House Republicans to vote to sue President Obama

BBC NEWS

The US House of Representatives is set to pass legislation authorising it to sue President Barack Obama for what Republican leaders describe as his overreach of authority.

The resolution is expected to pass the Republican-controlled chamber in a party line vote on Wednesday.

Its sponsors say Mr Obama exceeded his powers when he delayed an insurance deadline in his healthcare law.

The president's aides say the prospective suit is a political stunt.

'Frivolous on steroids'

Mr Obama's Democratic allies say it is legally groundless and will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and has only been devised to rally the Obama-hating Republican base ahead of the November mid-term elections.

The White House says the president has acted within his constitutional authority as chief executive of the US government, and Democrats have sought to raise money off the issue by warning that the suit is a prelude to impeachment proceedings.

"This lawsuit is frivolous on steroids,'' Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida said on Tuesday at a preliminary committee meeting. "It's absolutely insane what you all are doing."

Republicans in Congress have complained that Mr Obama has exceeded his constitutional authority on numerous occasions, in order to bypass Congress by issuing executive orders. They object, for instance, to his order unilaterally easing deportations of some young illegal immigrants, and the prison exchange that won the release of a US soldier held captive for five years by the Taliban.

Specifically at issue in the resolution, which was sponsored by Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas with the full backing of House Speaker John Boehner, was Mr Obama's decision to twice delay requirements in his 2010 healthcare overhaul that businesses over a certain size provide their workers with health insurance.

Mr Obama has been forthright about his intentions to circumvent the gridlocked Congress when possible, noting frequently that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has declined even to hold votes on Senate-passed bills on topics from immigration reform to gay rights.

'Alarming'

As far back as January, White House aides began referring to the president's "pen and phone" strategy - using his telephone to convene meetings at the White House and his pen to sign executive orders and changes to federal regulations.

Every US president since George Washington has issued executive orders, and Mr Obama has not stood out in the modern era for the number he has signed.

In his six years in office Mr Obama has issued 183 executive orders, compared to 291 across George W Bush's eight years and 381 for Ronald Reagan, according to a study by the American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

But Republicans insist Mr Obama has selectively enforced laws duly passed by Congress, upsetting the balance of powers written into the constitution.

"Such a shift in power should alarm members of both political parties because it threatens the very institution of the Congress," the Republicans wrote in report accompanying the House legislation.