
Democrat
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Sourced verbatim from the candidate's website.
I'm Rob Tracinski, and I'm running for Congress in Virginia's Fifth District. Join me to reclaim the power of Congress and rein in an out-of-control president.
Sourced verbatim from the candidate's website.
Our top priority is to restore the power of Congress and rein in an out-of-control president. There are a lot of good things we would like to do, but Congress has to have real power first, and our first priority is to assert that power and keep the president from undermining it. There are real things Congress can do, based on established precedents.
Congress controls spending, and this is the big stick the Constitution gave us to keep the president in line. We don't need to settle for symbolic victories. We should make it clear that this administration won't get our permission to spend a single dime until they make real concessions. This is the leverage we can use to get everything else on this list.
A specific way Congress can use the power of the purse against the president is to mandate money for specific purposes and recipients, removing the president's discretion about when to spend money and who gets it. This would keep the president from extorting states, universities, and our allies by arbitrarily holding up their funding.
Congress has created too many "emergency powers" that assume good faith from the president but are just a blank check to do whatever he wants. Repeal the Insurrection Act. End all emergency powers granted to the president by Congress. If there are any powers the president legitimately needs, he can beg us to restore them in legislation that imposes real limits. Even if it doesn't succeed, just passing this bill in the House would undermine the legitimacy of Trump's power grabs.