The 119th Congress did more by making government do less

Washington has a peculiar definition of progress. A new program is an accomplishment. A new regulation is action. A new federal office means somebody is finally doing something. That is why some of the most important work Republicans did this Congress involved undoing that so-called “progress.”

For decades, Washington accumulated authority one seemingly reasonable decision at a time. Congress delegated power to an agency full of faceless bureaucrats. The agency wrote a rule. The rule became another permit to obtain, expense to absorb, or decision somebody in Washington had already made for you.

Government grows quietly that way. Freedom disappears just as quietly. House Republicans of the 119th Congress came to Washington with the idea that the most consequential thing government can do is return freedom to the American people. Yes, we passed over 900 pieces of legislation this Congress, the second most in U.S. history, but that matters much less than what changed once the votes were cast.

House Republicans have overturned 23 federal rules through the Congressional Review Act, the most in history and more successful repeals than every previous Congress combined. In one session, we have turned a little-used oversight law into one of Washington’s most powerful tools for permanently returning authority from federal regulators to the people they regulate.

Washington is accustomed to ratchets that turn in one direction. Government expands, the bureaucracy adjusts, and everyone learns to live with the new baseline. We turned the ratchet backward.

Democrats would have let the 2017 tax cuts expire and taken more money out of Americans’ pockets. We made them permanent, cut taxes on tips and overtime, delivered new relief for seniors, and restored incentives to invest and build in America.

Americans have already claimed more than $82 billion in individual tax relief. Over the decade, the tax changes we enacted are projected to give $4.6 trillion back to families and businesses, and the laws enacted cut projected federal spending by roughly $1.1 trillion, meaning Washington will take less of Americans’ money.

People take bigger chances when they know more of the reward will still belong to them. That is how opportunity compounds and how countries grow. But opportunity can only flourish where freedom is protected by order and the rules still mean something.

A limited government is not a weak government. It does a smaller number of things, and it does the essential ones well. It must defend the country, enforce the law, protect basic rights, and establish rules that allow a free society to function.

Securing a nation’s borders is among the most basic responsibilities that government has. Democrats chose to dismantle our border and turn lawlessness into policy. Republicans flipped the script and have not allowed a single illegal immigrant to be released into the country in 16 months.

This Congress put the philosophy of limited government into practice across the economy. We gave small businesses tax certainty to hire and invest. We cleared regulatory barriers so manufacturers can expand, unleashed more American energy, and made it easier to build.

None of these policies determines what Americans must do with their lives. They expand what Americans are free to do for themselves.

The alternative is government by permission slip. Washington chooses which industries deserve to grow, which products people may buy, which energy sources are acceptable, and how much of a worker’s success belongs to somebody else. There needs to be a line between the power government is granted by the people, and the freedom Americans deserve to keep.

That is the foundation the 119th Congress has spent two years laying.

A foundation is not glamorous. Nobody walks through a finished house admiring the concrete underneath it, but everything built above depends on whether the foundation is strong.

Tax certainty. Regulatory relief. A secure border. American energy. Lower crime. More room to work, build and invest. These are not the finished house. They are what makes everything that comes next possible.

I don’t call the 119th Congress the most successful because of the paper it produced. I say it because we changed the direction of the country. Washington has enough monuments to what government can build. We spent this Congress creating room for what Americans can build instead.

The government does not know what your life should look like. Neither do I, and that’s precisely the point — you do.

Lisa McClain is chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.