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Utah’s U.S. Senate delegation at the Congressional Series

Written by The Likely Voter

October 17, 2024

  • Sen. Romney emphasized the importance of voting in each election, reflecting on the sacrifices made for the opportunity to do so.
  • Sen. Lee stressed the need to curb executive power and return the sole lawmaking authority to Congress.

Sutherland Institute’s 2024 Congressional Series, hosted by the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics and sponsored by Zions Bank, came to a close recently, following participation from Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee.

Romney began the Senate portion of the series with Sutherland’s CEO and president, Rick Larsen, as they talked about the economic growth of China and the importance of voting in America.

Following a question on the economic competition between China and America, Romney said that America is slipping on the issue.

“China and the authoritarians – they’re succeeding, and we’re kind of in retreat, and we really don’t have a strategy to deal with them.”

Romney noted that the issue is not just about money, but about strength and might.

“They’re dominating one industry after another, putting Western businesses out of business, [and] taking the cash from that to build a military that will be far larger than ours.”

Later in the conversation, Romney stressed why it is important for every American to vote.

“The vote was won at extraordinary cost. A lot of people lost their lives or have been permanently maimed by virtue of fighting for our freedom, maintaining our freedom, preserving it today,” Romney said. “There has been enormous blood that’s been shed to create the opportunity for me to vote and I take that seriously.”

Sutherland’s constitutional law and religious freedom fellow, Bill Duncan, led the conversation with Lee as they discussed federalism and executive agency overreach.

“I mark one date, April 12, 1937, as the date that the structural Constitution underwent a very significant change,” Lee said.

Lee was referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, which gave Congress the ability to regulate intrastate commerce, rather than just interstate commerce.

Steel, Lee argued, provided the precedent for the now-overturned Chevron Doctrine, which gave deference to federal agencies in the agency’s regulations and guidance around legislation.

Lee believes that Congress should go further to revoke federal agencies’ power by passing the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act.

“If you pass the REINS Act … any federal regulations that have the effect of generally applicable federal law that can impose economically significant affirmative legal obligations on you as a member of the public,” Lee said, “… those couldn’t take effect unless, or until, both houses of Congress had affirmatively enacted them into law.”

Such a law, Lee said, would greatly restrict executive overreach and enable Congress to return as the primary lawmaking body.

To learn more about the Congressional Series, review our event page here.

Takeaways: the most important things voters need to know. For civically engaged citizens.  

  • Sen. Romney emphasized the importance of voting in each election, reflecting on the sacrifices made for the opportunity to do so.
  • Sen. Lee stressed the need to curb executive power and return the sole lawmaking authority to Congress.
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