Washington Examiner: Paul Ryan keeps racking up wins against Obama

Washington Examiner - Nicole Duran

Just months into the job, House Speaker Paul Ryan is winning praise from his GOP colleagues by finding ways to bring President Obama to heel in his last year in office, like forcing new certification deadlines on the government and challenging Obama personally when he disagrees with how federal officials implement laws.

Ryan started by passing a series of deadlines in the omnibus spending package and annual defense policy bill highlighting foreign policy or national security issues on which Republicans think Obama is vulnerable. Those deadlines have forced Obama to respond, even if he sometimes responds late.

After blowing past one deadline that required the Pentagon to present Congress with its plan for defeating the Islamic State, the administration hinted it might miss the next two, but ended up meeting both. The Defense Department submitted its proposal for closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Feb. 23, and Secretary of State John Kerry determined on March 17 that genocide of Christians and other religious minorities is underway in Islamic State-controlled territory.

Congress also belatedly received Obama's anti-Islamic State battle plan.

The genocide declaration is by far Ryan's biggest win, as the State Department was warning just a day earlier that it wasn't going to make the deadline, and Kerry seemed unwilling to join Republicans' assessment of the situation. Factors that helped tip the scale for Kerry included pressure from outside groups, Republicans and the House, which unanimously voted March 14 that the Islamic State's systemic barbarism deserved to be called genocide.

"We commend Secretary Kerry for making this important designation," wrote Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., a few days later.

"The United States has now spoken with clarity and moral authority," added Fortenberry, who co-authored the House resolution.

Ryan scored a significant victory in December when Congress tightened the visa-waiver program. But shortly thereafter, the Homeland Security Department partially rolled back the new restrictions, and Ryan took Obama to task over that change during their first in-person meeting on Feb. 2.

"There is no better person at this point in time to lead the House than Paul Ryan," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told the Washington Examiner last week. "Since the day he accepted the gavel, Speaker Ryan has not only led House Republicans with renewed purpose, but he's reaffirmed the conservative ideals held by our party and reassured the American people that the president will be held accountable for both his action, and inaction, in office."

Obama's executive actions governing some controversial issues are one of congressional Republicans' chief complaints. On March 17, the House granted Ryan authority to file an amicus brief in the case challenging Obama's executive order halting some deportations pending before the Supreme Court.

Ryan made clear that the House's legal opinion will not be limited to that case, but will instead lay out Republicans' claims that Obama has violated the Constitution and usurped powers reserved for the legislative branch.

"This is not a question of whether or not we are for or against any certain policy," Ryan explained from the House floor March 17. "This comes down to a much more fundamental question. It is about the integrity of our Constitution."

The "executive branch has been blurring these boundaries, to the point of absolutely overstepping them altogether. As a result, bureaucrats responsible for executing the laws as written are now writing the laws at their whim," he said, referring to rules issued by cabinet-led departments.

To that end, Ryan has taken up the cause of blocking just-announced Labor Department regulations seeking to stem conflicts of interest in retirement-planning advice.

"The House will be taking action to reject the fiduciary rule in the coming weeks," Ryan declared April 6, when the final rule was unveiled.

Whether it's a symbolic slight at the White House, such as inviting representatives of the religious order trying to block the Affordable Care Act's contraception provision to the State of the Union address, hammering Obama over sanctions relief for Iran or pledging to halt the administration's plan to admit more Syrian and Iraqi refugees, Ryan's House Republican Conference regularly praises and thanks him for such moves.

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