Write the Laws Act

Summary: Write the Laws Act - Prohibits: (1)&nbsp;the inclusion of a delegation of legislative powers clause in any bill passed by Congress, whether such delegation is to a branch of government, a federal or quasi-public agency, a state or instrumentality thereof, or any other organization or individual; or (2) any new presidential directive, adjudicative decision, rule, or regulation governing, limiting, imposing a penalty on, or otherwise regulating any activity of, any person or entity, other than a U.S. officer or employee, unless such directive, decision, rule, or regulation is authorized by&nbsp;a duly-enacted&nbsp;bill. Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to report to Congress identifying all previously-enacted&nbsp;statutes that contain a delegation of powers clause to assist Congress in&nbsp;repealing or amending any such statutes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Write the Laws Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) Article I, section 1 of the United States Constitution vests 
the legislative powers enumerated therein in the United States 
Congress, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, 
subject only to the veto power of the President as provided in article 
I, section 7, clause 2.
    (b) Article II, section 1 of the United States Constitution vests 
the executive power of the United States in a President of the United 
States, except as enumerated in article II, section 2.
    (c) Article III, section 1 of the United States Constitution vests 
the judicial power of the United States in ``one supreme Court, and in 
such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and 
establish,'' subject only to the jurisdictional limitations set forth 
in article III, section 2.
    (d) ``In the main, [the United States Constitution] has blocked out 
with singular precision, and in bold lines, in its three primary 
Articles, the allotment of power to the executive, the legislative, and 
judicial departments of the government [and] the powers confided by the 
Constitution to one of these departments cannot be exercised by 
another.'' Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 191 (1881).
    (e) ``It is . . . essential to the successful working of this 
system, that the persons entrusted with power in any of these branches 
shall not be permitted to encroach upon the powers confided to others, 
but that each shall by the law of its creation be limited to the 
exercise of the powers of its own department and no other.'' Kilbourn 
v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 191 (1881).
    (f) ``The increase in the number of States, in their population and 
wealth, and in the amount of power . . . [has] present[ed] powerful and 
growing temptations to those to whom that exercise is intrusted, to 
overstep the just boundaries of their own department, and enter upon 
the domain of one of the others, or to assume powers not intrusted to 
either of them.'' Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 191-192 (1881).
    (g) Succumbing to these ``powerful and growing'' temptations, and 
beginning in the late nineteenth century with the Interstate Commerce 
Commission and continuing to the present time, Congress has 
unconstitutionally created numerous administrative agencies with 
blended powers, namely, (i) the exercise of legislative power vested by 
the Constitution in Congress, (ii) the exercise of executive power 
vested by the Constitution in the President and (iii) the exercise of 
judicial power vested by the Constitution in the Supreme Court and 
lower Federal courts.
    (h) By delegating legislative, executive and judicial power to the 
various administrative agencies, Congress has departed from the 
separation of powers structure of the United States Constitution, and 
ignored the warning of the framers of that instrument that ``[T]he 
accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in 
the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, 
self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very 
definition of tyranny.'' James Madison, The Federalist No. 47.
    (i) Further, by delegating legislative, executive, and judicial 
powers to various administrative agencies, Congress has 
unconstitutionally established a Star Chamber-like system of rules 
promulgated, executed and adjudicated by administrative agencies that 
are functionally a part of the executive branch of government in 
violation of the due process guarantee of the Fifth Amendment that 
secures a system of rules promulgated by Congress, executed by the 
President, and adjudicated by the courts independent from the 
legislative and executive branches of government.
    (j) By the very nature of legislative power, and by the express 
terms of article I, section 1 of the United States Constitution, 
Congress may not delegate any legislative power to any other branch of 
government or other entity, including any administrative agency. As 
Chief Justice John Marshall stated: ``It will not be contended that 
congress can delegate to the courts, or to any other tribunals, powers 
which are strictly and exclusively legislative.'' Wayman v. Southard, 
10 Wheat. 23 U.S. 1, 41 (1825).
    (k) As Chief Justice Melville Fuller explained, a ``criminal 
offense'' created or clarified by an Executive Branch agency is not 
valid unless the offense ``is fully and completely defined by the act'' 
of Congress. In re Kollock, 165 U.S. 526 (1897).
    (l) By vesting legislative power in the Congress, the Constitution 
requires the Senate and the House of Representatives to enact statutes 
containing general rules to be executed by the President, as provided 
in article II, section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, and 
to be adjudicated in a case or controversy by such inferior courts as 
Congress may from time to time establish, or in the Supreme Court, as 
provided in article III, sections 1 and 2.
    (m) By abdicating its constitutional legislative responsibility to 
write the laws whereby the people are governed, and having 
unconstitutionally delegated that power to unelected bureaucrats, 
Congress has undermined the constitutional protections of (i) the 
checks and balances of a bicameral legislative body and (ii) of a 
presidential veto.
    (n) As a direct consequence of Congress having abdicated its 
responsibility to properly exercise the legislative power vested by the 
Constitution, Congress has: (i) imposed onerous and unreasonable 
burdens upon the American people; and (ii) violated the constitutional 
principle of the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial 
processes and functions.
    (o) As Chief Justice Roberts observed, ``the danger posed by the 
growing power of the administrative state cannot be dismissed,'' as 
there are now ``hundreds of federal agencies poking into every nook and 
cranny of daily life.'' City of Arlington v. FCC. 569 U.S._(2013) 
(Roberts, C.J., dissenting).

