Several GOP lawmakers express concern over Trump executive orders

Several GOP senators voiced discomfort regarding President Trump's decision Saturday to sign four executive orders meant to address the economic fall out of the coronavirus and bypassing Congress.

At his private club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump signed orders that extend unemployment benefits, suspend payroll taxes, and offer federal eviction and student loan relief after lawmakers and members of the Trump administration failed to reach an agreement on a fifth coronavirus bill this week.

However, some members of the president's party took issue with the move, asserting that Congress should be legislating.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.), who has largely spoken out against the government spending large sums of money in coronavirus legislation, offered one of the party's more cutting rebukes, calling the theory behind the move “unconstitutional slop.”

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop,” Sasse said in a statement issued by email and obtained by The Hill. “President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.“...(Read more)

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