On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” by the narrowest of margins, 215 to 214, ending an all-night session which managed to convince a few Republican holdouts to change their minds and vote yes.
Not surprisingly, all four of Utah’s representatives voted yes. Our representative for the Snyderville Basin, Blake Moore, celebrated its passage as a “direct response to what Americans have communicated they want.”
Really? I personally don’t believe most Americans want funding for Medicaid, Medicare, USAID, NPR, PBS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, Social Security, Renewable Energy Development, NOAA, national parks, and the Federal Aviation Administration to be significantly cut for the sake of helping pay for a nearly $4 trillion tax cut which would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. They are the ones who see this bill as “beautiful.”
But by far the worst provision in this bill has been hidden in the middle of the 1,000-plus-page document, consisting of about two pages, requiring a bond for enforcement of injunctions, which would prohibit courts from enforcing contempt citations for violations of injunctions or temporary restraining orders unless a bond was posted when the order was issued.
The reason that this has been included in the bill is so blatantly obvious: It is an outrageous attempt by the GOP-controlled Congress, which has already relinquished its position as a co-equal branch of our government by failing to hold the Trump administration accountable for numerous violations of taking action without congressional approval, as our Constitution requires.
This alarming provision attempts to cross an ultimately serious red line by aiding and abetting the Trump administration’s attempts to subvert the authority of the other co-equal branch of government: the courts. The court decisions that have blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to swiftly deport immigrants without due process, shut down USAID, impose funding cuts to federal agencies listed above, end birthright citizenship, ban transgender citizens from serving in the military, and withholding funds from sanctuary cities, have all been the result of judges doing their jobs by upholding the law.
Trump is the one who repeatedly proceeds as though he is above the law. Attempting to diminish the court’s ability to uphold the law in the face of Trump’s disregard for the court’s decisions is inexcusable, and serves to elevate the executive branch above the other two co-equal branches of our government.
In my opinion, this provision represents a constitutional crisis. I believe our Utah delegation, along with the rest of the representatives who voted in favor of the bill in spite of this provision, have clearly violated their oath of office. They are not acting as public servants. Rather, they are acting as servants to Trump.
If the U.S. Senate fails to remove this provision and votes to pass this bill, the last remaining set of checks and balances on the executive branch, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, will be gone. All U.S. senators need to hear from their constituents and urged to not allow this to happen.
Marty Morrison
Summit Park