Don Young

Congressman for All Alaska

Washington Office:
2314 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-5765

Committee on
Natural Resources
Chairman, Subcommittee on
Indian and Alaska Native Affairs
Committee on
Transportation & Infrastructure
Republican
Policy Committee

October 5, 2015

Dear Mr. Christiansen,

Thank you for contacting my office regarding your opinions of President Barack Obama. I appreciate having
the benefit of your thoughts.

As you are well aware, the President of The United States has overreached the boundaries of his office many
times on many different matters over the past few years. His rash and unreasonable actions, many of which
have eroded powers from the legislative branch, show a profound disregard for the authority of the
Constitution.

There have been many examples of President Obama abusing the power of his office. The Obama
Administration has been actively engaged in an effort to undermine First Amendment freedom of speech
protections. The Administration has pushed to criminalize investigative journalism by going through the
emails and phone records of reporters who have been critical of Administration policy and accusing
journalists of being co-conspirators in felonies for working with their sources.

Additionally, news reports revealed that the IRS unfairly targeted conservative organizations applying for
tax-exempt status during the 2012 election cycle. While the IRS admitted to Congress that they did indeed
target organizations with "tea party" or "patriot" in their registered name, the IRS had previously denied

targeting any groups for their particular political affiliations I am outraged at these revelations and at
President Obama's blatant inability to control federal agencies for which he is responsible.

Even more troubling was the President's utter disregard for the U.S. Constitution with the appointment of
officials such as Richard Cordray without proper approval from the legislative branch. On January 4, 2012,
President Obama appointed Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, without the
Senate's consent, claiming it to be a recess appointment. However, the Senate was not actually in recess, as
the Senate cannot adjourn for more than three days without the House's approval. On June 27, 2014, the
Supreme Court declared this appointment unconstitutional.

With over 100 years of precedent on the recess appointment power, a President has never taken such a
dramatic and tyrannical action while the Senate was still in session. He chooses to ignore the structural
checks and balances of our government and ignores the representatives of the citizens of our great country.
These actions need to be stopped.

Multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced in the House during the 114th Congress to hold the
President accountable for violating the standards of the Constitution. On January 6, 2015, Representative
Ted Yoho (R-MN) introduced H.R. 38, the Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2015, to
prohibit executive orders that exempt illegal immigrants from deportation. H.R. 227, was introduced by
Steve King (R-IA) two days later, and prohibits Federal funding for programs that solely benefit illegal
immigrants who were illegally reprieved through executive order.

When accusations regarding impeachment are brought against the President, the House Judiciary
Committee decides whether to start a formal inquiry into impeachment, to see if the allegations against the
President rise to the constitutional standards. If impeachment is warranted, the Judiciary Committee sends
the resolution to the House floor for a vote, where a majority vote decides the verdict to impeach, much like
an indictment in civilian court. It is then passed on to the Senate for trial.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to provide oversight and scrutiny into illegal and
unconstitutional actions taken by this Administration. Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind as
Congress confronts President Obama's continuous overreach of authority.

Once again, thank you for expressing your views on this issue. If you haven't already, I would encourage you
to sign up for my e-newsletter at http://donyoung.house.gov/formsemailsignup and my YouTube channel

at http://www.youtube.com/user/RepDonYoung. Doing so will allow me to provide you with updates on

important issues. If I can be of any assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

DON YOUNG
Congressman for All Alaska

DY/JJ

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