this Administration. Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind as

Congress confronts President Obama's continuous overreach of authority.

Once again, thank you for expressing your views on this issue. If you haven't already, I would encourage you

to sign up for my e-newsletter at http://donyoung.house.gov/formsemailsignup and my YouTube channel

at http://www.youtube.com/user/RepDonYoung. Doing so will allow me to provide you with updates on

important issues. If I can be of any assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

DON YOUNG

Congressman for All Alaska

DY/JJ

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