On April 5th, Congressman Doug Collins addressed the RNLA’s National Policy Conference in Washington, DC. Rep. Collins, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, shared a number of insights related to his experiences legislating and promoting the conservative message in his district.
Rep. Collins spoke on the abuse of subpoena powers by members of the Majority on the committee. Chairman Nadler’s “fishing expedition to nowhere” has produced pre-emptive subpoenas that undermine the committee’s work as a whole, and threaten due process in the rule of law. Despite the Administration’s willingness to produce documents, Democrats see the issuance of unnecessary subpoenas as a powerful tactic to convince the American people of wrongdoing where there is none.
Rep. Collins also spoke to the haphazard and error-prone legislation leaving the committee. In the last quarter, the committee has written bills where the authors did not understand the language being written, and if passed, could produce dire consequences. He emphasized the importance of Members of Congress being legislators first, and called on Republicans to step up and stop allowing the emotional arguments of the Left to overshadow the factual substance of the Right, adding:
Whatever happened to legislating? Democracy is not easy. You have to convince people of your ideas. It is time Republicans got back in the game and quit letting the emotional argument that is always overtaken by the other side be devoid of the facts that we have. We have facts and emotion on our side. You have a government that is functioning when you have regulation going down. Businesses can operate. People are valued for the value that they have as human beings, that is the best fact. That is the best emotion.
Rep. Collins further spoke of the need to change conservative messaging and tailor it in a way so that the average person can relate. Through leadership, conservatives can expand their impact on public policy by unbundling complex policy nuances into plain language that focuses on the issues outside of the Beltway, adding:
It's time to start taking the message that we all know and applying it in such a way that people can understand. When we do that, as leaders, that is called leadership. Navigating. Saying what we do matters and it matters to the people we're elected by…..We [have] to get back to an executive that uses its constitutional role. An executive to administer the laws, not make them up...that says instead of worrying about a bill and how it would be interpreted, make a law that makes sense. And make it clear so that the executive can carry it out.
By taking the conservative message and simplifying it, voters can better understand an issue and how it affects them. With a simplified message, government can then function as the Constitutional framework intended. Congress can legislate, the Executive can administer the law impartially, and the Judicial branch can uphold the law. Rep. Collins then closed by stating the Majority could find no better partner than him when they are ready to legislate, and that he would work against divisiveness and hatred. He closed his remarks with a plea for stronger leadership in Congress.
Watch his entire remarks here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?459556-2/representative-doug-collins-republican-national-lawyers-association-policy-conference.