SEC. 3. RESTORING THE SEPARATION OF POWERS.

    Title 1 of the United States Code, shall be amended by inserting at 
the end of chapter 2 a new chapter, 2B entitled ``SEPARATION OF 
POWERS'', including section 101, as follows:
``Sec. 101. Nondelegation of legislative power
    ``(a) Effective 90 calendar days after the enactment of this bill 
into law no bills passed by Congress shall contain any `delegation of 
legislative powers' whatsoever, whether to (a) any component within the 
Legislative Branch of government, (b) the President of the United 
States or any other member of the Executive Branch of government, (c) 
the Judicial Branch of government, (d) any federal administrative 
agency, (e) any quasi-public agency, (f) any state or instrumentality 
thereof, or (g) any other organization or individual.
    ``(b)(1) A prohibited `delegation of legislative powers' in this 
section shall include: (a) the creation or clarification of any 
criminal or civil offense; and (b) the creation or clarification of any 
non-criminal regulation, prohibition or limitation applicable to the 
public, or some subset thereof, that is not fully and completely 
defined by Congress, except that the Executive Branch of government may 
be delegated authority to make factual findings that will determine the 
date upon which such statute is implemented, suspended, or revived.
    ``(2) A prohibited `delegation of legislative powers' in this 
section shall not include the issuance of any presidential 
proclamation, or the issuance by any rule or regulation governing the 
internal operation of any government agency, or conditions made upon 
grants or contracts issued by any government agency.
    ``(c) Effective 90 calendar days after the enactment of this bill 
into law, no new presidential directive, adjudicative decision, rule, 
or regulation, or change to an existing presidential directive, 
adjudicative decision, rule, or regulation governing, limiting, 
imposing a penalty on, or otherwise regulating any activity of any 
person or entity, other than an officer or employee of the United 
States government, shall be promulgated or put into effect, unless said 
directive, decision, rule or regulation is authorized by a bill written 
in compliance with this section, and duly enacted according to the 
process of Article I, Section 7 of the United States Constitution.
    ``(d) Within six months after the effective date of this Act, the 
Comptroller General of the United States, shall report to Congress 
identifying all statutes enacted prior to the effective date of this 
statute which contain any `delegation of legislative powers' prohibited 
in this section, to the end that Congress may take action to repeal or 
amend any such statutes.''.

SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT CLAUSE.

    Title 1 of the United States Code shall be further amended by 
adding to new said chapter 2B, as follows:
``Sec. 102. Enforcement clause
    ``(a) Effective 90 days after the enactment of this bill, no bill 
shall become law, nor enforced or applied as law, without Congress 
having complied fully with the requirements of Section 101(A) and (B) 
of Chapter 2B of Title 1 of the United States Code, and any persons 
against whom such a law is enforced or applied may invoke such 
noncompliance as a complete defense to any legal, equitable, or 
regulatory action, civil or criminal, brought against him under said 
law, or the color thereof.
    ``(b) Any person aggrieved by any action of any executive officer 
or administration agency pursuant to any statute that does not comply 
with the provisions of this Act shall have a cause of action under 
Sections 2201 and 2202, Title 28, United States Code, and Rules 57 and 
65, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the United States to seek 
appropriate relief, including an injunction against enforcement of any 
law, the contents of which did not conform to the requirements of this 
Act.
    ``(c) In any judicial action brought pursuant to subsection (B) of 
this section, the standard of review shall be de novo.''.

SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY CLAUSE.

    If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof, to any 
person or circumstance is held invalid for any reason in any court of 
competent jurisdiction, such invalidity does not affect other 
provisions or other applications of this Act which can be given effect 
without the invalid provision or application, and for this purpose the 
provisions of this Act are declared severable.